Match report posted by Richard  (view the full thread on the forum )

What a relief!\r\n\r\nIt looked as though it was going to be one of those days - the Bradford goal led a charmed life for long periods throughout the match, and yet it also looked possible that City could nick one at the other end, which would have been absolute daylight robbery. That said, Bradford had the better of the opening fifteen minutes or so, as the Town defence struggled to come to terms with the height and strength of Dele Adebola. During this period though, they only had one effort of note - a familiar stinging free-kick from Summerbee which whizzed just past the post.\r\n\r\nThe Town seemed to spring into life shortly afterwards, and before the half was out, they really should have scored - firstly from a goalmouth scramble which saw Miglioranzi and Ifil both have efforts on goal, before O`Hanlon was penalised for a non-existant push on the keeper. Hewlett (who came on for the AGAIN injured Miglioranzi) should have done better with a drive that went over - then Parkin and Igoe both should have shown more composure in front of goal, shooting off target with the goal at their mercy. At the other end, Adebola spurned a glorious opportunity to loft the ball over the advancing Evans - and Bradford also nearly capitalised on a mistake from the Town keeper, when he got caught attempting to shepherd the ball out for a goal kick, and the Bradford player managed to keep it in and slide towards goal - luckily O`Hanlon was there to cover. Overall, I felt Swindon slightly edged the first half - certainly the better chances came their way - but we went in at nil-nil.\r\n\r\nIn the second half though, the Town came out on fire - Igoe and Howard running the show in midfield, combining brilliantly. The quality of crosses into the box was superb - a targetman (like Henderson, for example...) would have had a field day - the number of times the ball flashed across the face of the goal was becoming frustrating. The match stats clearly show Swindon`s superiority, the Town forcing fourteen corners to Bradford`s none - unfortunately though, the ball just didn`t want to go in. Again, the stats here tell a story - of the fifteen attempts on goal we had during the game, just two were on target.\r\n\r\nThe introduction of Dean Windass caused the Town a few problems, and there was a ten minute period when Bradford again looked like they might steal a goal - firstly, Windass turned O`Hanlon on the edge of the area and he let fly with a low drive which Evans did well to save, then shortly afterwards, a cross fell to Windass again in the area, and he shot wide when he should have done better. Finally, Windass won a free-kick twenty yards from goal - and as he was shaping up to take it, it seemed obvious to everyone except the Town defence that he was about to take it quickly. He aimed his shot at the top corner, and Evans did superbly to tip the ball onto the bar. This came half an hour from the end, and it was the last flourish we saw from Bradford - the rest of the game belonged to Swindon.\r\n\r\nThe longer it went on though, the more you thought the goal wasn`t going to come - Parkin slammed a header against the bar, and I lost count of the number of times the ball dropped to the feet of a Swindon player in the box, only for the shot to be blocked, or deflected away. Then, with around ten minutes to go came the final nail in the coffin - Parkin was penalised for a foul, but obviously didn`t hear the whistle, and continued to try and tackle the Bradford defender. Unfortunately, he connected with him, and a meleé ensued - but with Parkin on the ground for most of it, it didn`t seem possible when the referee consulted his linesman that he would get sent off - but that`s exactly what happened. The challenge itself didn`t seem to warrant a straight red, and though I couldn`t clearly see what happened in the fracas, it didn`t look like Parkin was involved - I`ll be interested to see it again on TV. After the game, numerous people were talking abo