Bradford City 4 – 1 Doncaster Rovers – Saturday 12th September 2015
After a free week last week, we managed to keep our unbeaten league record intact with a comfortable 4-1 win over Doncaster Rovers on Saturday.
We were first to attach with Niah Payne’s early effort and we went 1-0 up in the 15th minute when Sam Wright’s long ball sailed through the Doncaster defence to Reece Webb-Foster who tapped the ball into the back of the net.
In form Webb-Foster made it 2-0 minutes later, as he latched onto Curtis Peters’ through ball and struck it past the Doncaster goalkeeper.
The two-goal lead meant we had comfortably settled into the game and Doncaster’s efforts around the half hour mark were calmly dealt with by Sykes-Kenworthy in goal.
Niah Payne and Webb-Foster were a strong threat going forward and caused problems for the Doncaster defence. A strong team build up and finish by Webb-Foster saw us go 3-0 up five minutes before the end of the half. Good link up play between Kwame Boating, Luca Mellor and Payne set up Webb-Foster, who beat the keeper at his near post to complete his hat-trick.
Doncaster were awarded a free kick from the restart when their player was tripped up in the midfield but their effort went behind for a corner and the resulting set play was headed into Sykes-Kenworthy’s arms.
It was a pleasing first-half performance that saw us lead 3-0 at the break.
Payne did very well to win a corner in the 49th minute, however the set piece was well cleared away. The second half was more even than the first, with both teams creating chances. Webb-Foster’s effort on 55 minutes went just wide of the target and Doncaster’s strike minutes later was well saved by Sykes-Kenworthy.
We comfortably cleared Doncaster’s free kick on the hour mark and it allowed Curtis Peters to break forward and find defender Kwame Boateng on the attack but his effort went just wide of the post. Payne also did well to break from a Doncaster free kick but his cross was met by the goalkeeper.
Danny Devine did extremely well to flick the ball onto Peters in the 67th minute. Peters used his skill and pace to get passed the defenders before he was brought down in the box and we were awarded a penalty. Webb-Foster stepped up and struck the ball down the middle of the net to score his fourth goal of the game.
Despite the score line, the away side continued to threaten our defence going forward and they scored a consolation goal from 85th minute header.
It was a comfortable victory and one that sees us move to top of the North East table having won all of our opening fixtures. Next weekend, we travel to Oldham Athletic for our first league fixture of the season (Saturday 19th September 2015, Chapel Road Training Ground, Hollinwood, Oldham OL8 4QL – 11am K/O)
1)George Sykes-Kenworthy
2)Kwame Boateng
3)Sam Wright
4)Kesi Omolokun
5)Alex Laird
6)Danny Devin
7)Niah Payne
8)Xander McBurnie
9)Reece Webb-Foster
10)Curtis Peters
11)Luca Mellor ©
Substitutes
17) Casey Taglione (replaced Reece Webb-Foster on 70)
14) Giovanni Landu
15) Ellis Hudson (replaced Alex Laird on 68)