Few complaints after City reach end of Trophy road Oldham Athletic 2 Bradford City 0

But it has to be the coldest and last night there was precious little to warm the cockles of the 2,560 Bradford City fans who had headed over the Pennines hoping to take another step towards Wembley.

Oldham Athletic may have needed to wait until the second half to book a place in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Northern Area final courtesy of goals from former Bantams midfielder Tom Adeyemi and Shefki Kuqi.

But, in truth, the Latics, watched by Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini whose son Andreas was an unused substitute for the home side, rarely looked like joining Huddersfield Town and the two Sheffield clubs on City’s list of League One scalps from earlier in the competition.

The tie was won in central midfield, the visitors lack of options in the absence of suspended captain Michael Flynn and cup-tied Ricky Ravenhill being badly exposed.

Bradford-born Luke Dean and Ritchie Jones, who had crawled off his sickbed to play last night after being absent from training since last Friday with the bug that has laid several Bantams players low in recent days, simply couldn’t cope.

The upshot was Oldham dominating, both territorially and in terms of possession, for long periods and City could have few complaints to bow out.

With 34 places separating the two clubs in the Football League, perhaps that was no surprise. Nevertheless, there was still a tangible air of disappointment among the Bradford contingent at the final whistle that their dreams of a Wembley trip were over for another year.

Oldham’s all-important breakthrough came on 61 minutes via a familiar face, Adeyemi having spent last season on loan at Valley Parade from Norwich City.

The midfielder’s opening was created by an incisive pass from Luca Scapuzzi that allowed Adeyemi to control and then skip past two challenges before finishing coolly past Jon McLaughlin.

Falling behind prompted Parkinson into a major re-shuffle that saw Craig Fagan, Kyel Reid and Ross Hannah brought off the bench.

Hannah did subsequently test Cisak with a snapshot after wrestling Jean-Yves M’Voto off the ball but, in truth, it was the home side who always looked the more likely to score the second goal of the night.

First, McLaughlin had to show quick reflexes to keep out a shot from Kuqi after the City goalkeeper had initially been unable to hold on to a stinging drive from Robbie Simpson.

Luke Moore then came within a whisker of diverting a Scapuzzi effort into his own net before Kuqi met Simpson’s free-kick with a bullet header 10 minutes from time.

City did have one last chance to claim some reward when Jean-Yves M’Voto handled a Moore cross in the 90th minute but, as if to sum up it just wasn’t going to be the Bantams night, Fagan skied the penalty over the crossbar.

It ensured a happy end to the night for the home fans, many of whom had ended the first 45 minutes furious at referee Colin Webster for what they saw as a failure to clampdown on the over-physical visitors.

The cause of their ire was a 36th- minute lunge by Jones at Scapuzzi on the touchline.

It was an ugly challenge and one that incensed the Oldham players as much as their supporters but Webster’s response was to only show the City midfielder a yellow card.

After that, every decision by the Tyne & Wear official was questioned by his vociferous critics in the main stand.

Some of that frustration could have been down to the home side not being able to turn their first half territorial dominance into goals due to a poor pass or wayward pass at the vital moment.

Never was this was more evident than when Scapuzzi fired wildly over despite being unmarked six yards out after Tom Adeyemi’s forceful run had been brought to a shuddering halt by a combination of Moore and Andrew Davies.

Oldham’s Italian loanee from Manchester City also should have done better than fire straight into McLaughlin’s midriff just before the break despite having a clear sight of the whole goal.

City did enjoy one threatening moment during the first half when James Hanson had a firm header beaten away by Alex Cisak but, over the 90 minutes, they were distinctly second best against a Latics side who will now meet Chestefield in the Northern final.

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Oldham Athletic: Cisak; Lee, M’Voto, Clarke, Black; Parker, Wesolowski, Adeyemi, Scapuzzi; Kuqi, Simpson. Unused substitutes: Morais, Bouzanis, Smith, Tarkowski, Mancini.

Bradford City: McLaughlin; Moore, Oliver, Davies, Seip; Mitchell, Jones, Dean (Fagan 65), Compton (Reid 65); Wells (Hannah 65), Hanson. Unused substitutes: O’Brien, Duke.

Referee: C Webster (Tyne & Wear).