Bradford City 1 Cheltenham Town 2 - Bantams fall to a fourth-straight defeat

After leading through Clayton Donaldson’s first-half header, the Bantams let their advantage slip as second-placed Cheltenham Town scored in either half to leave West Yorkshire with an early Christmas present.

It is a fourth defeat in a row for Stuart McCall’s side and their sixth consecutive fixture without a clean sheet.

The Bantams manager insisted there were no positives for his side to take from Saturday’s FA Cup defeat to Oldham but Bradford certainly showed enough against the highly-ranked

Robins to offer some encouragement going forward. Football is a game of fine margins and had Bryce Hosannah found the net when through on goal just before the hour mark, it could have been a different story.

It is a frantic month for City, with this fixture against Cheltenham the first of eight games in December.

McCall opted to alter the formation from Saturday to a 4-3-3 and made three changes from the side that were beaten by Oldham.

Kian Scales made his full debut in the EFL, starting in place of Billy Clarke, while Callum Cooke replaced Zeli Ismail, who was forced off by injury after 15 minutes against Oldham.

There was no place in the squad for Reece Staunton after it was revealed on Monday that the 18-year-old had suffered a hamstring strain that would keep him out for up to 12 weeks.

Austin Samuels dropped to the bench as Dylan Mottley-Henry joined Donaldson in a two-pronged Bantams attack.

Cheltenham made three changes from their side that advanced to the third round of the FA Cup with victory over Crewe Alexandra.

Josh Griffiths, William Boyle and Ellis Chapman started as Scott Flinders, Lewis Freestone and Chris Clements were named on the bench.

Donaldson headed in his fifth goal of the season to give the hosts the lead on 23 minutes. He flicked the ball into the net from Cooke’s teasing cross with the Robins goalkeeper Josh Griffiths caught in no man's land.

The away side almost hit back instantly when the ball was headed back across goal to Liam Sercombe but his effort crashed off the crossbar from six yards.

Cheltenham were level before the interval, however as Alfie May worked space for a shot which deflected over O’Donnell and into the top corner.

After an encouraging 45 minutes, the Bantams were almost behind. A lack of communication gave George Lloyd a run at goal, who saw his shot saved by O’Donnell but only into the path of May who looked certain to score but Elliot Watt threw his body in front of the ball to block.

Hosannah’s opportunity to put the hosts back in front came and went in an instant as Griffiths rushed off his line to force the Leeds United loanee into rushing his dinked effort which trickled agonisingly wide.

A remarkable block from Ben Richards-Everton moments later kept Bradford level as May lashed an effort toward goal from inside the box but the City centre-back managed to head the ball behind for a corner despite being stood under the crossbar.

However, Cheltenham were celebrating what would prove the winning goal with just under 15 minutes to play.

Chris Clements stooped down to head the ball into the bottom corner from a long throw to pile more misery on the hosts.

Bradford City: O’Donnell; Wood, Richards-Everton, P. O’Connor, A. O’Connor; Cooke (Pritchard 72), Watt, Scales; Mottley-Henry (Samuels 82), Donaldson, Hosannah (French 64). Unused substitutes: Hornby, Longridge, Cousin-Dawson, Sikora.

Cheltenham Town: Griffiths; Raglan, Tozer (c), Boyle; Blair, Sercombe, Azaz (Sang 79), Chapman (Clements 45), Hussey; May (Williams 79), Lloyd. Unused substitutes: Flinders, Bowry, Reid, Freestone.

Referee: S Stockbridge (Tyne)

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