RUGBY STARS ARE BANTAMS’ INSPIRATION
World Cup heroes’ win motivates City
BRADFORD City manager Gary Bowyer asked his players to take inspiration from England’s win over Australia in the Rugby World Cup quarter final to help them beat Crawley Town.
It was Bradford’s third win in a row and extended their unbeaten run to five matches.
Goals from Harry Pricthard and Danny Devine were enough for the Bantams, despite Reece Gregor-Cox pulling a goal back for the visitors.
Bowyer said: “You can never turn up and expect to win – it doesn’t happen – and the mentality of our lads in last couple of games has been fantastic. I thought we were fabulous in our defending in the last 20 minutes.”
The manager added: “I watched the rugby union and took inspiration from the way England defended their line in the last 20 minutes.
“We spoke about the importance of desire and how England made tackle after tackle.”
Bowyer warned though that his injury problems are mounting up. He revealed that experienced striker Clayton Donaldson had an operation on Friday after suffering a toe injury in the 2-1 win at Morecambe and will be out of action for two months and he was also missing winger Dylan Connolly to add to Bradford’s long term injuries.
“When you look at the list of injuries we have, this was a massive squad effort and just show the value of our recruitment in the summer,” he said.
Bradford began brightly and were rewarded with a deserved goal in the 18th minute through Pritchard. Zeli Ismail burst away down the right and crossed for Pritchard to score with a firsttime, left-foot shot from 10 yards.
Midfielder Devine scored Bradford’s second goal four minutes after coming as a halftime substitute for the injured Pritchard.
Devine exchanged passes with Aramide Oteh before cutting across the field and unleashing a left-foot shot from just outside the penalty area which flew into the net after taking a deflection.
And Bradford nearly scored a third in the 64th minute when onloan striker Aramide Oteh saw his goal-bound effort well saved. Bpwyer said: “It was a great save to deny Oteh. It was a big moment in the game because at 3-0 it would have been game over.”
Crawley took charge after that and always posed an attacking threat as they tried to get back into the game.
Bez Lubala’s shot from outside the box was saved in the top right corner and he hit another effort over the bar. Bantams keeper Richard O’Donnell did well to keep out a close-range left-foot shot from substitute David Sesay in the 70th minute after Nathan Ferguson put him in position.
However, the visitors had their reward in the 81st minute when Reece Grego-Cox scored with a right-footer from just outside the penalty area and they caused Bradford some anxious moments as they pressed for an equaliser.
Ashley Nathaniel-George had a shot from the left side of the box blocked and Bez Lubala put an attempt just wide. Then, with seconds left, Jordan Tunnicliffe
saw his close-range header saved by O’Donnell.
Crawley manager Gabriele Cioffi said: “They were plenty of positives despite our defeat and we were unlucky not to draw the game.
“But when a top team, playing against an underdog, is killing the game it makes it difficult. I thought we should have had at least a point.
“Bradford put us under a lot of pressure in the first 20 minutes and scored after we made a mistake.
“We were unlucky to concede a second goal which took a deflection, but after that it was all us.”