Ward on warpath

As Dibble held the ball in one hand preparing to clear upfield, Nottingham Forest winger Gary Crosby headed it from his grasp and then shot into the empty net. To the keeper's astonishment, the goal was allowed to stand.

Ward, a City apprentice at the time, can still remember the incident. But his attempt to repeat Crosby's smart-Alec effort on Saturday was ruled out by an officious referee.

And, instead of a goal, the Bradford City hitman got a yellow card for his trouble.

With the score at 2-2 and tensions running high, Ward caught Nicky Weaver napping as the goalkeeper tossed the ball in the air.

The striker nicked the ball away, only to be wrestled to the ground when the panicking Weaver threw both arms around Ward.

Surely it was a sending-off offence and a penalty? Instead official Steve Dunn, who was running upfield away from the incident at the time, enraged Valley Parade by booking Ward for ungentlemanly conduct.

Ward said: "When the ball is in the air, surely it's logical that nobody has possession of it? I heard the whistle and thought the ref had given a penalty, but he booked me, presumably for getting my neck in the way of Nicky Weaver's fists!

"There might be some hard and fast rule that you can't challenge keepers when they are kicking the ball, but it's been done before. On another day he might have given a penalty for the challenge.

"We've not had a penalty all season and when you look at some of the decisions against Man City, we're never going to get one."

Weaver didn't try to hide his guilt. "I threw the ball in the air and he got in to take it off me, but there was no way I was going to let him go past so I hung on."

And even Match of the Day, giving the Bantams a decent showing for a change, were on Ward's side, although pundit Alan Hansen felt Joe Royle's men deserved the break.

But what about City - how many times have they got the rub of the green this season?

Ward was entitled to be in seventh heaven after finally breaking his seven-month Premiership goal duck when he jabbed home from close range ten minutes in the second half.

But, as well as the Weaver submission hold, he could also point to a push from Richard Dunne and a blatant shirt pull by Danny Granville inside the visitors' six-yard box.

And big Dutchman Robert Molenaar was fuming that Shaun Goater's equaliser was allowed to stand after the City centre half was tugged back in the build-up.

The two-point difference between a win and draw may be academic considering City's near-hopeless position, but they fully deserved the victory that one of those coin-toss decisions would have clinched.

There is an air of uncertainty in the dressing-room with the mass changes going on. But the side Jim Jefferies sent into battle on Saturday - given extra panache by an impressive return to action from Gareth Whalley - gave it a pretty good go.

Jefferies said: "Nobody can complain about the way the players performed and it showed we won't give in. We stopped the rot of bad results, scored a couple and could have had more.

"A lot of decisions didn't go our way and if we had got our share of them, things would have been different. But we played with a lot of spirit and will."

Manchester City drew first blood when nobody reacted to Steve Howey's back-post flick, allowing Gerard Wiekens time to drill home from close in. And Ward blew City's best chance in a dire first half when he fired straight at Weaver's legs when through on goal.

Jefferies said: "I tried to give him a bit of praise at half-time. I told him that while he should have scored, nobody could argue with the way he was working and battling.

"And second half he did exactly the same and got the reward of a goal which we're all really pleased about. We had the right man up there to hold the ball and fight our corner and I thought Ashley was outstanding."

A sign of City's gung-ho approach was their eight shots on target - more than any other team in the Premiership on the day.

As Eoin Jess and Robbie Blake took a grip at the start of the second half, City were transformed and it was no surprise when Blake, subject of a recent £400,000 inquiry from Burnley, threaded a precise shot inside Weaver's right-hand post.

Then Whalley's shot was palmed out by the keeper, Beni Carbone was thwarted with the rebound and the ball ran loose for Ward to end 211 days of waiting by ramming it into the Kop net.

Goater spoiled the party with a 70th-minute leveller and the game finished in a chorus of boos - but this time it was for the referee and certainly not the home side.

City players Gary Locke and Gareth Whalley are pictured celebrating with scorer Robbie Blake after the equaliser.