Town triumphed in the Yorkshire derby this afternoon as strikes from Josh March, George Thomson and a Dan Oyegoke own goal saw Bradford City defeated 3-0 at The Envirovent Stadium.
And it was no more than Simon Weaver’s side deserved as they ended a run of three successive defeats at home in front of a league record attendance of 3,905.
Town named four changes to the side that started Town’s last outing with Rod McDonald, Levi Sutton, Jeremy Sivi and Stephen Dooley all coming into the starting eleven.
For the visitors Matty Platt, Kevin McDonald and Tyreik Wright all returned to the line-up following the 3-0 loss to Notts County in midweek, their third home defeat in a week.
Former Town-man Lewis Richards flashed a low cross across the six-yard box in the opening minutes but without a City player on hand to get a touch the ball raced away to safety.
The windy conditions were making life tricky for both sides with a strong wind in Town’s face during the early stages.
Levi Sutton’s cross-field pass found March on the edge of the box after eighteen minutes but his effort was blocked.
He would no be denied though and just before the halfway point of the first-half he powerfully met Waren Burrell’s near post cross to head past a helpless Sam Walker.
The visitors almost responded immediately when Anthony O’Connor bravely blocked Kevin McDonald’s shot. However the ball rebounded straight to Tyreik Wright who sliced his effort but James Belshaw still had to adjust to pull off an acrobatic save.
There was a large stoppage soon after when the referee’s assistant suffered a nosebleed, resulting in a delay of seven minutes.
Just before the break Matty Foulds cleared well with the visitors making a rare foray into Town’s box but it was Town who looked likeliest to find the net again and Burrell made good contact to head at goal to force Walker into a save.
Two minutes into stoppage Town so nearly got a second when an instinctive Matty Daly strike unluckily bounced back off the post and out to safety.
With the win in Town’s favour in the second-half Thomson profited and struck a volley from way out that saw Walker scrambling across his goal to make the save.
March then fashioned an opportunity for himself with a smart piece of control with his chest but he couldn’t find the shot to match and Walker easily collected.
City had a chance ten minutes into the second-half after Town were harshly penalised on the edge of the area. Belshaw though was equal to Walker’s free-kick.
Stephen Dooley was the first nae to go in the book following a late challenge on Brad Halliday.
Not content with what he had seen in the opening quarter of an hour of the second-half Graham Alexander made a trio of changes that saw Adam Wilson, Bobby Pointon and Ciaran Kelly replace Liam Ridehalgh, Matty Plat and Jamie Walker.
Town made a change of their own shortly after when Dooley, on a caution, was withdrawn in favour of Jack Muldoon.
Town doubled their advantage twenty minutes from Town after Haillday was penalised for handball. Thomson stepped up and despatched the spot kick confidently past Walker to make to it 2-0.
Wright was then withdrawn in favour of Harry Chapman for the visitors in what was a last throw of the dice for them to take anything from the game.
The points were secured less than a minute later though when Oyegoke turned Muldoon’s cross into his own net ten minutes from time to send the sizeable away following heading for the exit.
