Bradford City 1 Bristol City 1: City ‘will get the right one to replace Wells’

Ironically, while City were being held to a 1-1 draw against bottom-four team Bristol City, the Bermuda international was making a dream start for his new club, Huddersfield Town, coming off the bench to score a late winner.

The Valley Parade result stretched City’s run of home matches without a win to eight and they have won only once in 15 League matches.

While Parkinson was pleased with the performance from his injury-hit team – Rick Ravenhill is the latest victim after limping off with an ankle ligament injury – he will be working hard this week to fill the gap left by Wells’s exit.

Hull striker Aaron McLean is one of several players City are looking at and Parkinson said: ”We need a proven striker because we are in a situation where we have lost a top striker. It will be expensive because strikers are hard to find, but we need to get the right one and we will do that.”

Bradford made a great start, James Hanson, Wells’s striking partner in last season’s successful League Cup and promotion campaign, putting them ahead in the first minute as he stabbed the ball into the net after the defence failed to clear Gary Jones’s corner. The lead did not last long, however, as Bristol City equalised in the 11th minute with an angled shot into the far corner of the net from Scott Wagstaff.

Garry Thompson missed a great chance to restore Bradford’s lead a minute before half-time, firing across the face of goal and both teams hit the post with long-range efforts in an enthralling second half. Rory McArdle also had a header saved by Elliot Parish.

Bradford City: McLaughlin, Darby, McArdle, Bates, McHugh, Thompson, Jones, Ravenhill (Kennedy 22), K Reid (Yeates 72), Hanson, McBurnie (Connell 77). Unused substitutes: Jameson, Oliver, Taylor, Graham.

Bristol City: Parish, Osborne, Flint, Williams (Fontaine 77), Wagstaff, Elliott, Pack, B Reid (Barnett 76), Baldock, Emmanuel-Thomas (Burns 90), Cunningham. Unused substitutes: Fielding, Moloney, Bryan, Gillett.

Referee: E Ilderton (Tyne and Wear).

Man of the match: James Hanson.