Coventry City 0 Bradford City 2: Bantams widen the gap in play-off race

Goals in a five-minute second-half burst from Alex Jones and Jordy Hiwula moved the Bantams eight points clear in the play-off race.

Scunthorpe’s dramatic defeat at Gillingham meant McCall’s men leapfrogged them into fourth and opened the gap between themselves and Southend United in seventh.

“I was pleased how we saw the game out – we were fairly comfortable in the end,” beamed McCall. “We said to the lads at half-time ‘this is a big 45 minutes for us’. The two bits of quality in the second half came from us, and we scored with them both.

“It is always important to capitalise on any purple patch, and we’ve done that in this game.”

The Sky Blues’ basement boys held their own in the first half.

McCall’s dressing down at the interval worked wonders and the visitors took the lead six minutes after the restart.

Substitute Jones, on for the injured Alex Gilliead, fired home his third goal in four games with a well-taken volley from Tony McMahon’s corner.

He then forced a fine save from Lee Burge a minute later, before limping off injured, making him doubtful for tomorrow’s trip to Charlton.

Former Coventry man Romain Vincelot hit the bar but Hiwula was not to be denied and he doubled the lead in the 56th-minute with a deflected effort for his 12th of the season.

Colin Doyle prevented a fightback by denying Stuart Beavon.

Coventry City: Burge, Foley (Kelly-Evans, 30), Clarke, Turnbull, Stokes (Rawson, 67), G Thomas, Stevenson, Reilly, Thomas, Vernam (Jones, 58), Beavon. Unused substitutes: Charles-Cook, Bigirimana, Tudgay, Reid.

Bradford City: Doyle, McMahon, McArdle, Knight-Percival, Meredith, Gilliead (Jones, 34, Clarke, 63), Cullen, Vincelot, Marshall, Wyke, Hiwula. Unused substitutes: Sattelmaier, Darby, Toner, Dieng, Devine.

Referee: J Brooks (Melton Mowbray).