Bradford 0 Peterborough 2: Davies backed by Parkinson as City suffer Anderson blow

But if the rest of his team-mates had shown his desire and commitment then the Bantams may well have hit back from conceding two goals within a minute, believes manager Phil Parkinson.

Liverpool-born Davies was introduced in the 35th minute after winger Paul Anderson was taken to hospital for an X-ray which revealed a broken right tibia following a 50-50 challenge in midfield with Peterborough’s Michael Bostwick.

Davies, who averages a goal every five games, went so close to opening his City account and registering the 50th league goal of his career when he headed the second of four successive corners at the start of the second half against a post in front of the Kop.

He then horribly miscued from Billy Knott’s cross after City had been undone by two counter-attacking strikes from Posh, under new manager Graham Westley.

But that was as good as it got as far as a fightback was concerned by City, who failed throughout to capitalise on quality free-kicks from Lee Evans and suffered their first defeat in six games, having named an unchanged side from that which drew 2-2 with Sheffield United.

Ahead of tomorrow night’s trip to Colchester, Parkinson said of former Blackpool striker Davies: “He has come to the club and is desperate for that goal. He’s had one disallowed at Fleetwood and now he’s had a header against a post but at least he showed the desire to get in there.

“Those set-play deliveries today were top-class and I’m going to look at every single one to see whether we are doing enough to get on the end of them because I’m not sure we are because those are Premiership deliveries that ‘Evo’ has put into the box.

“It’s not going for ‘Davo’ at the moment, the supporters know that and we all know that but at least he has put himself in where it hurts to try and get us a goal.

“He is almost trying too hard in his all-round play. He is trying to run with it when he maybe should pass it at times but he’s determined, has a point to prove and is trying everything he can to do so.”

Of the centre-circle challenge on Anderson, the City chief continued: “It didn’t look good. I thought it was a kind of lunging tackle by the lad in the midfield. You knew as soon as it happened that it was not good so we have to keep our fingers crossed that he’s not too bad.

“It disrupted us, there’s no doubt about that, but more than it should have done. It knocked the stuffing out of us a bit in the first period.

“Then at 2-0 down we lacked the urgency to get back in it. They came to slow the game down but we needed to quicken it up but we were just too deliberate in everything we did. We needed to create an atmosphere and intensity but there was not enough fight to get back in the game.

“Last week when we conceded a couple of goals we responded really well and should have won the game but today we didn’t.

“We ran out of ideas and lost our way and need to look at it. The goals knocked us too much. That was not a real Bradford City performance. We made it too easy for them and I’m glad we have a game on Tuesday when we will have a good think about team selection.”

Anderson’s departure resulted in Mark Marshall switching to the left and from his one quality delivery James Hanson’s header had Ben Alnwick arching to his left to keep the scoreline blank at the break.

City were sunk by the visitors’ quickfire brace in the 56th and 57th minutes.

Posh broke down the left, Souleymane Coulibaly squared for Marcus Maddison, who saw his shot parried by Brad Jones into the path of striker Lee Angol to sidefoot home.

Then Coulibaly’s trickery conjured himself space for a shot which struck a defender and fell nicely for Chris Forrester to force home under the diving body of Jones.

Striker Devante Cole took a knock to the head challenging for a free-kick from Evans but City’s response was poor and Angol should have made it 3-0 in the 86th minute but headed wide from substitute Jon Taylor’s free-kick.

Bradford City: Jones, Darby, McArdle, Burke, Meredith; Marshall (Mottley-Henry 83), Evans, Liddle (Knott 67), Anderson (Davies 35); Hanson, Cole. Unused substitutes: Williams, Clarke, Leigh, McMahon.

Peterborough United: Alnwick, Smith, Zakuani, Santos, Elder; Bostwick; Oztumer (Taylor 83), Forrester (Collison 90); Maddison; Angol, Coulibaly (Washington 76). Unused substitutes: Henry, Davey, Fox, Lopes.

Referee: P Tierney (Lancs).

Man of the match: Erhun Oztumer.