Bradford City 1 Blackburn Rovers 2: Bantams’ Carabao Cup journey ended by classy Rovers

The 11 Championship sides knocked out in round one of the League Cup by lower-division opposition showed talent is only part of the equation in the early stages of this competition.

Even with an almost entirely new team, Rovers had that, knocking the ball around far too well for Bradford City to deal with at times. Unfortunately for the League Two side, they also had the desire to progress.

Their 2-1 victory should have been more comprehensive but because it was not, gave them a nervy final few minutes.

Defeat was nothing for the Bantams to be ashamed of, it was just that having knocked Hull City out already, they would have been greedy for more.

The Kop’s chants for manager Mark Hughes as the substitute-ridden game reached a conclusion showed that when it came down to it, there was a realistic appreciation from the home fans of what they had seen.

Goalkeeper Harry Lewis was Bradford’s best player.

Still, a recklessly-conceded free-kick in front of the home end as the match went into stoppage time gave them one last chance to dream before heading out of the competition, only for spoilsport Aynsley Pears to punch Brad Halliday’s free-kick. Lee Angol had a stoppage-time shot blocked.

To look at team-sheets which showed Bradford keeping 10 of the players who won at Hartlepool United and Blackburn changing 10 of Saturday’s Bramall Lane starters, there seemed little doubt which club was the more hungry for a place in the third round but Rovers surprised with their fight.

They bossed the opening quarter of an hour, Lewis saving from Rankin-Costello and neither Tyrhys Dolan – a winger with a serious vowel disorder – nor Louie Annesley (one of two full debutants, along with Jake Garrett) able to get on the end of Adam Wharton’s cross from an alarming amount of space.

Matty Platt just got in front of Bradley Dack from another Wharton delivery. Platt’s centre-back partner Romoney Crichlow had to make a good tackle.

Then Andy Cook scored.

It was not completely out of the blue – he hit the side netting from Bradford’s first chance of note in the 14th minute – but when he got in front of his strike partner, Huddersfield Town loanee Kian Harratt, to tap in Scott Banks’s drilled 19th-minute cross it was firmly against the run of play.

The same was true of Cook’s first goal against Hull, although that was an equaliser. That turned the game his side’s way, this one – his sixth of 2022-23 –stung Blackburn into action.

Cook’s outside-of-the-boot pass was just in front of Harratt, who hit a post with a feather of a touch onto Halliday’s cross. In between time a clearance by Tayo Edun – who presumably must have done something wrong on Saturday to keep his place – ricocheted off Harratt and needed saving by former Middlesbrough goalkeeper Pears.

Rovers were jolted into action.

Dolan sped down the left and pulled the ball back so Dack – in keeping with the theme of the game, in too much space – could thud in a 32nd-minute equaliser.

Vale did well to hold Crichlow off but Lewis came out and got a clean touch of the ball in the eyes of referee Ross Joyce. The striker had another go, but Crichlow was back to block.

But Blackburn were not to be denied, springing another counter-attack. Vale tapped a pass for Dilan Markanday to finish.

The waves of blue and white kept coming in the second half.

Rankin-Costello hit a shot from a tight angle which Lewis got in the way of and Wharton nearly curled one into the far corner.

Richie Smallwood must have been relieved to see where Joyce placed the ball after he brought own Markanday, who had turned Liam Ridehalgh. The free-kick was millimetres outside the penalty area. Smallwood almost made a goal for Platt but the angle was too tight.

It was a rare break in the flow, Wharton digging a shot wide, Lewis denying Dolan after good footwork by the winger, who then dragged an effort wide.

Even when Dack was substituted there was little respite – Ben Brereton-Diaz came on. So did Sammie Szmodics, who demanded another Lewis save. It was football’s natural order asserting itself, although to put it just down to that would do Blackburn a disservice. Once they matched Bradford’s appetite, another Valley Parade cup upset was always going to be a tall order.

Bradford City: Lewis; Halliday, Platt, Crichlow, Ridehalgh; Banks (East 74), Smallwood (Songo’o 82), Gilliead (Angol 71), Chapman (Young 82); Harratt, Cook (Oliver 71). Unused substitutes: Doyle, Foulds, Hendrie, Sutton.

Blackburn Rovers: Pears; Rankin-Costello, Morton, Annesley, Edun; Wharton, Garrett (Buckley 79); Markanday (Brereton-Diaz 74), Dack (Phillips 74), Dolan (Gallagher 90); Vale (Szmodics 79). Unused substitutes: Kaminski, Brittain, Harlock, Batty.

Referee: R Joyce (Teesside).