Bantams take honours in derby

Rotherham United came away from Valley Parade (sorry, the Coral Windows Stadium) with nothing this afternoon after Bradford ended their run of nine games without a win, in convincing fashion.

The home side put the Millers under a bit of pressure from the kick-off although they didn’t really create any clear-cut chances and it was Rotherham who had the first shot at goal when a Ryan Taylor corner found Nick Fenton but the tall defender headed just wide. On twelve minutes, the Millers failed to clear a corner and it reached Dean Furman who hit the ball, which hit Peter Thorne, who was in an offside position, and went into the net. Thorne could have had another a minute later but for a wonderful save from Andy Warrington. The ball fell to Nicky Law who, from a tight angle, volleyed way over the bar. It was Rhys Evans turn, in the other net, to pull off a good save from a Marc Joseph free kick and five minutes later, Reuben Reid had a great chance to pull the visitors level when he was one-on-one with the ‘keeper but instead of going round Evans he tried to lift the ball over him and his shot was easily saved. But it was Bradford who got another goal on thirty-two minutes when a good run and cross from Law found Thorne and he put the ball past Warrington. Still the Millers didn’t give up and a curling free-kick from Ryan Taylor found Danny Harrison whose shot was saved by Evans only for the rebound to fall to Fenton, but he couldn’t get it past the home defence in front of goal. As half-time approached, Thorne nearly had his hat-trick but Warrington did well to get down low and save.

The Millers were out a good few minutes before Bradford appeared for the start of the second half but it was Thorne who again had a shot from twenty-five yards out and Warrington was glad to see it go wide. Steve Jones looked like he’d scored on the hour mark but Warrington managed to fingertip the ball over the bar. Again Warrington came to the rescue as his defence went awol and tipped over a shot from Furman and minutes later managed to put a Jones shot wide. Good work from Ryan Taylor found Mark Hudson, on for Joseph, whose shot was well saved by Evans. Warrington then pulled off a double save from Law and Thorne and stopped the ball on the line from Thorne. But, he couldn’t save a shot from Law on the seventy-third minute that made the score 3-0.

Rotherham had so many chances in the first half to get on the score sheet it was just unbelievable they went in 2-0 down. But, in the end, Stuart McCall’s side were deserved winners.