Brad Halliday struck late for Bradford City as Salford City were beaten 2-1 at the Peninsula Stadium.
Facing his old club, Bantams boss Graham Alexander watched his Bradford side extended their unbeaten run to four games.
Despite being on the back foot for most of the game, The Ammies were fired into an early lead as attacker Callum Hendry volleyed home. However, the away side battled their way into the ascendancy and would, first, draw level on half-time through Andy Kavanagh before Halliday rifled home the winner.
Karl Robinson’s side have now lost four successive games, The Ammies will have to be much improved next season if they are to compete at the right end of the league.
Slow starts have become symptomatic of Salford City’s disappointing campaign. Once again, the hosts were second best in the opening stages, all-action attacker Calum Kavanagh benefited from the team’s reactionary defending, he would see a low-prodded effort well saved by Alex Cairns.
While Bradford had the better of the opening exchanges, the Yorkshire side fell behind on 17 minutes. Callum Hendry was offered too much time and space in The Bantams’ box and as he picked his spot, volleying into the bottom left corner past goalkeeper Sam Walker.
HE CAN’T MISS THOSE!!!! pic.twitter.com/wEPogeq0jX
— Salford City FC (@SalfordCityFC) April 13, 2024
Having conceded a very soft Salford goal, Alexander’s side went hunting for an instant response. 20 minutes on from Hendry’s strike, Andy Cook should have levelled the scores, defender Curtis Tilt vacated his centre-back position and would have been relieved to see the striker drag wide from close range.
Both Cook and Kavanagh had tame efforts easily saved before Bradford made a deserved breakthrough. The Bantams restored parity in added time at the end of the first period when Kavanagh directed Matt Platt’s header into the bottom corner following a well-flighted free-kick from the left.
At half-time, Salford had escaped the first-half onslaught relatively unscathed but would pay the price in the second half for a similarly poor performance.
Bradford ramped up the pressure after the interval and Kavanagh was central to The Bantams’ attacking threat. The forward twice went close in quick succession, drawing Cairns into action from range before striking narrowly over the bar.
The Ammies failed to work their way into the game and lacked a threat to push the opposition back.
On the hour mark Bradford went close again, 20-year-old Bobby Pointon drove from midfield and forced Cairns into a smart save at his near post. However, Salford failed to react to follow up the block allowing Kavanagh to strike from the edge of the box. With the defenders falling back onto the line, Tilt acted as the last line of defence to deflect the goal-bound effort off target.
Finally, Salford succumbed to the building pressure, with four minutes left on the clock Halliday received the ball on the right-hand side of the box and crashed the ball past Cairns to secure all 3 points.
Thank you for your support this afternoon, Ammies 👏 pic.twitter.com/WVHvGVaB0N
— Salford City FC (@SalfordCityFC) April 13, 2024
The Ammies are now four games without a win, the season is all but over for Karl Robinson’s side who are now out of the promotion race and relegation battle.
He will be hoping for significant improvement in Salford City’s next match, the team will travel to Wales to take on Newport County next Saturday, Kick-off is at 3 pm.
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