Bradford v Scunthorpe United

Saturday, April 1, 2006

Football League One

Bradford :
Ricketts, Holloway, Wetherall, Stewart, Bower, Colbeck (Muirhead 45), Kearney (Bentham 45), Bridge-Wilkinson, Emanuel, Windass (Symes 86), Wilbraham
Subs not used:
Howarth, Brown

Scunthorpe United :
Musselwhite, Stanton, Crosby, Foster, Rose, Sparrow (Taylor 49), Baraclough (MacKenzie 75), Hinds, Beagrie, Torpey (Sharp 65), Keogh
Subs not used:
Byrne, Evans

SULSESC REPORT

by Karen Holland at Valley Parade

THIS is the fixture I have been waiting for all season, not just because it was to be my first trip to Valley Parade, but mainly because I was looking forward to tasting my first Bradford curry.

Vic and his wife Caroline kindly offered to put Neil and I up for the night to enable this to happen so it was an early start for us as we set off on Saturday morning in the direction of Hebden Bridge.

Vic had used this trip as an excuse to test-drive a number of Bradford pubs with his mate a few days earlier. So as a result of that homework we arrived at The New Beehive for midday.

We were the first people in the pub and after a short stint in three of the four rooms we settled in the sunny but silent back room. We were later joined by more of the travelling contingent but it took us a while to notice this as they were drinking in a different room for half an hour before we realised they had arrived.

By this time we had received news from Darren that he wasn’t going to make the pub as he had turned up to catch the train at the wrong Manchester station! How do we cope without him as our travel secretary?

I couldn’t drag everyone out of the pub in time for us to be able to get a seat in the upper tier, so the lower tier it was for my first visit to Valley Parade.

Unfortunately for us, today was the day that Dean Windass made his return from a five-match suspension and he marked his return with a hat-trick, the first goal of which was a curling free kick on seven minutes.

Only a few minutes later though, Sparrow was fouled in the box and Peter Beagrie stepped up to take the penalty. I was a bit nervous about this as it was a return to his beloved old club, but I need not have worried as he slotted it home. We then went into the lead through a Richard Hinds header and it stayed that way until half-time.

We started okay in the second-half but then came a mad six minutes in which Windass’ second and third sandwiched a Marc Bridge-Wilkinson goal.

The one good thing to come out of this game was the return from injury of Billy Sharp as he replaced Super Torps with 65 minutes gone. But even good old Billy couldn’t get us out of this one. No-one predicted such a tasty scoreline in the sweep and this was to be the beginning of a triple rollover.

England Under-17s’ luck was no better as they simultaneously suffered a defeat to Russia back at Glanford Park.

Never mind, next to another of Vic’s discovered pubs before we all trekked to the curry house. A bit disappointed that there were no ‘Naans on trees’ but the curry was good. Service was friendly and as I dithered over my selection the waiter gently coaxed: “Make your bloody mind up.” You definitely couldn’t complain about the price of the bill either.

All of those who had to travel now departed, leaving us to visit one more pub before retiring for a night cap in Hebden Bridge. Back down south on Sunday after a lovely cooked breakfast and following a very enjoyable weekend, despite the poor result.