Tuesday 5 February 2013
Central League Reserve Division
Bradford City 0
Rotherham United 4 (Agard, Kearns 2, Rowe)
Kick Off: 2.00pm
at the John Charles Centre for Sport
Steve Williams made his first appearance in City colours in over fourteen months as a youthful City reserve side lost out to their counterparts from Rotherham United at a rainy John Charles Centre for Sport.
Williams, who spent the second half of last season on loan with Inverness Caledonian Thistle, had previously been sidelined for the Bantams after rupturing his achilles back in June.
The central defender managed fourty-five minutes against the Millers.
Along with Williams, City gave playing time to as many as four trialists during their first reserve fixture of the new calendar year.
Following a tentative start from both sides a couple of shots from both Kieran Agard and Louie Swaine respectively came very close to opening the scoring. Agard found a yard on his marker to fire narrowly wide and Swaine's chance arose following a defensive error from James Cadman, he too though couldn't hit the target.
Agard thought he should've been awarded when he went down under a challenge from Jamie Arundel in the area but referee David Fisher was having none of it and waved away the appeal.
Louie Swaine was presented with another decent opening shortly after when Connor Bower found him with a pass after doing well to hold up play, but the big frontman saw his attempt go agonisingly close once more.
United broke the deadlock on the half hour; Revell picked out the run of Agard with a clever lofted through ball and once he'd cut inside away from his marker he made no mistake in beating Chris Senior in The Bantams' goal.
The lead was doubled barely a minute later; Daniel Kearns was picked out with a pass and ran into the acres of space in front of him, he got into the area and evaded Senior to rattle home a second Rotherham goal.
Millers' keeper Tony Thompson escaped without a booking after he handled outside the area and the resulting freekick from Scott Brown was excellently saved by the stopper.
Brown came close to getting City back into the game early in the second half when he rattled the bar with a first time shot following a neat one-two with Jae Yun Lee.
Shortly before the hour mark, Daniel Kearns scored a second of the afternoon to ensure victory for his side; Revell lead a lightning counter attack and he cut back for Courtney Cameron, Senior denied Cameron brilliantly but he could do little to stop Kearns making it 3-0 to Rotherham.
Perhaps the best bit of build up play from City all afternoon lead to another chance for Louie Swain. Passing the ball around the midfield efficiently, Swain was found in the area by a pass from midfield and he forced a smart save from Tony Thompson.
Shortly after though, Rotherham scored a fourth goal. Kearns received a short corner to float a cross towards the back post and his delivery was turned in by the unmarked Daniel Rowe.
A corner taken by Forrayah Bass caused mayhem in the Rotherham area and the ball fell to substitute Oliver McBurnie but he could only lash a shot over the bar on the turn.
The last bit of action in the game was a late save from Chris Senior to deny Kieran Agard a second goal after Cameron had lead a counter attack and fed him the ball.
City team:
Senior, Hiza, Villermann, Williams (Bott), Arundel, Lee (Stevenson), Brown, Erangey, Bass, Swain, Bower (McBurnie)