Bolton Wanderers 1 Bradford City 0: Bantams lack the punch to get away with rare moment of looseness
Four games in, all the Football League play-offs have been tight affairs but when Bradford City tried to open theirs up, it cost them.
When you carry as little attacking threat as the Bantams did in Lancashire – just four shots, none of them on target – your defending has to be on point.
For most of the night it was, but one moment of looseness was enough to give a Bolton Wanderers side who drew twice with them in the regular season and finished just two points behind them the mid-tie edge.
A 1-0 deficit with a game at Valley Parade to come on Thursday is hardly a catastrophe for the Bantams, but having been so compact in the first half, being more positive in the second also left them more vulnerable.
As he showed in Bradford only a few weeks earlier, Amario Cozier-Duberry is a tricky customer to keep quiet but he managed to exploit uncharacteristic gaps in the visiting backline to score the only goal of the game after 59 minutes, and came close to another four minutes later.
It perhaps shows why so far the post-season matches have been such low-risk affairs. Expect that to change next week when sides find they have little choice but to go for the jugular.
Bradford certainly started the game positively, with central midfielder Jenson Metcalfe able to push up between Antoni Sarcevic – booed by the fans of one of his old clubs and George Lapsile – trusted to start again with the injured Bobby Pointon watching from the away end.
Kayden Jackson won the ball well in the 10th minute and played in Sarcevic, only for Chris Forino to make an important block.
But the direction of the first half turned decisively as the quarter-hour approached.
Aden Baldwin threw himself in the way of an Ibrahim Cissoko shot, and when the corner was pulled back to Hull City loanee Mason Burstow, his shot was blocked. George Johnston blazed wide before Bradford could get the ball clear.
That became the pattern, Bradford getting bodies back so that shots and final balls invariably could not get through – like Ruben Rodrigues' 21st-minute effort – but their inability to keep the ball only keeping the pressure coming back.
A ball fizzed into Burstow in the 24th minute bounced off him and behind for a goal kick.
When Josh Neufville did try to break away, Martin Coy's laissez-faire refereeing saw play waves on as he was rugby tackled by Josh Sheehan.
But the effectiveness of Bradford's defending meant that by the 44th minute, with Sam Walker still to make a save, Eoin Toal shot over with an effort from nearer his halfway line than the goal he was aiming at.
Bradford started the second half higher up the pitch but in return for a Sarcevic shot over from a tight angle, they opened up to a costly degree.
Cissoko found himself in a big space between Curtis Tilt and Ibou Touray in the 60th minute, and when he helped Burstow's ball to Cozier-Duberry, Touray was unable to close him down before he curled a shot in.
Minutes later Cozier-Duberry was in too much space again, this time as he sprang a counter-attack. Luckily for Bradford, his shot came off the inside of the far post and rolled the right side of the goalline from their perspective.
The defensive solidity of the first half had disintegrated, Burstow spooning a shot into the sky when off balance. In fairness, it was quickly pulled back but by then the damage has been done.
Coy had make way with a muscle injury early in the second half, but his replacement David Rock continued to infuriate Bradford when Johnston appeared to shove Jackson in the back as he ran onto a lovely through-ball from Tyreik Wright.
Bolton had penalty appeals waved away in the 96th minute as they looked to pounce on a moment of scruffiness from Joe Wright. It was not a night where Bradford were good enough at the other end to be able to afford many of them.
They have no choice but to try and find a way to carry more attacking threat on Thursday – they will be crossing everything that Pointon will be fit enough to play a cameo – but they cannot afford to lose their defensive discipline searching, as Saturday's decisive moment showed.
Bolton Wanderers: Bonham; Osei-Tutu, Toal, Forino, Johnston; Sheehan, Erhahon (Simons 70); Cozier-Duberry, Rodrigues (McAtee 80), Cissoko (Conway 90+5); Burstow (Dalby 80).
Unused substitutes: Gale, Harrington, Christie.
Bradford City: Walker; Baldwin, J Wright, Tilt; Neufville, Power, Metcalfe, Touray; Lapslie (T Wright 67), Sarcevic; Jackson (Powell 80).
Unused substitutes: Humphrys, Kelly, Swan, Hilton, Pennington.
Referee: M Coy (Durham).