Macclesfield Town 0 Bradford City 1: Hanson delivers City precious three points

The only goal of the game came in the 24th minute when James Hanson headed home after good approach play by Gareth Evans.

The win lifts the Bantams upto 14th place in the table, nine points clear of the bottom two relegation places.

And it is a massive boost for the chances of caretaker-manager Peter Jackson to secure the position on a permanent basis.

Macclesfield: Veiga, Gray (Mukendi 82), Brisley, Brown, Diagne, Wedgbury (Hamshaw 65), Draper (Chalmers 85), Bencherif, Daniel, Barnett, Sinclair. Unused substitutes: Cudworth, Reid, Tremarco, Sappleton. Bradford: McLaughlin, Hunt, Oliver, Williams, Threlfall, Syers, Adeyemi, Worthington, Evans, Hanson (Dobie 63), Flynn. Unused substitutes: Pidgeley, O’Brien, Speight, Osborne, Bullock, Chilaka.

Referee: D Deadman (Cambridgeshire).

Lee Barnard was Southampton’s hero as his side moved into pole position for an automatic promotion place from npower League One with a 2-0 win over Charlton at St Mary’s.

Barnard struck in the 58th minute to add to Guly Do Prado’s 11th minute opener and send Saints within two points of second-placed Huddersfield with two games in hand.

Peterborough also stayed in the hunt after two goals in the first 10 minutes from David Ball sunk relegation-threatened Dagenham & Redbridge and kept Posh sitting just a point behind Nigel Adkins’s men in fourth.

Rochdale’s remarkable late surge towards a play-off place continued as Craig Dawson and Will Atkinson scored in a 2-1 win at Notts County. Bournemouth lost to a Jeff Hughes penalty at resurgent Bristol Rovers.