Manchester United Res 1, Bradford City Res 1: A last-minute equaliser, a winner disallowed in injury time, international strikers and a hard-fought point against Manchester United, this game had everything - except Robert Molenaar.

The defender, expected to play in the reserve fixture, dropped out at the last minute with a recurrence of his rib injury, leaving kids, trialists and Juanjo to battle it against the David Beckhams of tomorrow.

And they did enough to earn a creditable 1-1 draw with commitment and hard work on a sand pit of a pitch against nearly £20m of striking talent.

"It was a tough game," said reserve team boss Mark Prudhoe.

"But it was an excellent performance and we showed all the commitment and right attitude to come away with something. There were some good performance, Mark Bower is my man of the match, but the whole team deserve praise."

Assistant Manager Ian Banks said Molenaar was dropped after again feeling pain in his ribs and it wasn't worth risking him.

"We have managed without him for eight weeks, we will have to manage another two," he said.

The majority of the first-half was spent watching shooting practice with Diego Forlan and Dwight Yorke taking turns testing the resilience of Jon Worsnop and the Gigg Lane crossbar.

Juanjo was City's main highlight despite playing out of position with new team-mates and youngsters.

And it turned out to be a Theatre of Nightmares for trialists Tony Lennon and David Colvin who struggled but still City held out to reach a goalless half-time.

Things were better for the third temporary player, Jean Philippe Javary, who again put in a good performance and it was his hard work that often prevented United's talented midfield from finding the rhythm needed to breakdown the steadfast Bradford defence.

But South African international Quinton Fortune did finally break City down in the 57th minute, when he ran from the halfway line and coolly passed the ball to the impressive Forlan who slotted home from three yards out.

This was to be the Uruguayan's last touch of the ball as he was substituted soon after having suffered a knock to the ankle.

Then amazingly right on the final whistle City equalised when a soft header from the sprightly Juanjo took a deflection and looped past a helpless Roy Carroll.

United had a goal ruled out for offside deep into injury time, leaving Bradford to claim a point to add to the three from the Leeds game two weeks before.

Manchester United: Carroll, Roche, Pugh, O'Shea, Tierney, Fortune, Davis, Stewart, Forlan, Yorke, Djordjic.

Subs: McDermott, Williams B, Webber, Rankin, Williams M.

Bradford City: Worsnop, Brodie, Emanuel, Lennon, Bower, Colvin, Javery, Grant, Juanjo, Jorgensen, Sanasy.

Subs: Bentham, Prudhoe, Swift, Penford, Flynn.