Cheltenham Town 3 Bradford City 1: Parkinson’s men sunk by on-loan Huddersfield striker Spencer’s brace

It had looked bright for Phil Parkinson’s men when Nahki Wells fired them in front inside 10 minutes, but the hosts roared back to secure a deserved win thanks to a couple of goals from Jimmy Spencer and a third from veteran Ben Burgess, the former Hull forward.

Parkinson said: “We crumbled in the second half and that’s disappointing.

“We’ve put in some excellent performances recently, but we didn’t defend nearly well enough and we were punished in the harshest possible manner.”

Parkinson made just the one change to his starting line-up following the win over Macclesfield last time out, with Will Atkinson coming in to replace the soon-to-be-departed Craig Fagan.

It started well when Bermuda international Wells buried a sweet shot past goalkeeper Scott Brown, and by the half-time interval the Bantams looked in command and well on the way to a fourth win in their last five games.

However, less than a minute after the restart, Cheltenham substitute Kaid Mohamed crossed for Spencer to slam in his first goal to level matters.

Towering striker James Hanson came close to restoring the Bantams’ lead soon after but the final half-hour belonged to Cheltenham.

They went in front just past the hour-mark when on-loan Huddersfield Town hit-man Spencer curled a great shot into the top corner.

Burgess wrapped up victory with 19 minutes to go when he finished neatly after latching on to a smart through-ball from Sido Jombati.

Cheltenham Town: Brown, Elliott, Bennett, Garbutt, Jombati, Pack, Low (Lowe 90), Penn (Mohamed 42), Summerfield, Spencer (Duffy 90), Burgess. Unused substitutes: McGlashan, MacLean.

Bradford City: Duke, Ramsden, Branston (Syers 76), Oliver, Kozluk, Jones (Bullock 55), Ravenhill, Atkinson (Smalley 76), Reid, Hanson, Wells. Unused substitutes: McLaughlin, Baker.

Referee: D Drysdale (Lincs).

Man of the match: Nahki Wells