Bradford City A Team made a perfect start to their crucial away game at Lepton Highlanders taking a two goal lead within the first five minutes. In a game where victory would secure the West Riding County Premier League City imposed themselves from the start. Lepton kicked off but City were soon in possession when Laura Gadd won the ball and found Neely Murrell  who passed it to Melanie Garside who knocked it on to Claire Fawcett whose shot was blocked. Claire Popplewell pounced on the loose ball and found the back of the net from a narrow angle. Excellent football from City rewarded by an opening goal in only 22 seconds. Popplewell who had failed to score in our last competitive game against Pontefract, ending a run of scoring in 6 consecutive games, was wasting no time getting her name back on the score sheet.

 

City showed their class in the opening minutes dominating proceedings. Murrell picked up the ball in midfield and chipped it over the defence for Garside to race onto and calmly slot the ball past  the keeper into the back of the net. 2-0 to City with only four minutes gone. The pitch at Lepton has a difficult slope from side to side, but Bradford adapted very well and continued to dominate for the first 25 minutes. The rest of the half was a little more ragged but it was City who looked the most likely to score and the teams went in at halftime with the Bradford side 2 to the good.

 

  

Hannah Wardman, our very own Action Woman was again having an excellent game in the centre of defence. A typically brave, hard but fair, tackle resulted in a lengthy stoppage as she and the Lepton forward needed treatment. Lepton exerted some pressure but the Bradford goal was rarely threatened and the away side continued to look the more likely to score. On the hour mark Garside found herself one on one with the keeper but her shot was saved outside the area. The referee had no choice under the rules of the game and sent the keeper off. Murrell, who was having an excellent game, took the free kick and brilliantly curved it into the top left hand corner of the net..

 

A brave 10 woman Lepton kept battling away but City were now in control of the game and should have added to their score. The three subs, Erin Rosenberg, Jayne Barber and Emmie Kinnear all made appearances and showed the depth of the City squad all making good contributions. The final whistle went to be greeted by a huge roar from the City contingent and some emotional scenes of celebration. The title won with their 100% record still intact. It has been a squad effort and credit goes to the whole team not only the 14 that played today. One of those players was Olivia Duxbury who had a suspected burst appendix. Reports are that thankfully it was not quite as bad as that but she was very poorly with a bad viral infection. We all wish her a speedy recovery. Also unavailable was Lou Lindley who injured herself in training and watched the match on crutches. Hope you are soon back with us Lou.

City’s attentions now turn to the Cup where they meet  an ever improving Bradford Park Avenue in the semi final’s on Sunday at Rawdon Meadows.

10th February 2008

 

Kirklees Ladies FC                     2-3            Bradford City 'A' Team (L)

 

Dawn ‘Barbie’ McMahon (26)                       Kelly Brown (15)

Emma Fawcett (88)                                         Claire Popplewell (22)

                                                                     Melanie Garside (85)

 

On a beautiful spring like day City travelled to Kirklees hoping to maintain their impressive run and strong push for the Premiership title. As the players gathered it became apparent that the kit plus Nicky Davies hadn’t arrived and soon the ever reliable Claire Popplewell was on the phone. Feeling like we were in an episode of Last of the Summer wine it transpired that Nicky had brought ‘tea making facilities’ but had no milk and was scouring West Yorkshire for a drop of the white stuff. I had visions of a lone figure on a motor bike armed only with a large bucket scooting up the hills of Yorkshire in the search for cattle. Five minutes later the kit arrived and we relaxed a little.

 

With call ups to the first team for Jess Pearson and Erin Rosenberg,  several absences through injuries etc. and three of our players still kangaroo racing down under, the starting line up had five different players from last week’s starting line-up. We were pleased to welcome Jess Gibbons from the first team, Kim Kaye, Melanie Cropp, Neely Murrell and debutant Kelly Brown to the starting eleven. On the bench alongside Jayne Barber and Sarah Welsh it was good to see ex City player Melanie Garside back in the fold.

 

The game started brightly with both teams contributing to the action and City began to settle after about the ten minute mark and began to get  a grip on the game. In the 15^th minute a well placed free kick from Nicky Davies was cleverly steered into the net by Kelly Brown. It was a great way to start her A team career and followed the promising start she had made to the game.

 

Kirklees responded almost immediately and had a good chance for an immediate reply but failed to take their chance. Jess Gibbons playing at right back was keen to go forward at every opportunity and in the 18^th minute a powerful run ended with a good pass to Pops who narrowly fired over the bar. City began to get on top again and in the 20^th minute a Neely Murrell shot was blocked and the rebound was picked up by Emmie Kinnear. Her  excellent shot looked a certain goal until the Kirklees keeper made a great  save.

 

Kim Kaye, who was playing on the right wing,  was linking well with Gibbons and covering when required. Kaye won the ball in defence and then made an excellent run to the other end of the field where a good pass found Pops (who simply refuses to be left off the score sheet) and the ball found the back of the net with an excellent shot. No doubt Steve thought it was too near the keeper but Aidan didn’t care. As long as it goes in it’s good enough for him!

 

That made it 2-0 to City  but the home team were detemined not to let Bradford have it all their own way and had a good spell of pressure which resulted in a corner. It was excellently delivered from the left and was met confidently by Dawn ‘Barbie’ McMahon to narrow the score to 2-1. The goal seemed to knock City out of their stride and it was a very even contest until halftime, but with no further goals it remained 2-1 to City.

 

There were no changes made at halftime and the game remained quite even but with City looking the more likely to score. In the 58^th minute a scramble in the City area resulted in keeper Stephanie Barraclough lying on the edge of the six yard box following a kick to the head. After a couple of minutes treatment from Steve she seemed bright enough. She answered a couple of the usual questions (how many fingers etc) and when asked who was the best team in the world she answered Bradford City WFC A Team. Even Burnley fan Aidan couldn’t argue with that. However with in a minute she suffered some more reaction to the blow and it was clear that she was not right. Luckily for City Kim Kaye is an experienced keeper and she went in nets with Jayne Barber replacing Kaye on the right.

 

Five minutes later in the 65^th minute City made another change with Melanie Garside replacing the tiring Brown. It was Kelly’s first game for 3 months but she had to be pleased with her performance which showed plenty of promise.

 

City were creating the better of the chances with Kinnear playing behind the front two of Murrell and Garside, and ably supported by the midfield Bradford created some good chances. However with the closeness of the game they showed signs of nerves at times and they looked to have sealed the game when a mistake in the Kirklees defence was seized on by Garside to fire home into the top left corner and make it 3-1 to City.

 

A brave Kirklees were having none of it and pushed forward looking to get back in the game. With only two minutes left a clearance in the City defence hit another defender and Emma Fawcett made the most of the opportunity to make it 3-2 . It was a nervous end to thee game but Ci