Tuesday 9 September 2008
Central League East
Scunthorpe United 0
Bradford City 2 (Furman 68, Ainge 76)
Kick Off: 2.00pm
at Glanford Park

David Wetherall had to make a late change to his planned starting line-up in the Reserves' game with Scunthorpe United at Glanford Park, having to promote youngster Phil Cutler from the bench to play at right back after TJ Moncur fell sick in the morning.

Otherwise again, David Wetherall had the luxury of a strong side, which included Chris Brandon returning to action following a lengthy lay-off through injury.

The game was barely four minutes old when Scunthorpe had their first crack on goal when the ball was lofted into the City penalty area forcing Simon Ainge to rise high to head clear.

However the ball only reached as far as Peter Winn, who was equal in height to the City defender and his header cannoned just over the bar.

City were straight back on the attack and after Kyle Nix had run down the left, only to fire directly at Joshua Lillis in goal, Luke Sharry brought off a diving fingertip save from the home keeper.

In the 20th minute The Iron were awarded a free-kick and when the ball fell to Jonathan Forte, he unleashed a shot which send Jon McLaughlin scampering to his left but the ball crashed against the advertising boards for a goal kick.

City were now throwing everything they had at Lillis' goal with Kyle Nix, Dean Furman and Rory Boulding all coming close to breaking the deadlock. It was only confident handling by the keeper which denied them.

Glanford Park was hit with a torrential downpour as half-time approached and had the pitch not been quite as slippery Brandon might have been able to control a cross from Nix as he was homing in on goal.

There was bad news for City at the start of the second half, not only were they hit with another deluge, but six minutes after the restart, they lost Chris Brandon who turned his ankle following a challenge from Winn.

Further drama followed seconds later when his replacement Ryan Newton took a kick on the head with a raised foot while he was in front of Lillis' goal. After treatment from the home physio, he was able to continue.

The knock on the head couldn't have done Newton much harm initially as in the 61st minute his inch=perfect vision allowed him to fire a shot towards goal from well outside the area, is effort tipped over the bar at the last second just as it was dropping over Lillis.

City took the lead just as the rain eased in the 68th minute when Dean Furman received the ball on the edge of the area and coolly chipped it over the advancing Lillis.

The effects of a size 10 to his head eventually proved too much for Newton who himself had to be substituted in the74th minute by Louis Horne.

Michael Lea was inches wide of putting the Iron back on level terms a minute later but with the ball sent straight back to the oher end, Lillis failed to hold it and it fell to Simon Ainge who had the easiest of tap-ins.

Having thought that Ainge was offside, Andy Wright was lucky to get away with just a warning from referee Mark Brown after he came out with a tirade of abuse.

Scunthorpe had an ideal opportunity to reduce the arrears in the dying stages and following Winn's cross from the left into the area, the best Forte could do as he raced in with just McLaughlin to beat was to sky the ball well over the bar.

SCUNTHORPE UNITED	BRADFORD CITY
1 Josh Lillis	1 Jon McLaughlin
2 Joe Wilcox	2 Phil Cutler
3 Michael Lea	3 Luke O'Brien
4 Andy Crosby	4 Luke Sharry
5 Niall Canavan	5 Simon Ainge
6 Andy Wright	6 Mark Bower
7 Danny Gibbons	7 Chris Brandon
8 Jamie Bladen	8 Dean Furman
9 Ben May	9 Rory Boulding
10 Jonathan Forte	10 Leon Osborne
11 Peter Winn	11 Kyle Nix
Substitutes:	Substitutes:
12 Jake Picton	12 Louis Horne for 16
13 Sam Slocombe	13 Chris Elliott
14 Danny Wright	14 Rory Carson for 11
15 Callum Congreve	16 Ryan Newton for 7
16 Joseph Maguire for 8

MATCH OFFICIALS:
Referee:	M Brown
Assistant Referee:	P A Cook
Assistant Referee:	M A White
4th Official:	J Hyke

GOALSCORERS:
SCUNTHORPE UNITED	BRADFORD CITY
	Furman (68)
	Ainge (76)