Lincoln City 1 Bradford City 2: Penalty culprit Evans turns hero as Taylor's Bantams bounce back

A WELL-TAKEN solo goal from Gareth Evans eased the pressure on Bradford City manager Peter Taylor.

The Bantams chief saw his side bounce back from a heavy defeat at Cheltenham with a crucial victory over relegation-threatened Lincoln.

Bradford's fragile confidence was given a boost by a dreadful mix-up in the Lincoln defence after just two minutes which allowed James Hanson to get in between defender Moses Swaibu and goalkeeper Joe Anyon to slot the ball home.

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The Bantams striker nearly doubled the lead with a back-post header which was cleared off the line.

Referee Mark Brown then awarded Lincoln a controversial penalty which Ashley Grimes converted after Evans was ruled to have handled Jamie Clapham's free-kick as he formed part of the wall.

But the Bantams dug deep and restored their lead just before half-time when Evans beat Anyon with a clever reverse shot from the edge of the area.

Bradford survived some late pressure to leave Taylor admitting ahead of today's home game against Bury: "Victory is nice, it feels better. There were some good things, but there were some hairy things at the end.

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"We caused ourseleves problems, it's a confidence thing. If we'd been on a good run and the players were in good form we would have kept the ball a bit more, but they worked extremely hard. I've got no complaints.

"The first goal was a bit fortunate but we'll take that. I wasn't convinced about the penalty, thankfully Gareth Evans showed his form by getting a very good second goal for us."

In other Bantams news, former England international Lee Hendrie has left the club.

Lincoln City: Anyon; Hoyte, Watts, Swaibu, Clapham; Jarrett (McCallum 71), Kerr (Howell 71), O'Keefe, Carayol (Hutchinson 76); Facey, Grimes. Unused substitutes: Anderson, Broughton, Hughton, Musselwhite.

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Bradford City: Pidgeley; Eckersley, Duff, Williams, Threlfall (Daley 76); Adeyemi, Bullock, Syers, O'Brien; Evans, Hanson. Unused substitutes: Oliver, Doherty, Chilaka, Kiernan, Price, McLaughlin.

Referee: M Brown (Hull).

Man of the match: Gareth Evans.