Bradford 0 Rotherham 2: City suffer penalty woe to boost Rotherham’s promotion hopes

TWO goals in the final 10 minutes – one hugely controversial – put Rotherham United firmly in the box seat for automatic promotion from League Two while obliterating Bradford City’s own top-three hopes in the process.

A highly-debatable penalty, coolly converted by Lee Frecklington 10 minutes from time and a stoppage-time second from Kieron Agard, settled the scrappiest and tensest of derby occasions in the visitors’ favour.

While the major talking point before the game centred on Millers manager Steve Evans’s first return to Valley Parade since that infamous night 13 months ago when several members of his Crawley side were involved in a ugly post-match brawl with several Bantams counterparts – which ultimately saw five players dismissed – the conjecture after this will largely all centre on referee Mark Haywood pointing to the spot following a handball offence from substitute Michael Nelson, which looked accidental, to help provide United with their key opener.

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To rub salt into the wounds, Agard ran virtually half the length of the pitch to fire home into an unguarded net after City poured bodies forward in search of an equaliser – including keeper Jon McLaughlin.

The upshot of the win, which secured a seasonal double for United over their West Yorkshire neighbours, is that Evans’s side jumped into third spot and if they triumph at lowly Plymouth Argyle on Saturday and follow up with victory over another relegation-haunted side in Aldershot at the New York Stadium on April 27, they should be celebrating an end to their six-season tenure in the basement level.

Burton, level on points with them, could still pip them if they win their final two matches and turn around a goal swing of six, with the Millers now hoping City can do them a big favour by denying the Brewers maximum points at Valley Parade on Saturday.

For seventh-placed Bradford, work must still be done to secure their play-off berth after their six-match unbeaten run was ended and while news of Chesterfield’s surprise home loss to Plymouth was the redeeming feature of a disappointing night, Exeter are breathing down their necks – and just a point behind them with two games to go.

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In a derby spectacle watched by the highest gate in League Two this season, 13,467 – which beat the crowd of 13,251 in the West Country derby between Plymouth and Exeter – the high stakes ensured both sides failed to express themselves, with the main talking point of the first half being the dismissal of assistant boss Steve Parkin to the stands.

A brief commotion arrived just before the interval when Haywood elected to send Parkin to the stands after being alerted to comments he seemingly made to fourth official Alf Greenwood as tempers briefly frayed.

The on-pitch action may have been negligible, but the home fans did their level best to inspire the Bantams, with the atmosphere they generated ahead of kick-off positively thunderous.

Fewer in number than on the never-to-be forgotten midweek Capital One Cup nights against Arsenal and Aston Villa, the home crowd may have been, but the parochial claret-and-amber faithful present provided a similar wall of noise.

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Allocated the TL Dallas stand, plus two sections of the Midland Road end, the travelling Millers fans tried in vain to make themselves heard early on, but the initial encouragement was provided for the Bantams supporters.

Only four minutes had elapsed when James Hanson powered in a header from a Gary Jones corner, but the effort was ruled out after the big striker clearly used Claude Davis for extra leverage.

Power play throughout the first half saw the hosts earn plenty of corners – eight in total – and promising situations, but the visiting rearguard, while not entirely convincing, just about held firm.

At the other end, the Millers, with Alex Revell operating as a lone frontman, seemed content to pack bodies in the midfield and play on the counter.

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The Bantams had the ball in the net a second time on 34 minutes when an offside flag cut short Garry Thompson’s celebrations following Jones’s pass, ahead of the Millers going close to drawing first blood with the best opportunity of the half by a country mile.

Good work from Ben Pringle saw him send over a delicious left-wing cross, which was met by a towering header from Revell, who rose above James Meredith before seeing his effort beaten away at the near post by McLaughlin.

On the restart, Thompson blazed over early on for City, who then suffered a blow in the 50th minute when Meredith limped off – the hosts’ second enforced defensive change after the recalled Andrew Davies had gone off with a recurrence of back trouble just 25 minutes in.

The presence in the technical area of Evans amounted for renewed sport for the Bantams hecklers, who ridiculed the Millers chief at certain junctures.

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One or two juicy, typical derby challenges aside, there was little for the home fans to get too agitated about, with two shots from Thompson the end product to plenty more pressure, but little in the way of incisive creativity.

The Millers’ offensive efforts were also pretty token, but that changed in the 80th minute when they were the beneficiary of a big penalty award, with Frecklington nervelessly converting.

Nakhi Wells and substitute Alan Connell, who dinked the ball over Scott Shearer, had half-chances to level before Agard’s breakaway second crowned a sweet night for the Millers and Evans, who raced off the pitch at the final whistle before a brief punch in the air to celebrate with the 1,710 visiting contingent.

Bradford City: McLaughlin; Darby (Connell 81), McArdle, Davies (Nelson 25), Meredith (McHugh 50); Thompson, Ravenhill, Doyle, Reid; Hanson, Wells. Unused substitutes: Duke, Atkinson, Hines, Doyle.

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Rotherham United: Shearer; Mullins, Morgan, Davis, Skarz; Agard, O’Connor (Rose 44), Arnason, Frecklington, Pringle; Revell. Unused substitutes: Warrington, Tonge, Ainsworth, Odejayi, Ridehalgh.

Referee: M Haywood (West Yorkshire).

Bristol City became the first side to have their relegation confirmed from the Championship last night. They went down 1-0 at home to Birmingham, Wade Elliott the scorer, meaning they lie 11 points from safety with just nine to play for.

Leicester returned to the play-off places, replacing opponents Bolton in the top six following a hard-fought 3-2 win.

Crystal Palace were stunned 3-0 at Ipswich, while Brighton went fourth after a 0-0 draw at Peterborough.