Bradford City 1 Macclesfield Town 2: Injuries take toll as Bantams suffer

With key men sidelined the City manager had a chance to assess his side's adaptability, but a woeful first half will not have made a good impression.

Centre-half Simon Williams came close to providing an early spark when his header was well saved by Macclesfield goalkeeper Jon Brain.

Things went from bad to worse five minutes before the break when Bantams' captain Zesh Rehman fluffed a clearance to present former Bradford apprentice Emile Sinclair with a goal-scoring opportunity which he calmly took.

Taylor's half-time re-shuffle paid dividends within two minutes of the restart when centre-half Luke Oliver was pushed up front to give the Bantams a more physical presence and the on-loan defender couldn't believe his luck when he levelled the scores with his first chance following Gareth Evans's right-wing cross.

But the improvement was short-lived as Macclesfield stunned City again with a second goal on the hour mark. The ball was pushed through to Town midfielder Matthew Lowe who picked out striker Ben Wright who finished smartly with a near-post flick.

Soon after Williams got in a vital clearance to deny Wright the chance of a carbon copy goal and despite a late shout for a penalty the visitors held on comfortably to claim the thre points.

Bradford City: Glennon, Rehman, Williams, Oliver, Threlfall; O'Leary, Bolder, Bullock (Harrison 70), L O'Brien (Grant 45); Evans, Kendall (Bateson 45). Unused substitutes: McLaughlin, J O'Brien, Osborne, Horne.

Macclesfield Town: Brain, Brisley, Morgan, Brown, Hessey; Lowe, Bell, Bolland (Reid 72); Sinclair, Mukendi, Wright. Unused substitutes: Veiga, Reid, Wilson, Rooney, Tipton, Thomas, Linfield.

Referee: R Booth (Nottingham).