Northampton 1, City 1

So that’s another Tuesday night in front the telly gone out of the window.

Perhaps the club shop should start running up car stickers: “We’re Bradford City, we do it three times a week.”

The two sides must meet once again for the replay in eight days’ time after a draw at Sixfields that nobody really wanted.

That fills in the rare gap to stretch City’s current run to five successive midweek matches, or nine Tuesdays in ten.

Take it right through to the Arsenal game and they will have had only two blank dates since mid-September – a run of 11 midweekers out of 13.

City will have played on 13 Tuesdays by Christmas (that’s providing they don’t need a second crack at the FA Cup second round). That’s the same number as the whole of the 2010-11 campaign and only one behind last season, which included two rearranged for the wintry weather.

The players won’t have a problem with all this activity. They would take proper competitive games over intense training sessions any day of the week.

But it’s a headache for managers, especially when the squad isn’t the biggest like City’s. That is why Phil Parkinson has drafted in Sunderland defender John Egan for the next months.

He can expect to see plenty of action as the Bantams chief willingly rotates his options to keep his squad as fresh as possible through all the constant football.

It will be a surprise to see too many, if any, unchanged line-ups. That’s not tinkering on Parkinson’s part but making full use of what is available.

Before a ball was kicked, Parkinson made it clear that his squad were all first-team ready with no passengers just filling out the numbers.

City have been a victim of their own success to a degree with the remarkable run to the last eight of the Capital One Cup – and how good does that keep sounding!

But Parkinson’s faith in those who have not been regulars in the first 11 has been backed up by the performances in the knock-out competitions.

This FA Cup opener was a case in point. Watching Andrew Davies and Luke Oliver shut down Adebayo Akinfenwa a fortnight ago, who could possibly have imagined City would return to Northampton 11 days on with a central-defensive pairing of Nathan Doyle and Carl McHugh?

And yet while the Cobblers had the clear edge in physicality, you could hardly see the join in the visiting back four. Once again the City back door stood firm against the Northampton battering ram.

It was a very different side all-round that returned to Sixfields. Parkinson caught everyone on the hop – including opposite number Aidy Boothroyd – with the personnel and formation.

James Hanson and Northampton’s nemesis Nahki Wells were given a breather on the bench as City started Garry Thompson and Alan Connell as the attacking tandem.

The midfield was shorn of all wingers. Instead, Parkinson dusted off the diamond with Gary Jones at the front tip and Scott Brown sitting behind Will Atkinson and Ritchie Jones.

It worked a treat, certainly for the first half when the hosts were bamboozled as to who to mark and where.

Brown is huge for an eighteen-year-old – a beast, as Archie Christie described him when he first arrived from Scotland.

But little had been seen of this supposed wonder kid since Parkinson took over. He saw no need to rush Brown through, dropping him back to the youth team to learn his craft without any spotlight.

So by the time he was finally unleashed for senior action, the teenager looked like he had been out there for years. It was a debut of remarkable maturity and he can be sure of more calls to arms.

At the other end of the scale, Matt Duke handed Parkinson a goalkeeping dilemma with a performance just as assured as his heroics at the DW Stadium.

From the moment he plunged low to save Akinfenwa’s header, Duke delivered a faultless display highlighted by two excellent blocks from Louis Moult.

The one-time City loanee looked far sharper than he had ever done in his spell at Valley Parade and he eventually got his reward for persistence by outjumping McHugh to convert Northampton’s equaliser.

But Duke could not be blamed for that as he more than fulfilled his end of the bargain, especially with one reflex stop with his left hand midway through the first half when Moult’s downward header looked destined for the net.

The centre of the pitch was no place for the faint-hearted, with three effectively facing four in a packed midfield. But with the nous of Connell and Gary Jones, City still managed to pick their way through and find little holes to exploit.

Ritchie Jones, just as eager to impress, looked bright and was denied a clear run on goal by Joe Widdowson’s pace after Connell’s clever reverse pass slipped him away.

Then Thompson took too long to cross from a promising counter-attack as Jones made 50 yards to prime himself for a tap-in.

But City deservedly took the lead after 32 minutes through Will Atkinson, another who is really coming into his own.

Gary Jones swept a pass out to Connell, who did not even look up as he laid the perfect cut-back into the midfielder’s path. The finish was equally as precise, sweeping the ball low into the far bottom corner.

Northampton upped the ante with the change of shape at the break and Moult seemed to embark on a one-man crusade against his former club.

Duke spectacularly tipped over one header and though the offside flag was up, neither of them knew it at the time.

Northampton thought they had bundled the ball over from a corner but a goal-kick was given instead. But the increased pressure paid off just after the hour with Moult’s second score in successive games.

With neither side keen on the extra fixture, both pushed on for a winner. Duke saved from Akinfenwa, while Northampton keeper Shane Higgs watched helplessly as Connell’s deflected effort wrong-footed him but crept wide by inches.

Hanson and Wells were thrown into the fray – and City’s top scorer looked set to add to his bundle of goals on this happiest of hunting grounds.

Latching on to a pass from Gary Jones, Wells was goal-side of right back Danny East bursting into the box when the defender slid in from behind to get a toe on the ball.

East may have got contact but he clearly took the man first – but referee Geoff Eltringham gave nothing to the fury of Parkinson on the touchline.

So we’ll have to do it again next week to complete the Northampton trilogy. But even allowing for the frustration from the late non-call, City’s boss had plenty to smile about.

Parkinson said: “We knew that Northampton were the worst team to play with the back four we had out. But we had a good footballing side out there.

“The change of system gave them something to think about and it worked great. Gary Jones was different class and Thommo and Alan Connell were excellent in front of him.

“They changed to 4-4-2 for the second half and I was just going to do that when they scored. But it was a performance that I was really pleased with and you couldn’t ask for more.”

Attendance: 2,512