West Yorkshire Round Up

Saturday’s action saw all three West Yorkshire sides suffer defeat, with Leeds United’s 5-1 humiliation at home to Bolton Wanderers grabbing all the headlines. Tuesday’s results saw a win for Bradford City, but yet another defeat for Leeds United.

The first half at Elland Road was even, with not too much to split the two sides, but Bolton’s Joe Mason scored just before the half-time whistle, to give the visitors the lead. Jay Spearing’s free kick was met by the head of Lukas Jutkiewicz on 52 minutes, and after that, the Leeds United defence crumbled. Zat Knight’s shot four minutes later put the hosts 3-0 down, and put the game beyond doubt. Mark Davies headed in on in the 72nd minute, and the rout was completed in the 89th minute when Andre Moritz scored. Matt Smith scored a consolation for the home side in injury time, but it did not detract from the fact that Leeds played poorly.

Tuesday night didn’t get any better for Leeds United, with a 4-2 defeat at home to Reading. A mistake from Tom Lees allowed Gareth McCleary to score, and a lack of Leeds fightback meant they went into half-time 1-0 down. Reading started the second half in scintillating style, with a Royston Drenthe free-kick, and a Nick Blackman header putting Reading 3-0 up, just three minutes after the half-time. Hal Robson-Kanu made it 4-0 after 54 minutes, which put the game well beyond doubt. Between Joe Mason’s goal for Bolton on Saturday, and Robson-Kanu’s half volley, Leeds United conceded 9 goals in 99 minutes, a rate of one goal conceded every eleven minutes. The home side did show some fight towards the end of the game, with Matt Smith and Rodolph Austin both scoring within the space of a minute to give the scoreline some respectability, but defeat for Leeds leaves them 13th in the Championship, with a promotion push seemingly gone now.

Huddersfield Town’s struggling away form continued with a 2-0 defeat away at struggling Doncaster Rovers. The visitors dominated early proceedings, but it was Rovers striker Billy Sharp who opened the scoring on 28 minutes. Nahki Wells and Adam Hammill spurned chances to equalise before half-time for Huddersfield, and the Terriers went in 1-0 down at the break. Things went from bad to worse after the restart, when Mark Duffy’s cross allowed David Cotterill to score in the 55th minute. Huddersfield never looked like getting back into the game, and defeat means they have now lost seven out of their last ten games, and sit 14th in the Championship table.

Bradford City went down 2-0 away at in-form Brentford, despite the loss of key players such as Andrew Davies and James Hanson. The home side dominated the first half, but Stephen Darby and the rest of the Bradford defence withstood wave after wave of opposition pressure. Despite a change in formation to go to 4-5-1, Bradford could not take control of the game, despite going in at half-time at 0-0. The second half saw more Brentford domination, which eventually led to Clayton Donaldson giving the home side the lead on 61 minutes. Brentford made it 2-0 fifteen minutes later, when George Saville poked the ball past City keeper Jon McLaughlin, and that was how the game finished, leaving the Bantams 13th in the League One table.

Tuesday night saw Bradford beat Colchester 2-0 away from home, to seal their first away win since late November. Matthew Dolan weighted a corner perfectly, and James Hanson’s bullet header put the visitors 1-0 up after 15 minutes. Hanson now has 6 goals in 9 games since the departure of Nahki Wells to Huddersfield Town, and he looks set to surpass last season’s goal tally of 15. Aaron McLean had a glorious chance to double the lead for City, but spurned his one-on-one opportunity, and is still without a goal in a Bradford shirt. After the half-time break, Kyle Bennett found the net, after winning the ball out 30 yards from goal, beating a couple of Colchester defenders, then powering a shot from an acute angle into the back of the net. Victory for the Bantams sees them lie 11th in the League One table.

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