MAN WELLS IS STAYING
Parkin: Nahki’s going nowhere
NAHKI Wells’ double broke Bradford’s scoring record and defeated Yorkshire rivals Sheffield United but all the talk afterwards was whether the striker would be sticking around to continue rewriting the history books.
Wells became the first Bantam to score in eight consecutive games when he scored in either half to blunt the Blades and lift Bradford into an early play-off place.
The 23-year-old has been instrumental to the club’s recent success, scoring in their play-off final win and both legs of the semi-finals, enough to alert other clubs to his talent.
Peterborough saw a bid for the striker rejected but with no further bids coming for the player assistant manager Steve Parkin claims there’s no chance they will be cashing in with the transfer window about to close.
“As far as we’re concerned, Nahki Wells is not leaving Bradford City. People have had over 12 months to come in and bid for him and they’ve not bothered, so we’re not going to sell him a week before the deadline,” Parkin said.
“He’s still got a long way to go, but I think he’s got the right attitude and hopefully he can keep scoring goals for us. He’s got two good feet and his work ethic has got better and better.
“It was a hard fought contest out there; it was a full-on football match. There was lots of skill and challenges, and lots of brave defending from our players.To get the goal near the end to give us a little breather was fantastic.” The game’s first chance actually came the way of the visitors; from a routine Bradford corner the Blades broke with pace, and Jamie Murphy found himself oneon-one with Bradford’s Jon McLaughlin in goal. The keeper was smart to react to Murphy’s placed effort though, keeping the game scoreless.
Wells was presented with an opportunity himself inside the opening fifteen minutes. After James Meredith superbly broke down the left flank, he cut the ball back for the Bermudian, but he was superbly denied by George Long, who pro- duced an amazing reflex save to deny Wells. Bradford were arguably the better side of an enthralling first-half, and their dominance was rewarded right on half-time. A superb flick-on from Garry Thompson put Wells in space once more, and this time he was too good for the Blades defence; weaving around Harry Maguire before firing a low shot past Long to put the Bantams 1-0 up.
Blades boss David Weir responded at the break by bringing on Ryan Flynn, and his shot deflected off Garry Thompson, forcing McLaughlin to make a scrambled save. Fellow sub Joe Ironside was next to threaten the Bradford goal, and he really should have done better when presented with a glorious chance six yards out could only balloon the ball over.
With United pushing for an equaliser the game inevitably became stretched and Bradford pounced with just three minutes left to seal the victory. After Long could only parry Raffaele De Vita’s stinging effort, Hanson headed down for Wells to finish for his second to seal another home win for Bradford, leaving Weir lamenting a lack of ruthlessness.
“Goals change games and getting your nose in front has a big effect on the rest of the game; we didn’t manage to do that though and Bradford made it difficult for us,” Weir lamented.
“I thought we did quite well and we opened them up on a few occasions, we got in some great positions but it’s just a matter of finishing them off.
“We’re disappointed to lose obviously; it was a really tight game and there were chances at both ends, with plenty of end-to-end action, but obviously Bradford managed to get the goal first. I felt the first goal would be crucial and so it proved with a little bit of quality for them up top.”