L2 W1-0 (H) Macclesfield Saturday April 21, 2012. K.O. 3:00PM. #bcafc

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Signings, Loans and Injuries



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Match Media & Stats

Pictures
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/sport/sportbcfc/sport_bantams_pics2011/

"Last Match" Highlights on Bantams Player
http://www.bradfordcityfc.co.uk/page/player/LastMatch/0,,10266~1612005~36,00.html

BBC highlights (uk only)
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Match stats
http://www.soccerbase.com/teams/team.sd?team_id=234#teamTabs=results

Bradford City: Duke, Ramsden, Branston, Oliver, Kozluk, Fagan, Jones, Ravenhill, Reid (Flynn 69), Wells (Smalley 83), Hanson. Unused substitutes:

McLaughlin, Bullock, Syers.

Macclesfield Town: Veiga, Daniel, Brown, Futcher (Smith 73), Mendy, Hamshaw, Chalmers (Fairhurst 76), Wedgbury, Draper, Ben Mills (Tomlinson 73),

Marshall. Unused substitutes: Bateson, Andrew Mills.

Referee: G Ward (Surrey).

Team Stats
Bradford    Macclesfie
12(5)    Shots (on Goal)    4(1)
18    Fouls    10
2    Corner Kicks    3
1    Offsides    2
50%    Time of Poss.    50%
4    Yellow Cards    4
0    Red Cards    0
1    Saves    3




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Monday morning match report

No slip-up this time as Bradford City dodge banana skin
6:30am Monday 23rd April 2012
By Simon Parker

Bradford City 1 Macclesfield 0

It shows how low expectations have dipped when a win over the worst team in England will be seen as a surprise by some City fans.

Macclesfield's last win came so long ago that Spurs were still in the title race and Manchester had two teams in Europe.

The biggest result on New Year's Eve came at Old Trafford where Blackburn pulled off a stunning 3-2 win. Few paid attention to Macclesfield

beating Port Vale in League Two.

But that remains the Silkmen's last triumph of any kind. Four months on and their position at the foot of the Football League is a true

reflection of a 2012 that has been awful beyond words.

And yet many seasoned Bantams observers saw Saturday's home game as a banana skin ready to tumble on.

It has become a cliche that City are the ideal opponents to put paid to a winless run, however wretched.

Whether that is strictly fact or not, memories remain vivid of painful defeats in years gone by from the likes of Brighton and Stockport when

they could not buy a point.

Twitter was full of doom and gloom predictions about "typical City" in the run-up to the game.

This season's form has hardly dispelled the myth either. While the Bantams regularly pick off the bunch at the top of the table, results against

the bottom half have been awful.

And Macclesfield had beaten them with the world's softest penalty at the Moss Rose in late October.

Incredibly, the win over Vale was Macc's only three points since that night. From the 63 on offer since the turn of the year, they have collected

just seven.

They are bottom for a reason but with time fast running out City still needed to be vigilant.

It was not a game that will live long in the memory. Most fans will have forgotten it by the time they switched on The Voice.

But maybe that's a good thing. Better that than another notorious episode to be trotted out whenever future relegation strugglers come calling.

Humdrum home wins are not something City do well.

Think back to that sequence of draws at the start of the year. The team's performances against Burton and Morecambe were much brighter than on

Saturday but points were tossed away willy-nilly.

Two or three wins during that five-match run would have taken the sting out of March. Maybe City, with that bit of momentum behind them, might

even have flirted with the top half of the division for once.

Saturday was mediocre at best but Phil Parkinson's men walked off with their third victory in four. The home form that he is so keen to build on

could add another addition to the win column.

And for the second week running, City had seen off a team in and around them. That doesn't usually happen unless the opposition is Barnet.

There were few highlights and the scrappiness of the only goal summed up the contest.

Arnaud Mendy conceded a needless free-kick for hacking at Kyel Reid by the corner flag. James Hanson met Craig Fagan's cross with a weak header

that should have been comfortably dealt with – instead Macc striker Ben Mills got his legs in a tangle on the goal-line and only succeeded in

helping it in.

Mills probably got the final touch but he wasn't going to argue with Hanson claiming his 14th goal of an increasingly-profitable campaign.

That was one of only two shots on target from the hosts. The first came just 90 seconds in when Nahki Wells was sent racing away by Ritchie

Jones.

The stage was set for the Bermudian to carry on from right where he left off with his Northampton treble. Instead he took it too close to keeper

Jose Veiga, who was able to smother.

A goal so early might have made for a very different afternoon, drawing Macclesfield out to play. Instead it became a paint-drying exercise in

front of a disinterested crowd.

Matt Duke had it so easy that the Silkmen only called upon him once and Ben Wedgbury's tame drive did not crop up until the 85th minute.

At least the City defence could look back with satisfaction on a second straight clean sheet at home. As Parkinson pointed out, they provided the

foundations for the win.

Guy Branston headed off for a James Bond-themed party afterwards dressed as Oddjob. So that's simply a bowler hat then, Guy ...

But the one-time skipper is proving far more than an Oddjob man at the heart of the back four.

