Cheltenham Town 4 Bradford City 0: Taylor rant at rusty City as rampant hosts put disruption behind them

Striker Jeff Goulding bagged a goal in each half with strike-partner Wes Thomas and Marlon Pack also on target as the Bantams slipped to 16th spot.

"Players have an excuse to be rusty," said Taylor, whose side had not played for 17 days while the hosts had been inactive for 14.

"But it is the same for Cheltenham who will have had the same frustrations. They were a little bit sharper than us and got to things quicker. I don't want to take anything away from them but some of the things that happened were down to our mistakes. It was an opportunity missed but that's the beauty of this division, if you are not on your game you can get beaten by anybody."

Goulding's opener on 31 minutes took a deflection to wrong-foot Bantams goalkeeper Lenny Pidgeley while a misplaced pass was punished by Pack who drilled home five minutes later.

David Syers had a header disallowed for offside while the impressive Gareth Evans was denied by a decent save on the hour. But when Goulding scrambled home his second midway through the half, the game was up.

Evans went close to a consolation only for home goalkeeper Scott Brown to palm his shot over and Luke Oliver headed against an upright late on. The Robins had struck a fourth by then, Thomas finding the bottom right-hand corner after neat play.

Taylor added: "Gareth Evans was our best player by miles. We could have done with a few more like that."

Cheltenham: Brown; Lowe, Elliott, Riley, Andrew; Melligan (Watkins 86), Pack, Pook (Bird 70), Smikle; Goulding, Thomas (Jeffers 79). Unused substitutes: Gallinagh, Lloyd-Weston, Artus, Shroot.

Bradford: Pidgeley; Eckersley, Oliver, Kiernan, O'Brien; Adejemi (Hendrie 46), Doherty, Syers; Evans, Price, Hanson. Unused substitutes: McLaughlin, Williams, Osborne, Moult, Bullock, Threlfall.

Referee: CD Sarginson (Staffordshire).