Bradford City 1 Preston North End 2: Treacy pounces to wreck Cup dream for Bradford

JUST like the English Defence League in Bradford this weekend, City's plans to march through the early rounds of the Carling Cup are over after a dramatic night at Valley Parade.

The Bantams had pulled off the upset of the first round a fortnight earlier when knocking out a Nottingham Forest side with genuine hopes of winning promotion to the Premier League.

But Peter Taylor's side were unable to repeat the trick last night despite taking Preston North End to extra-time after a Jake Speight equaliser had cancelled out a truly stunning strike from Paul Coutts.

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Keith Treacy was the man who broke Bradford hearts with a 109th-minute winner as the Ferguson family maintained their apparent Indian sign over Bradford as Darren bagged a second victory in three attempts against the Yorkshire club to add to the four straight wins chalked up by dad Alex when his Manchester United side netted 17 goals without reply in the Premier League.

Bowing out of the competition was heart-breaking for City, though they can at least take heart from an inspired display ahead of Friday's League Two meeting with Southend United.

The meeting with the Shrimpers was originally scheduled to take place the following day but has been brought forward on police orders due to an EDL march planned for Bradford the same afternoon.

Home Secretary, Theresa May, has since banned the march, meaning the far-right group will have to instead stage a static demonstration in the city.

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Taylor may find the moving of the fixture an inconvenience as it leaves precious little recovery time for his players.

But the Bantams can, at least, find a tonic for tired legs in the way Preston were made to fight all the way for a place in the third round.

Certainly, there was plenty of grounds for optimism in City's performance across two hours of engrossing football.

Employing an attack-minded 4-3-3 formation, the home side were clearly intent on taking the game to Preston.

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Such a bold approach came close to paying off three times during the first half as Gareth Evans proved a constant threat to the North End defence.

His first clearcut opening of the night arrived in the 20th minute courtesy of some sloppy play from Ferguson's side.

As a result, Evans was presented with the ball midway inside the visitors' half and ran on before drilling a low shot against the post.

The striker then flashed a fierce 20-yard shot just wide 10 minutes before the interval before bringing a stunning one-handed save from goalkeeper Andrew Lonergan.

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Evans was particularly unfortunate in that instance not to score, so it must have been particularly galling to see Preston take the lead just minutes later when Coutts unleashed a ferocious low drive that flew past the outstretched hand of Jon McLaughlin.

Conceding was tough on the City goalkeeper, who just seconds earlier had pulled off an outstanding block to keep out a fierce Keith Treacy volley.

Treacy, fresh from having made his Republic of Ireland debut against Argentina 24 hours after Preston had thrashed Stockport 5-0 to earn a second round date at Valley Parade, had earlier gone close with a couple of fierce left foot efforts.

Just as in the first round against Forest, however, City refused to be downhearted and their reward came seven minutes from time.

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Luke O'Brien was the creator with a sublime left wing cross that Speight guided expertly beyond Lonergan to send the home fans in the 4,221 crowd into raptures.

Those same supporters were then brought to their feet once again during the first period of extra-time when David Syers crashed a shot against the crossbar.

Coutts also went close with another thunderbolt that flew just wide before McLaughlin superbly clawed Treacy's goalbound shot to safety.

The one-handed effort ultimately proved in vain, however, as within a minute Preston had reclaimed the lead through another fierce strike from the Irish international.

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As with Coutts's first-half strike, there was little any goalkeeper could have done to keep out the stunning 25-yard drive as it arrowed towards the corner of the net to send the 764 away fans back across the Pennines in happy mood.

Bradford City: McLaughlin; Rehman, Oliver, Williams, O'Brien; Adeyemi, Doherty (Hanson 55), Syers; Evans (Chilaka 80), Moult, Daley (Speight 70). Unused substitutes: Saxton, Hunt, Duff, Bullock.

Preston North End: Lonergan; Gray, Morgan, St Ledger (Wright 46), Davidson; Mayor (Russell 67), James, Coutts, Treacy; Hayes (Brown 62), King. Unused substitutes: Arestidou, Barton, Parkin, McLaughlin.

Referee: C Sarginson (Staffordshire).