Bradford City 1 Oldham Athletic 0: Bantams treat fans to a winning return

Reece Burke has extended his stay at Bradford City.

Tony McMahon scored the winning goal five minutes after the interval with a far-post header from left-back James Meredith’s cross to give Bradford a double over Oldham, who have now gone eight League matches without a win.

And, after City’s first home League match for more than seven weeks, Parkinson announced that 19-year-old Burke will remain on loan at the club until the end of the season despite interest from other clubs.

Burke, who is recovering from a badly cut wrist, suffered in the 3-0 defeat at Gillingham a fortnight ago, has been on loan on loan at Bradford since August and Parkinson said: “Reece has been terrific for us and he adds competition for our back four.”

City could not add to their lead despite the fact that Oldham, with new manager John Sheridan in charge for his first match, were reduced to 10 men after substitute Connor Brown was sent off for a foul on Kyel Reid in the 40th minute.

Parkinson said: “We would have loved to have scored more. We had a lot of possession and tried everything, but it wasn’t to be. However, it was important that we were resilient and we can build on this performance and take it into Tuesday’s game.”

Bradford City: Williams, Darby, McArdle, N Clarke, Meredith, McMahon, Routis (Marshall 80), Evans, Reid (Morris 61), Hanson, B Clarke.(Cole 63). Unused substitutes: Cracknell, Knott, Leigh, James.

Oldham Athletic: Coleman, Dummigan (Brown 25), Dieng, B Wilson, Lafferty, Jones, Winchester (Forte 63), Kelly, J Wilson, Murphy (Poleon 66). Cassidy. Unused substitutes: Cornell, Mills, Croft, Fuller.

Referee: B Toner (Darwen).

Man of the match: Lee Evans.