at the Horsfall Stadium
Kick Off: 7.30pm
Bradford City XI 3 (Campion 45, 45 +1, 59)
Bradford (Park Avenue) 0
Tom Banks Memorial Trophy pre-season fixture
Tuesday 29 July 2014
Pictures kindly provided by Gary Chadwick
An experimental Bradford City XI side retained the Tom Banks Memorial Trophy this Tuesday evening with a straight-forward victory over near neighbours Bradford (Park Avenue).
Two strikes just before the interval from trialist striker Achille Campion put City in command at the break before the forward completed his hat-trick after the restart to seal the win.
James Meredith, Jason Kennedy and Lewis Clarkson all began at Horsfall Stadium but the rest of City’s team against Avenue was made up of trialists.
While Meredith and Kennedy played until after three-quarters distance, Clarkson could only last the first twenty minutes after appearing to go off with a hamstring problem.
Fresh from their involvement in the second half of Saturday’s goalless draw with Blackburn Rovers, goalkeeper Matt Urwin, centre half Christopher Routis and winger Mo Shariff all started against Avenue.
Richard Bryan, who had already featured for the Bantams against Guiseley and Ossett Town this pre-season, partnered Routis in central defence.
Along with Campion, other trialists in City’s line-up included right back Luke Coulson and central midfielder Craig Roddan.
Reggie Lambe – another City trialist who played in the recent friendly at Ossett – started on the left wing.
Attacker Danny Galbraith came off the bench to replace the injured Clarkson, meaning the Bantams ended up fielding as many as nine trialists in total on the night.
Former City trio Chib Chilaka, Joe Colbeck and Scott Kerr played in the match for Avenue.
City’s first clear opening of the night came less than twenty minutes in when Campion was played in behind Avenue’s back-line.
Campion’s powerful rising strike beat the dive of Avenue ‘keeper John Maxsted but also rattled back against the crossbar.
Just a couple of minutes later, however, Avenue hit the woodwork themselves when Nathan Hotte played Brad Barraclough into clear shooting space inside City’s area.
Barraclough tried to bend his shot into the far bottom corner but Urwin got the slightest of touches on the ball to touch it onto the far post.
Following Campion’s near miss, the Bantams also went close to opening the scoring just before the half hour mark when the striker’s blocked header from a Shariff corner fell invitingly into the path of Routis.
The French defender was positioned only a few yards from the middle of Avenue’s goal but he seemed to snatch at the ball and managed only to drag his left-footed drive past the post.
The Bantams took the lead of the match on the very stroke of half time when Lambe’s ball across the six yard box was met by Campion, who converted past Maxsted from close range.
Amazingly, there was still time in the half for Campion and City to double their tally for the evening around a minute later in first half injury time.
The French striker stooped to connect with Galbraith’s cross into the area to power a header from around ten yards out into the far corner past Maxsted’s dive.
Shortly after Shariff had forced a smart save from Maxsted with a close range shot, Campion claimed his hat-trick with a second half strike.
Galbraith’s through ball found Campion in behind Avenue’s defence and the forward netted his third of the evening when he slotted home low past the shot-stopper a minute before the hour.
City actually finished the game with ten men when Meredith left the pitch with just over twelve minutes to go.
With City having used all three substitutions and their bench options for game limited pre-match by the youth team’s current tour of Holland, Meredith left the pitch with no replacement coming on for him.
There appeared to be no injury issue for City’s Australian left back, more simply a case of the Bantams coaching staff looking to manage his match minutes ahead of the new season.
CITY XI
1. Matt Urwin
2. Luke Coulson
3. James Meredith
4. Craig Roddan
5. Richard Bryan
6. Christopher Routis
7. Mo Shariff
8. Jason Kennedy
9. Achille Campion
11. Reggie Lambe
14. Lewis Clarkson
Subs:
15. Danny Galbraith for Clarkson (20)
16. Giovanni Landu for Shariff (68)
23. Niall Heaton for Kennedy (78)