Gary Bowyer delighted by three points and clean sheet for Bradford City

Gary Bowyer was delighted with Bradford City’s 2-0 home win over League Two promotion rivals Exeter City – a result that enabled them to replace their opponents in second place.

It was City’s fourth win in five matches and Bowyer said: “It was a good win and we were absolutely delighted with the clean sheet.”

However, the Bantams manager was less happy about the sending off of influential midfield player Callum Cooke (62mins), one of three players shown the red card for two bookings by referee Michael Salisbury.

It means he misses City’s FA Cup first round tie at Shrewsbury on Saturday.Exeter finished the match with nine men after skipper Jake Taylor and Tom Parkes were sent off for reckless tackles, but Bowyer said: “I’m frustrated with Callum. He didn’t need to do it and he should not be getting sent off.

“We get two bodies back (Harry Pritchard and Dylan Connolly) and then Shay McCartan gets injured in training on Monday. He might be missing for a week or two. Then we lose Callum for something we didn’t need to-do.”

Bradford took the lead against the run of play in the 31st minute when Zeli Ismail’s right wing cross was turned into his own net by Pierce Sweeney under pressure from Aramide Oteh although Bowyer insisted the striker claimed the goal “100 per cent”.

Captain James Vaughan scored the second in first-half stoppage time after the visitors failed to deal with a long ball into the box and he and Pritchard were also denied by the post.

Bradford City: O’Donnell, Henley, A O’Connor, Richards-Everton, Wood, Ismail (Connolly 77), Akpan (Anderson 87), Cooke, Pritchard (Devine 73), Oteh, Vaughan. Unused substitutes: Sykes-Kenworthy (gk), Mellor, P O’Connor, Patrick.

Exeter City: Maxted, Sweeney, Woodman (Richardson 84), A Martin, L Martin (Seymour 70), Law, Williams, Bowman, Parkes, Taylor, Collins. Unused substitutes: Visser (gk), Atangana, Jay, Fisher, Moxey,

Referee: Michael Salisbury