Wednesday 19 August 2009
totesportcasino.com League Cup
Bradford City 3 (Neilson 20, 90, Douglas-Pringle 79)
Middlesbrough 2 (Horne og 44, Franks 59)
Kick Off: 7.00pm
at the Coral Windows Stadium

Curtis Collantine

Wetherall's opposite number at Middlesbrough, Martin Scott arrived at Valley Parade with a squad predominantly made up of members of Boro's academy.

One exception in Scott's squad was young goalkeeper Jason Steele. The Newton Aycliffe local last visited the Coral Windows Stadium as part of an England Under 19's side that beat Slovakia on their way to qualification for this summer European Under 19's championships in Ukraine.

It was one of the Bantams trialists, Daniel Douglas-Pringle that was at the heart of the first opening of the match.

Barely four minutes were on the clock when Leon Osborne fed Douglas-Pringle into space in the Boro box. The winger did well to get his shot away from a tight angle, but it was comfortably held by Jason Steele.

Luke Sharry

Despite this early opportunity for the Bantams, Middlesbrough's young side dominated the possession stakes early on and creating chances of their own.

From one such chance, Middlesbrough centre back John Johnson should have done better when in space in the Bantams penalty box. Unfortunately for Boro, the defender could only hit his shot wide from a James Cronesberry corner when in a promising position.

In 13th minute, Middlesbrough's Gary Martin created himself a golden opportunity to put his side in front.

The young forward did well to create a yard of space away from Clarke and get a left footed effort on target from a tight angle. McLaughlin did well to save Martin's first attempt and even better to save his second when the Boro striker looked certain to score.

City hit back though in the 20th minute to take the lead through a quite superb goal from Neilson.

James O'Brien

He received the ball well within his own half, before using a combination of power and pace to work his way deep into Middlesbrough territory. Neilson  eventually released the ball to Osborne, who showed strength of his own to get the better of Seb Hines and cross for Neilson himself to complete the move with a simple finish past Steele.

The goal seemed to energise the Bantams as the match had a far more even look to proceedings than in the earlier knockings.

A clever short corner from Cronesberry nearly dampened that new found energy for the Bantams around five minutes before half time.

The flame haired winger fooled the City defence with a quick corner to team-mate Martin. Fortunately for the Bantams his shot whistled just wide of the post when the striker had time and space to do better.

David Wetherall

Martin did better minutes later though for his side, helping them to equalise on the stroke of half time.

The young Boro forward managed to engineer himself space to whip in a pacey, low cross into the City six-yard area, a cross Bantams' defender Louis Horne could only turn past the helpless Jon McLaughlin in the Bantams goal.

The second half started the same way as the first, with the visitors bossing possession.

Despite this fact, it was the Bantams who actually created the first real goal scoring opportunity of the second period.

The impressive Neilson again broke with pace and power as he had done in the first half. The Boro defence this time managed to halt his progress, but the ball broke to James O'Brien, whose instant shot from the edge of the area just whistled over Steele's bar.

Middlesbrough responded when the busy Richard Smallwood set up team mate Cronesberry, but his weak shot from just inside the area was comfortably saved by McLaughlin.

Cronesberry had a better time of things moments later just before the hour mark.

Leon Osborne

The Boro winger delivered a delightful hanging cross to the far post which gave Jonathan Franks the easy task of heading home from close range.

Franks nearly helped himself to a double moments later as he pounced on a slack header from Ryan Harrison, but this time he could only flash his shot wide of the goal.

The visitors were now in the ascendancy and looking comfortable on the ball.

Neilson tried to turn the tide in favour of the Bantams, flashing a shot just wide of Steele's near post.

He then linked with Douglas-Pringle, to get the Bantams back on level terms.

A cross from Neilson found Douglas-Pringle in the box and the winger planted a firm header past Steele into the bottom corner.

As the match entered into the final ten minutes, Middlesbrough's Josh Walker tested McLaughlin with a dipping shot while at the other end Neilson was only denied by a fantastic tackle from Smallwood.

Just as it appeared the match would be heading for a draw, the Bantams stuck.

A fine through ball from Horne saw substitute Jordan Barker in the clear. He showed good composure to tee up the on-rushing Neilson, who planted a firm strike past Steele into the bottom corner from the edge of the area to grab victory for City.

BRADFORD CITY	MIDDLESBROUGH
1 Jon McLaughlin	1 Jason Steele
2 Curtis Collantine	2 Patrick Otte
3 Ryan Harrison	3 Paul Weldon
4 Luke Sharry	4 Richard Smallwood
5 Matthew Clarke	5 Seb Hines
6 Louis Horne	6 John Johnson
7 Scott Neilson	7 Kieran Edwards
8 James O'Brien	8 Josh Walker
9 Rory Boulding	9 Jonathan Franks
10 Leon Osborne	10 Gary Martin
11 Daniel Douglas-Pringle	11 James Cronesberry
Substitutes:	Substitutes:
12 Luke Dean for 10 (70)	12 Philip Shead for 5 (64)
13 Matthew Convey	13 Connor Ripley
14 Dean Mitchell for 11 (82)	14 James Gray for 10 (76)
15 Jordan Barker for 8 (82)	15 Luke Wiliams for 11 (76)
16 Ben Hudson	16 Daniel Hawkins

MATCH OFFICIALS:
Referee	R J West
Assistant Referee	I D Knee
Assistant Referee	B McGill
4th Official	I Johnston

GOALSCORERS:
BRADFORD CITY	MIDDLESBROUGH
Neilson (20, 90)	Horne og (44)
Douglas-Pringle (79)	Franks (59)