Farsley Celtic 1

Bradford City 8

"And the scorer for Bradford City again is Dean Windass".

The public announcer must have been on auto-pilot as Deano filled his boots at Throstle Nest.

A hat-trick within the first 18 minutes, five by half-time and a couple of near-misses as well. No wonder Windass jokingly shouted "who's the daddy" at his son in the crowd after yet another goal.

He is not going to encounter any defences quite as obliging as the UniBond outfit come the kick-off of League One at Hartlepool on August 7. But as confidence-boosters go, Saturday will have done him no harm whatsoever.

Windass, looking leaner and meaner since coming back, has hit the ground running. It will be vital for Colin Todd that he stays that way over the coming months.

As with the romp at Harrogate eight days before, Todd will not have learned too much from this glorified training session. But the City fans who had made the short trip "across the border" will have been encouraged again by the flickering of a decent strike partnership.

Windass may have grabbed the glory - and driven the PA man hoarse - but young partner Michael Symes again showed enough to suggest that he could be worth a punt.

The Everton rookie, whose only league experience was a month's loan at Crewe last season, linked up promisingly and was confident enough to take on defenders and have a go himself.

"He's a young kid learning the game but I think he's got a great chance," said Windass. "Colin and Bobby (Davison) are trying to teach him a few things and he's raw but Michael knows where the goal is.

"If he does get a contract then I definitely think he can help up front with me or whoever else Colin wants to bring in."

After a couple of weeks working with the squad, Todd was today planning to make decisions on the five trialists. Symes and midfielders Lee Crooks and Steve Schumacher seem to have done enough to warrant a longer run.

They all played in the first half when Todd fielded his strongest possible line-up and ripped the home side apart. Former Bantam Lee Sinnott, now in charge of the non-leaguers, had joked before the game about needing a joiner to seal up Tom Morgan's goal - he was not wrong.

It took only five minutes for Windass to deliver the first blow thanks to a large helping hand from the Farsley defence. The cross from Wayne Jacobs should have been comfortably dealt with by City old boy Graham Mitchell but he got in a mess with left back Lee Grimes and the ball ran straight through to the grateful striker.

Mark Bower smacked a long-range header against the underside of the bar from Lewis Emanuel's corner before City doubled their lead thanks to some excellent tackling back by Symes. He regained possession five yards inside the Farsley half and set off forcefully towards goal, unselfishly teeing up Windass to drill home from 12 yards.

Windass saw another effort ruled out for offside before the hat-trick arrived with the game still not 20 minutes old.

Farsley's back four were again all over the place as the City strike duo lurked ready to pounce and Windass had all the time in the world to clinch his first treble since last pre-season against Coleraine in the centenary tournament.

He should have had another when Symes intercepted a loose pass from Lee Beeton to set him up again on the edge of the box. But Windass for once tried to be too clever and went for the chip which beat Morgan and the crossbar and nestled on top of the net.

But he knew, like buses, another chance would come along in a minute. And on the half-hour Jacobs whipped in another cross which Windass controlled neatly before picking his spot in the bottom corner.

Symes was impressing again with his ability to twist and turn markers and he won the penalty which gave Windass his nap hand. Crooks found the youngster with a precise angled pass into the box and Jon Dyson took his ankles allowing Windass to send Morgan the wrong way from the spot.

Symes set up Schumacher for another good effort before the frontman signed off the first-half carnage with a goal his performance had thoroughly deserved. Morgan should have held Nicky Summerbee's low drive at his near post but the keeper allowed the ball to dribble free and Symes gleefully rammed it in on the door step.

Todd started to shuffle his pack with four changes at the interval. But Symes stayed on and was only denied a second by an excellent save from Morgan who tipped a fizzer on to the bar two minutes into the second half.

Matty Smithard, Farsley's liveliest player, shot over at the other end before Todd replaced Windass with Kevin Sanasy. The former Farsley striker had only been on his old hunting ground for three minutes when he carried on where Windass had left off, finishing a slide-rule one-two with Symes despite the despairing efforts of Rudi Coleano on the line.

As the City team evolved into the reserves, Tom Kearney, still looking for his first City goal, crashed a 30-yard screamer against the woodwork.

Then left winger Liam Flynn rounded off the City salvo with a close-range finish.

Keeper Kieran Westwood was finally called into action in the Bantams goal with a tidy save from Chris Howarth.

But he had no chance with the deflection off the wall from Roy Stammer's free-kick in the last minute which earned South American-style "goaaallll" celebrations from our friend on the mike. At least it made a change from name-checking Windass.

FARSLEY: Morgan, Coleano, Grimes (Annan 46), Beeton (Howarth 46), Mitchell, Dyson, Smithard (Zoll 63), Iqbal, Bernard (Bradley 74), Knowles (Cribbin 79), Stammer.

CITY: Westwood, Atherton (Swift 46), Jacobs (Richardson 46), Crooks (Penford 59), Wetherall (Bentham 59), Bower, Summerbee (Muirhead 46), Schumacher (Kearney 46), Symes (Jones 59), Windass (Sanasy 54), Emanuel (Flynn 60).