Wednesday 19 November 2008
F.A Youth Cup sponsored by E.ON 2nd Round
Shrewsbury Town 2 (Partridge 73, Richards 77)
Bradford City 0
Kick Off: 7.00pm
at the ProStar Stadium

Bradford City Youth failed in their attempts to earn a 3rd round tie at Ipswich Town as their suffered defeat at the hands of Shrewsbury Town at the ProStar Stadium in the F.A Youth Cup sponsored by E.ON 2nd Round.

The Bantams lost the tie 2 - 0 thanks to second half goals from Gareth Partridge and Will Richards.

Youth Team manager Chris Casper made one change from the side that battled to victory over Scunthorpe United in the previous round by replacing right winger Curtis Collentine with Kelvin Bleau.

The home side were clearly intent on booking their date at Portman Road as it was Shrewsbury who started the tie in a stronger fashion. Bantams keeper Chris Elliott had already been forced into a early save by Shrews striker Andre Gray before Bradford skipper Louis Horne was forced to acrobatically clear off his own line from a Shrewsbury corner.

Shrewsbury continued to threaten early in the tie when tricky winger Jan Coulston tested Elliott with an angled drive, the ball broke free in the Bantams box for a moment, but O'Hara was on hand to clear the danger.

It wasn't all one way traffic at the ProStar Stadium however as the Bantams responsed by producing chances of their own in the form of a flashing drive from Ryan Newton and moments later a header from a corner by defender Andrew Villermann, both of which flew agonisingly wide.

Midway through the first half, Shrewsbury thought they had drawn first blood in this tie when defender Tom Batchelor latched onto a Thomas Dix flick on to head past Bantams keeper Chris Elliott, luckily for the Bantams, Batchelor was in an offside position and the goal was chalked off.

The Bantams responded moments later through striker Nathan Clarke who created himself a golden opening. Striker Clarke teased his way through the Shrewsbury defence towards the edge of the six yard box only for him to slightly lose his footing while under pressure from recovering Shrews defenders and skue his shot wide.

As the half wore on, Bradford embarked on a period of sustained possession in their opponents' half as they pushed for a breakthrough, despite this Shrewsbury stayed strong and ensured that the first half ended goalless.

Shrews midfielder Will Richards was given a glorious opportunity to give his side the lead at the start of the second half. An inviting cross from Jan Coulston led to Richards being completely free in the box as the Bantams defence pushed out for an offside flag that never came, Richards seemed to have ample time to score but somehow managed  to drag his shot wide with only Elliott to beat.

The next main chance of the game nearly resulted in a goal for Shrewsbury thanks to a mis-understanding between Chris Elliott and Louis Horne. A through ball by Jan Coulston led to confusion between Elliott and Horne as to who should clean the danger, in the end neither did as the pair collided and the ball broke free to Shrewsbury striker Gareth Partridge, luckily for the Bantams, Elliott regarding his composure in time collect Partridge's attempted lob.

Partridge went one better though moments later as he gave his side the lead in this tie with a spectacular effort. An attempted through ball by Shrews midfielder Thomas Dix was cut out by O'Hara, but his clearance fell to Partridge who's plum first time volley from the edge of the area beat Elliott's despairing dive and nestled in the bottom corner.

Five minutes later Shrewsbury effectively ended the tie with a second goal. A teasing cross from Jan Coulston into the near post was connected to first by O'Hara, unfortunately for O'Hara his clearance was charged down by Richards who made up for his earlier miss by beating Elliott from close range to give Shrewsbury their two goal advantage.

To their credit, Bradford battled gamely to reduce the deficit, but their counterparts from Shrewsbury hung on to complete their safe passage to the 3rd round and a trip to Portman Road.

SHREWSBURY TOWN	BRADFORD CITY
1 David Maguire	1 Chris Elliott
2 Wayne Farmer	2 Phil Cutler
3 Aaron Gibson	3 Andrew Villermann
4 Harry Hooman	4 Luke Dean
5 Tom Batchelor	5 Jonjo O'Hara
6 Will Richards	6 Louis Horne
7 Jan Coulston	7 Kelvin Bleau
8 Thomas Dix	8 Rory Carson
9 Andre Gray	9 Ryan Newton
10 Gareth Partridge	10 Nathan Clarke
11 Jon Taylor	11 Ryan Harrison
Substitutes:	Substitutes:
12 Scott Keynes for 2	12 Will Hutton
13 Liam Flynn	13 Sam Heskith
14 Steve Davey for 10	14 Curtis Collentine
15 Dean Turner for 8	15 Roy Fogarty for 7
16 Kalum Evitts	16 Darren Stephenson for 10

MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee	O Yates
Assistant Referee	K Lawton
Assistant Referee	L Sinclair

GOALSCORERS
SHREWSBURY TOWN	BRADFORD CITY
Partridge 73
Richards 77
	.