Parkinson counts cost as whatever can go wrong for Bradford City does in defeat at Burton (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Phil Parkinson counts cost as whatever can go wrong for Bradford City does in defeat at Burton

8:20am Monday 29th October 2012 in Sport By Simon Parker, Bradford City Reporter

Nathan Doyle confronts Burton opponent Robbie Weir as referee Andy D’Urso shows Ricky Ravenhill a red card

Phil Parkinson blasted the behaviour of two Burton players as he picked up the pieces from City’s contentious weekend loss.

Parkinson labelled midfielder Lee Bell a “cheat” for his reaction in the first-half clash which saw Ricky Ravenhill shown Bradford’s first red card of the season.

And he accused Brewers centre half Nathan Stanton of goading the away fans after the final whistle.

Central defenders Luke Oliver and Andrew Davies were injured in an afternoon to forget for City, who will be missing both players for tomorrow’s daunting Capital One Cup visit to Wigan – and there are fears that Oliver could be sidelined long term.

City’s troubles began with Ravenhill’s dismissal after Bell collapsed in a heap following their coming together. It provoked a furious response from Parkinson, who claimed: “He has cheated.

“Their manager might say it’s won them the game because we went down to ten men – but in my book, Lee Bell’s cheated.

“If there was contact, it certainly wasn’t enough to knock him down like that. But he went down as if he’d been headbutted.

“Do we tell our players to roll on the floor every time they get touched? I don’t know. But I hope he’s embarrassed when he sees it again. He deserves to be.”

Parkinson was equally annoyed with the way Stanton appeared to taunt the City end of the ground. The away fans had been giving him stick after it was claimed that he gestured at them earlier during the game.

The City chief felt Stanton should have been punished, after Nahki Wells was yellow-carded at Northampton for celebrating his goal with the fans – a booking which meant he missed Saturday’s game.

Parkinson made his feelings known to referee Andy D’Urso and the Burton safety staff about the incident.

He said: “We get Nahki booked for celebrating with our own fans and then you get an opposition player going towards our fans and inciting them.

“If that isn’t inciting people to come on to the pitch, I don’t know what is. I’m not having that because it’s unacceptable.”

Calvin Zola’s late goal, after some defensive indecision between Jon McLaughlin and Garry Thompson, consigned City to defeat.

Youngster Carl McHugh made his league debut in the second half for Davies and his central partnership with Rory McArdle will now have to face the Premier League Latics at the DW Stadium.

But Parkinson will have a late check on Gary Jones before deciding whether to risk him from the start. The skipper returned from a five-week absence to play nearly an hour from the bench on Saturday.

Parkinson said: “Ideally I was going to give him 15 minutes at the end but obviously things changed.

“But we’ve got to be careful with Gary because he’s a key player for us. I don’t want to rush him back and we’ll see how he is before making a decision about the Wigan game.”