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Wycombe Wanderers 1-0 Bradford City: Hunt's late strike ruins McClaren celebrations
PAUL McClaren's hopes of a happy birthday weekend in his home town were ruined by Lewis Hunt's 70th-minute winner.
The Bradford midfielder, who turns 32 today, was born and raised in Wycombe but Hunt's strike made sure it was not a case of many happy returns.
The Wycombe right-back settled the contest with his first goal for two years to end Bradford's hopes of leapfrogging them in the promotion race.
He drilled home from just inside the area to extend the club's 15-match unbeaten start after John Mousinho's pass deflected into his path.
Second-placed Wycombe deserved their slice of good fortune after earlier seeing Chris Zebroski's second-half shot hit the inside of the post and bounce back along the goal-line into the grateful arms of Bantams goalkeeper Rhys Evans.
City enjoyed plenty of possession, with winger Omar Daley their danger man, but after Peter Thorne had headed an early corner wide, and then McClaren saw his shot deflected, the Bantams struggled to make an impact on a defence which has conceded just six league goals all season.
The game looked to be heading towards a stalemate until Wycombe introduced substitute Angelo Balanta at half-time. The tricky Colombian, on loan from QPR, invigorated his team and had a hand in the winning goal before drawing a fine late save out of Evans.
Wycombe Wanderers: Shearer; Woodman, McCracken, Williamson, Hunt; Spence (Balanta 46), Mousinho, Holt; Zebroski, Phillips, Harrold. Unused substitutes: Young, Johnson, Moussa, Vieira.
Bradford City: Evans; O'Brien, Lee, M.Clarke, Moncur; Daley, T Clarke (M Boulding 79), McClaren, Law; Conlon, Thorne. Unused substitutes: Arnison, Heckingbottom, McLaughlan, Osborne.
Referee: A D'Urso (Essex).
Man of the match: Omar Daley.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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