BRADFORD CITY AFC

Fresh from completing his permanent move to the Northern Commercials Stadium last week, Daniel Pybus started in central midfielder for the Bantams against Morecambe.

Professionals James King and Jacob Hanson also featured for City at the Globe Arena.

Despite a tricky playing surface, City controlled proceedings for the most part in the opening half, but they still found themselves a goal down after an early Morecambe strike.

Luke Jordan's cross into the box picked out Mergim in space and attacker neatly fired home into the far bottom corner to give the hosts a ninth-minute lead.

City responded with efforts on goal from Pybus and Kwame Boateng later in the half but both strikes were repelled.

With the Bantams still looking stronger as the interval approached, Niah Payne and Mohamed Saeed fired wide of the target with efforts from just inside the bo

Aided by four half-time substitutions, allowed under Central League rules, Morecambe ensured the flow of second half looked more balanced.

One of those interval introductions, Steven Yawson, fired narrowly wide with an angled drive roughly ten minutes after the restart before the hosts doubled their advantage just past the hour mark.

The goal came about in slightly fortuitous circumstances, however. King came across to prevent Hawley from latching onto Mergim's pass but the defender's attempted tackle actually saw the ball bounce off the Morecambe striker and into the far corner.

A searching run from Curtis Peters just minutes later threatened to pull a goal back for City but neither he nor Pybus could scramble the ball in from close range.

At the other end, Yawson, who looked bright following his appearance from the bench, saw a looping header from a cross into the Bantams' box ping off the top of George Sykes-Kenworthy's crossbar.

After replacing Boateng with Tom Windle earlier in the half, City used the final quarter of the match as an opportunity to give fellow apprentices Reece Powell and Sam Wright some game-time off the bench.