Match Report:
Bradford City 0
Rotherham United 3 (Yates 17, Clarke-Harris pen 31, Towell 45)
Tuesday 7th November 2017 | Checkatrade Trophy | Northern Commercials Stadium
The Bantams were brushed aside in their final Checkatrade Trophy against a Rotherham United side looking to bounce back from an FA Cup first round exit at the hands of Crewe Alexandra last weekend. First half goals from Jerry Yates, Jonson Clarke-Harris and Richie Towell proved enough to give the South Yorkshire club a comfortable victory.
Daniel Devine was deputising at right back with Luke Hendrie and Tony McMahon left out of the squad for this one and after he surrendered possesion, Yates fed the ball to Clarke-Harris and he was denied by Rouven Sattelmaier.
Yates gave the Millers the lead just after the quarter-hour mark when he took control of a low Clarke-Harris centre before keeping his cool and slotting the ball past Sattelmaier who made his first appearance since injuring himself in the competition opener at Chesterfield in late August.
Jordan Gibson was probably City's best player on a difficult evening and he conjured up some brilliant close control to engineer an opportunity for himself, only to be denied by Lewis Price in United's goal.
Shortly afterwards, Paul Warne's side doubled their lead from the penalty spot. Devine brought Clarke-Harris to ground in the box and the imposing forward stepped up to convincingly stick the penalty away and send his side on the way to victory.
On the stroke of half-time, a third goal was added to the visitors' tally as Richie Towell, a regular in the first team, drilled a low shot into the bottom corner from just outside the box to leave the Bantams with a mountain to climb in the second half.
Jon Taylor came a matter of inches away from adding a fourth less than sixty seconds into the second period and the second half panned how the visitors would have wanted it, virtually non-eventuful.
There was one landmark event though with 15 minutes or so left on the clock as Reece Staunton, a 15 year-old born in December 2001 came off the bench to become the youngester player ever to represent Bradford City in a first team fixture. The defender, who has already agreed professional terms, wasn't even born when the Bantams were a Premier League club.
Jake Maltby was also brought on late on from the bench; he's a first year scholar midfielder who is yet to celebrate his 17th birthday and the best player in claret and amber and slightly older than Maltby, Jordan Gibson almost got a consolation goal that his performance probably deserved but he saw a shot whilst just wide of the post in the final minute of the game.
Bradford City: Sattelmaier, Devine, Thompson, Laird, Robinson, Patrick (Hudson 64), Pybus, Dieng (c) (Maltby 82), Gibson, McCartan, Poleon (Staunton 74)
Unused Subs: Raeder, Hefele, Powell, Kirkpatrick
Rotherham United: Price, Emmanuel, Onariase, Mattock (c), Hinds, Forde (McGinley 81), Towell, Wiles, Taylor (Bray 62), Yates, Clarke-Harris (Kayode 74)
Unused Subs: O'Donnell, Ajayi, Warren, Francis