Bradford City 5 AFC Wimbledon 1
A stunning first half performance was enough to crush helpless opponents AFC Wimbledon, as The Bantams powered their way through the game, sealing a 5-1 victory taking them up to 4th in the League 2 table.
The game started off horrendously for Wimbledon, when in the 3rd minute of play Nahki Wells capitalised on poor defending , by nipping through, rounding keeper Seb Brown and firing into the empty goal.
Wimbledon were not responding very well, and City continued to threaten going forward, and they grabbed a second thanks to an own goal from debutant Curtis Haynes-Brown; Kyel Reid and James Meredith linked up well down the left flank and Meredith's resulting low cross was turned in by the slide of Haynes-Brown.
City continued to work further chances through Wells in particular, as Balkestein and Mitchel-King struggled to keep shackles on the lively striker.
An awful error from the Wimbledon defence gifts City a 3rd in the 31st minute through the unlikely source of Andrew Davies. Davies floats in a free kick from his own half, the Wimbledon defence fail to communicate, with Brown going for the punched clearance; Brown completely misses the ball and Davies' freekick finds the unguarded goal.
Wimbledon react well this time from conceding, and 5 minutes later, pull a goal back. Poor City marking from a Louis Harris freekick allows Byron Harrison to thump a header past the helpless Matt Duke.
The Bantams react even better to conceding, and around 60 seconds after Harrison's goal, McArdle bundles home a Hanson knock down for his first goal in City colours. This goal comes from a Gary Jones corner, after good work from Zavon Hines.
Wimbledon almost pull another goal back shortly after, but Duke and the City back line do well to twice deny Christian Jolley.
On the stroke of half time, James Hanson glances past Seb Brown, to send the teams into the break with the scoreboard reading a extraordinary 5-1 scorline in favour of The Bantams
The second half had a much lower tempo than the first and it was more a case of City running the game down, and stopping Wimbledon attempts to get near Duke's goal.
City wasted a few chances to make the score line even more emphatic with Kyel Reid in particular carving Wimbledon open, yet failing to sternly test the nervous looking Seb Brown in the Wimbledon goal.
AFC Wimbledon had slightly improved in the 2nd half, but still looked some way off the required pace needed to properly challenge their opponents.
The most notable occurrence of the 2nd half was probably Yeovil Town loanee Curtis Haynes-Brown having to be stretchered off the field after receiving treatment for what appeared to be a head injury or a bad landing.This lead to 11 minutes of additional time at the end of the 90.