Tuesday 16 February 2010
totesport.com League East
Bradford City 3 (Shahin OG 2, Thorne 13, Stephenson 21)
Grimsby Town 0
Kick Off: 2.00pm
at the Coral Windows Stadium

Three unanswered goals from the Bantams ensured they registered their second totesport.com League East win on the bounce against their counterparts from Grimsby Town.

City did all the damage in the first quarter of the match, and although the visitors improved in the second period, Bradford were good value for their victory.

A comical Jammil Shahin own goal gifted the Bantams the best possible start to the match before strikes from Peter Thorne and youngster Darren Stephenson put City firmly in the driving seat with less than 25 minutes on the watch.

Thorne was among only a handful of senior pros on show for City as once again the Bantams relied heavily on their youth set-up.

Only goalkeeper Matthew Convey, defender Louis Horne and midfielders Luke Sharry and Luke Dean joined Thorne from the senior ranks to line up against the Mariners. The rest of the sixteen man squad was made up from David Wetherall's high flying Under 18's side.

With barely two minutes gone, City were handed the perfect start to the match - in the most bizarre of circumstances.

A low cross from Ryan Harrison appeared to have been dealt with by the Grimsby defence, but as the ball rolled back to Grimsby keeper Leigh Overton he proceeded to smash his clearance straight at the helpless Jammil Shahin, who was standing less than a yard in front of him.

The ball proceeded to loop over the stranded Overton, who could only watch in horror as it dropped into his net for a calamitous own goal.

City looked to build on their stroke of good fortune as Darren Stephenson and Ryan Harrison both went close in quick succession.

The Bantams did eventually manage to double their advantage with less than 15 minutes of the match played through the ever reliable Peter Thorne.

A delightfully searching long ball from Andrew Villermann found Thorne in behind the Grimsby defence, as the visitors appealed in vain for offside.

Once in on goal, the veteran striker never looked likely to miss as he finished with great aplomb by stroking the ball past Overton and into the far corner.

Thorne nearly had his second as the match just ticked into the 20th minute.

The Bantams striker got himself first to Harrison's near post cut back from the byline, but Overton got down well to smother Thorne's close range effort.

City continued to look the more dominate side though and proceeded to grab a third moments later, as once more Overton was forced to pick the ball out of his net.

Stephenson used his physical presence to hold off Dallas Moore and latch himself onto Sharry's threaded pass before firing low through the legs of the Grimsby stopper from inside the Mariners area.

The visitors tried to grab some sort of a foot hold in the match as Ross Gardener's penetrating run threatened to test the Bantams backline.

Gardener looked set to trouble Matthew Convey for the first time of the afternoon as he worked his way into the Bradford penalty area, but Phil Cutler was on hand to deny him with a diving block tackle just as the Grimsby man looked set to pull the trigger.

Due to the one sided nature of the the scoreline, City's confidence levels were understandably at a high.

Villermann illustrated as much with a marauding run deep into Grimsby territory.

City's left back held off the advances of a couple of black and white shirts as he strode towards the Grimsby penalty area.

The flame haired defender's first strike was blocked, but he was still on hand to send the rebound whistled only inches away from Overton's far post.

No doubt with a flea in their ears from half time following their first half display, Grimsby started the second period in a more positive fashion and Louis Horne had to be on hand to block a stinging drive from Shahin.

Gardener proceeded to fire a low shot just wide moments later as the Mariners maintained their early second half pressure on the Bantams backline.

The Mariners went even closer just past the hour mark when Nathan Dixon's rising shot forced Convey into a fine tip over.

Stephenson tried to ensure it wasn't all one way traffic in the second period as his low shot sent Overton scrambling towards his far post. Fortunately for the Grimsby shot-stopper, the youngsters effort narrowly missed the target before rattling into sponsor boards behind.

Grimsby efforts from Josh Fuller and Drew Rhodes were then comfortably dealt with by Convey, while the Bantams Dominic Rowe was let down by a poor touch when he found himself in a promising position as both sides eked out small openings.

Convey had to be more alert to Fuller's next effort though, as the Bantams keeper sprung out quickly from his goal to smother the Grimsby youngster's shot as he used his pace to nip in behind the Bantams defence.

With the visitors maintaining their strangle-hold on the majority of proceedings during the second period, Wetherall brought on two subs in quick succession to try and freshen things up.

Nathan Clarke and Alex Flett were introduced into the action to take the places of fellow apprentices Rowe and Stephenson.

It seemed to work momentarily as Thorne managed to control a long through ball from Sharry on his chest before forcing Overton into shovelling his effort around the post.

As full time approached, Under 18's top scorer ,Oliver Forsyth, was given a brief run out in place of Harrison.

Forsyth unfortunately did not manage a single touch of the ball as moments later referee Mr Harwood brought an end to proceedings to hand City that second win on the trot.

BRADFORD CITY	GRIMSBY TOWN
1 Matthew Convey	1 Leigh Overton
2 Curtis Collantine	2 Connor Marshall
3 Andrew Villermann	3 Drew Rhodes
4 Luke Sharry	4 Andi Thanoj
5 Phil Cutler	5 Dallas Moore
6 Louis Horne	6 Matthew Bird
7 Dominic Rowe	7 Ross Gardener
8 Luke Dean	8 Jammal Shahin
9 Darren Stephenson	9 Tom Corner
10 Peter Thorne	10 Nathan Dixon
11 Ryan Harrison	11 Josh Fuller
Substitutes:	Substitutes:
12 Nathan Clarke for 9 (78)	12 Kieran Smith
13 Chris Elliott	13 Rob Peet
14 Adam Robinson	14 James Therington
15 Alex Flett for 7 (75)	15 Charlie I'Anson
16 Oliver Forsyth for 11 (90)	16 Ryan O'Loughlin

MATCH OFFICIALS:
Referee	C N Harwood
Assistant Referee	D Lawrence
Assistant Referee	B Lamb
Fourth Official	G Scott

GOALSCORERS:
BRADFORD CITY	GRIMSBY TOWN
Shahin O.G (2)
Thorne (13)
Stephenson (21)