Bradford City joint manager Mark Trueman doesn’t want campaign to fizzle out

On target: Bradford City's Clayton Donaldson, left, scored in the 2-1 defeat by Port Vale. Picture Bruce Rollinson

BRADFORD boss Mark Trueman has urged his players to show some character during the final few games of the season.

The Bantams are safely in mid table with nothing to play for.

Defeat at Port Vale after Clayton Donaldson’s opener was cancelled out by Theo Robinson before Tom Conlon’s winning penalty was the club’s fourth in a row.

“I can’t speak for certain individuals and how they’re thinking (whether they’ve switched off with nothing to play for) but it doesn’t matter of the season’s over or not, you really show your character and you want to win a football match.

“As I say, the effort was there in terms of physically running but you have to compete and fight and what’s we didn’t show enough of today and Port Vale did.”

Strikers Andy Cook and Donaldson combined as the latter fired home his seventh goal of the season after a ball over the top in the 14th minute.

But the visitor’s advantage lasted barely two minutes as Robinson calmly slotted home the equaliser.

Ollie Crankshaw gave away a penalty when he sent Nathan Smith flying with captain Conlon making no mistake from 12 yards. The Bantams struggled to find an opening for an equaliser after the break.

Cook came closest when he forced Vale stopper Scott Brown into a low save.

Trueman’s troops huffed and puffed but failed to deny the hosts a ninth game without defeat.

Port Vale: Brown, Worrall (Montano, 71), Smith, Legge, Brisley, Gibbons, Whitehead (Amoo, 62), Joyce, Conlon, Swan (Burgess, 62), Robinson (Pope 90+1). Unused subs: Scott, Olagunju, Hurst.

Bradford: Hornby, Sutton, P. O’Connor, A.O’Connor, Wood, Vernam (Foulds, 64), Cooke, Watt, Crankshaw (Evans, 39), Cook, Donaldson (Novak, 71). Unused subs: O’Donnell, Stevens, Scales, Coulson-Dawson.

Referee: Ben Speedie (Liverpool)

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today. Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you’ll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app and receive exclusive members-only offers. Click HERE to subscribe.