BAD SHREWS WEEK GETS WORSE
Bradford cruise after Mellon steps down
THE LAST thing struggling Shrewsbury needed to round off their difficult week was a visit to League One’s only unbeaten side, so it’s not too surprising to see Bradford run out easy winners.
Shrews manager Micky Mellon dropped down two divisions to take the manager’s seat at Tranmere Rovers on Thursday, leaving goalkeeping coach Danny Coyne to take up the reins on a temporary basis.
Coyne has already ruled himself out of the running for the full-time position, but despite the defeat he was pleased with how his side dealt with a difficult situation.
He said: “It’s been a very challenging couple of days. It was thrust upon us on Thursday and there’s been a bit of a whirlwind but it’s been good, I’ve enjoyed it, but obviously the result takes the edge off.
“The lads have been great in training and they’ve given everything for us out on the pitch.
“I’m just gutted for them because we didn’t get the result that we wanted.
“We didn’t really do what we’d discussed in the first half, but we did it more in the second and you could see what we were trying to do.”
The Bantams took the lead after streaming upfield after Ivan Toney wasted a free-kick in a great position for Shrewsbury up the other end.
Filipe Morais and Mark Marshall exchanged passes on the break before Morais’s shot was blocked with keeper Jayson Leutwiler committed to the save, leaving Nicky Law with plenty to aim at on the rebound as he bagged his first goal of the season.
City could have doubled their lead straight from the restart after Morais again got forward from the midfield, but having got through the defence and beaten Leutwiler his shot was cleared away by Adam ElAbd.
Shrewsbury had a reasonable penalty shout turned down ten minutes after the break when Toney seemed to be pulled down in the box, though Coyne admitted he understood why the referee didn't point to the spot.
Bradford defender Nathaniel Knight-Percival went close from a Morais corner on the hour mark but his strike went just over the bar.
That was also exactly where Antoni Sarcevic’s wonderful 25yard effort headed eight minutes later when the Shrews substitute let fly with what would have been one of the goals of the season had the ball not gone close enough over the bar to clip the top of the net on its descent.
City striker Jordy Hiwula continued that theme from the corner of the penalty box on 72 minutes as his out-swinging effort swerved just wide of the post.
Substitute Marc McNulty was thwarted by his own teammate five minutes from time when his shot was headed away from the target by Billy Clarke.
Bradford finished the game with a goal from the penalty spot in injury time, with Sarcevic’s foul on Daniel Devine allowing the unerring Haris Vuckic the honours.
Bradford boss Stuart McCall was pleased with his side’s professional performance.
“We talked before the game about the this match being a potential banana skin,” he said.
“We’ve seen it happen in the past, like last week at Coventry where Tony Mowbray left and then they got a victory at Port Vale.
“We didn’t know how they were going to go and they’ve gone with the five at the back and two holding midfielders and it was always going to be difficult to break down.
“We were actually going to start off with two wide men in Morais and Marshall.
“But when we saw how they were setting up we decided to go slightly differently with Filipe playing more centrally and trying to get our three up against their back three.
“At times it worked and in periods we were very good and we definitely got our first goal at the right time.”