Hartlepool United 1 Bradford City 0: Bradford's battling play offers hope to Taylor

The League Two strugglers matched their hosts for much of a poor Johnstone's Paint Trophy second-round tie and missed a glorious opportunity to break their goal famine.

Emergency striker Luke Oliver's 60th-minute miss was punished nine minutes later when winger Leon McSweeney prodded home the winner from six yards.

Peter Taylor's side have now gone 360 playing minutes without finding the net.

But the 174 loyal travelling fans can take comfort before Saturday following this spirited performance.

Centre-halves Steve Williams and Oliver Gill dealt easily with most of what the home side could muster while goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin made a handful of solid saves.

City gradually grew in confidence after a nervous start and Louis Moult shot over in the 20th minute.

Omar Daley then forced a decent save from Jake Kean six minutes later with a right-footed shot from the edge of the penalty box.

But it was Oliver who missed the best chance to break the long wait for a goal when, after an hour, he shot straight at the home goalkeeper after latching onto Armann Bjornsson's woeful back pass.

Bradford rarely threatened after going behind although full-back Zesh Rehman nearly converted Luke O'Brien's corner in the final minutes.

Hartlepool United: Kean, Austin, Bjornsson, Hartley, Horwood; Yantorno (Gamble 73), Haslam, Liddle, McSweeney; Behan (Larkin 65), Boyd (Monkhouse 65). Unused substitutes: Devlin, Mackay.

Bradford City: McLaughlin, Rehman, Williams, Gill, O'Brien; Bullock, Adeyemi, Hendrie; Moult (Speight 62), Oliver, Daley (Flynn 62). Unused substitutes: Saxton, Syers, Osborne.

Referee: Jock Waugh (Sheffield).

Roman Pavyluchenko will miss Russia's European Championship qualifiers against Ireland and Macedonia, manager Dick Advocaat confirmed yesterday.

Tottenham striker Pavyluchenko has been ruled out of the Group B games on Friday and next Tuesday, respectively, with an ankle injury.

Russia lie third in Group B with three points from two games.