Bradford City 3 Stockport County 1

Last updated : 28 March 2005 By Footymad Previewer
Leading scorer Dean Windass came off the substitutes bench to clinch the points against rock-bottom Stockport County.

But Bantams manager Colin Todd will not be happy about the way his side struggled to punish a County outfit that had conceded 80 goals going into this fixture.

For much of the game, Bradford squandered possession with some woeful passing and their finishing was far from clinical.

Stockport, for their part, were able to put together some neat moves without really taking charge of things.

It was left to veteran striker Windass to seal the victory seven minutes after coming on as a replacement for Andy Cooke.

The ball was worked into the visitors' goalmouth where Windass swivelled to fire home his 22nd goal of the season.

It came at just the right time, for City looked to have run out of ideas going forward.

In the 76th minute County were awarded a penalty when home skipper David Wetherall was adjudged to have brought down Adam Le Fondre. Harpal Singh stepped forward to take the spot-kick but hammered it against the post.

Bradford got off to the perfect start, racing into a two-goal lead inside the first five minutes.

The first, after just 90 seconds, came from an Owen Morrison corner which was headed on by Mark Bower and the unmarked Cooke nodded home at the far post.

Morrison was unlucky not to score a minute later when his snap-shot was brilliantly palmed round the post by Hatters keeper James Spencer.

Stockport had no answer to City's quickfire moves and it was no surprise when Steven Schumacher doubled their lead in the fifth minute.

The visitors failed to clear their lines and Wetherall teed up the perfect chance for Schumacher to rifle in an 18-yard shot that flew low into the bottom corner of the net.

Things went quiet for a while, but Lee Crooks went close to making it 3-0 on the half-hour when his powerful header came back off the bar.

Bradford again took their foot off the pedal, allowing the visitors to pull one back five minutes before the interval.

A cross from the right caused confusion in the box and the ball twice hit the woodwork before Le Fondre bundled it over the line.