Called in since the Crawley fracas, Branston has not put a foot wrong. Andrew Davies is finally available again for the Cheltenham trip but the

loanee surely cannot dislodge the stand-in who has made the role his own.

Branston is only halfway through the two-year contract he was handed by Peter Jackson but up to a few weeks ago his future seemed certain –

anywhere but Valley Parade.

Now, however, the picture may have changed. All will become clearer over the summer but Parkinson has definitely been impressed by his five-game

flourish.

The City chief could not have asked for a better response after his defence was ripped apart in the aftermath of that mass brawl.

Parkinson said: "The morning after Crawley, I looked at who we'd lost – Seip and Fry (both injured), Davies, Oliver and McLaughlin. But we called

Guy back into it and he's been tremendous.

"He's just done his job and Luke (Oliver) has come back and carried on straight where he left off."

The nerves that accompanied the long trek back from Plymouth at the end of last month seem a long time ago. While City want to finish on a high,

attention is once again turning to what needs to be done to get the club out of this God-forsaken division.

For Macclesfield, it looks too late. Their return to non-league seems inevitable – without the memories of a final day in the sun at Valley

Parade to ease the pain.
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Bradford City: Parky happy with scrappy win
7:20am Monday 23rd April 2012
By Simon Parker

Phil Parkinson wants City to get the knack of winning more scrappy games.

Parkinson admitted Saturday's victory over bottom club Macclesfield was no Valley Parade classic.

But he would love to see more of the same if his side are to challenge next season.

He said: "You've got to have that ability as a team to win those sort of games.

"For a manager and the coaching staff to grind out a 1-0 win that's not that pretty is great. Macclesfield came here fighting for their lives.

They were very strong and solid and we had to deal with that.

"There was a feeling that we'd done the job last week. You could sense it round the ground.

"Sometimes as a team you have to spark the crowd into life and I felt we did that."

James Hanson headed the only goal from Craig Fagan's free-kick. Macc striker Ben Mills appeared to get the final touch as he fluffed his

attempted clearance on the line but City's top scorer was claiming his 14th of the season.

The win was City's third in four games in April as well as another home clean sheet to back up the Good Friday victory over Southend.

Parkinson added: "The back four have to stand strong and do their jobs professionally to scrap out those 1-0s and I thought the defence and

goalkeeper gave us the platform to go on and win the game.

"You must have the right attitude. I said to Nahki (Wells) there was no way he was going to be given the freedom of the ground after scoring that

hat-trick last week.

"Teams do their homework and make it difficult. So you have to grind out the performance.

"And his persistence in the corner won us the free-kick which we scored from.

"We had that run of (home) games when we played well, probably better than we were allowed to on Saturday, and ended up with just one point each

time. That's the difference.

"Those five draws could have been costly but fortunately they haven't been. We've picked up wins where we needed to."

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New-look defence key to Bantams avoiding drop out of league


Published on Monday 23 April 2012 07:56

Three wins from the last four matches have ensured that Bradford City will be playing in the Football League next season.

Less than three weeks ago, City were struggling to pull clear of the relegation zone and their problems were exacerbated when first choice

goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin and central defenders Luke Oliver and Andrew Davies were sent off following the brawl at the end of their 2-1 home

defeat against Crawley.

The loss of these key players through suspension could have derailed their survival battle, but home wins against promotion-contenders Southend

and relegation-threatened Macclesfield and an away victory at Northampton have banished any fears of relegation.

In fact, in five matches since that infamous Crawley match, City's new-look defence, featuring goalkeeper Matt Duke, recalled from his loan spell

at Northampton, and Guy Branston, restored to the team after being out of favour, have conceded only three goals.

Manager Phil Parkinson admitted that 'grinding out' a 1-0 win against bottom club Macclesfield, without a win since New Year's Eve, had not been

pretty, but added: "They came here fighting for their lives. You expect them to be very strong and very solid and we had to deal with them.

"We were the better side in the first half and in the second half we had more pressure and deserved a goal."

In a match full of endeavour, but few scoring chances, it was left to leading scorer James Hanson to break the deadlock in the 65th minute with a

close-range header at the far post from Chris Fagan's free-kick.

The ball hit Ben Mills as the visitors' striker tried to clear but Hanson claimed the goal as City fans celebrated.

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ADAM BAKER HANDED PRO CONTRACT

Bradford City have handed teenage striker Adam Baker his first professional
contract at the end of his two-year scholarship.

Baker, who has featured for the reserves on a number of occasions this
season, has been given a one-year deal with the Bantams.

Manager Phil Parkinson said: "The criteria for earning a pro contract is
simply whether we feel they're going to be good enough to play in the first
team next year."

"It's obviously pleasing for Adam to be offered a professional contract. He
deserves it and he now needs to go away in the summer and work really hard
to give him a chance of making a real statement once the lads come back for
pre-season training."

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Portland's Johnson announces retirement - KansasCity.com

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/04/20/3567218/portlands-johnson-announces-retirement.html


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BBC Sport - Bradford City ex-boss Stuart McCall has promotion ambition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17746045

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