Trailing 2-0 at half-time to a brace of goals from impressive home striker Daniel Agyei, City reduced the arrears moments into the second period thanks to a header from Andy Cook - who netted for a 31st time in a goal-laden season.

Jamie Walker cashed in a 54th-minute error from Crewe keeper Tom Booth to restore parity.

City were on the cusp of confirming their play-off place with a game to spare, only for Chris Long to take their fate to the final day after firing home a late penalty following Richie Smallwood’s foul on substitute David Amoo in the 11th-minute of stoppage-time.

Bantams manager Mark Hughes at Crewe. Picture: Tony Johnson.

Hughes said: "We keep on getting hurt by them. We have taken it to the last day. We probably always felt that was going to happen anyway.

"That's the reality now and we can get our heads around that and make sure we take that final step against Leyton Orient.

"We know what we have to do. We came very close in difficult circumstances going 2-0 down and we showed real resilience and character to come back. That's pleasing.

"But then the game deteriorated and became end to end. Lots of transition and changes of possession and it became a game that I didn't want us to be involved in.

"I'd rather see us getting the ball down and pass and move. You can see the pitch was not the best and it didn't help our confidence in terms of getting the ball down and passing and move and it was difficult.

"It ended up with them playing the type of football they wanted to play more than we did.

"Once teams have lost a 2-0 lead and they are the home side, the expectation is that there's going to be a reaction and the game started to be end to end and there was not a lot of control from either team."

Bradford City lost control in late loss at Crewe Alexandra, admits Mark Hughes