SHREWSBURY 1 CITY 1

TWO days on and that three-letter question remains lodged in every Bradford City head.

How? Just how? How was it possible to boss a game so completely and still trail away with only a draw?

How could you dominate the corner count 17-0 and not put the afternoon out of sight?

How many chances do you need to score more than one?

And how could Ben Williams think he would be able to race out to the penalty spot and get there ahead of the melee from that late, fateful Shrewsbury free-kick?

Pushing the obvious frustration to one side, and that will be easier said than done for the 1,300 who made it across to Shropshire, the bigger picture remains rosy.

Amid the teeth-gnashing in the dressing room afterwards came the revelation that City had gained a point on the two teams immediately beneath them.

The five-point advantage on Barnsley just beneath the play-off line also stayed the same with another game ticked off.

Fanciful thoughts of catching second may have gone with Walsall’s controversial late winner but it is still an extremely healthy position to be in at this stage.

And yet.

It is not greedy or ungrateful to moan about a fifth straight win being tossed away so carelessly.

Two more points on their present tally and City’s ticket to the end-of-season madness of the play-offs would be virtually in the post.

To use an old boxing analogy, the visitors had won all 12 rounds against a Shrewsbury team that had barely laced up some gloves.

And then, with the final bell about to sound, City inexplicably dropped the guard and allowed the home side one free pop at the chin. Bang, it’s 1-1 and the mystified inquests begin.

It was not as if Shrewsbury had looked like landing a lucky haymaker. The only minor discomfort experienced up to that point came from sub Shaun Walley’s drive past the post.

That was the sum of the hosts’ efforts for 83 minutes; one shot wide.

But then Ben Williams opted for a punch of his own.

Williams won’t need the TV replays to remind him that it was an ambitious call, bordering on daft.

Chasing Mat Sadler’s hopeful free-kick as far as the penalty spot, he shouted for his centre halves to leave and virtually cleared out Nathan Clarke in the process.

But it was too far to come and Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro got there first with a regulation header that would have meant no more than a straight-forward catch had Williams stayed at home.

Instead it looped almost apologetically into the net, followed in by a despairing James Meredith.

If next week’s player-of-the-year awards included a category for most ridiculous result, this was the runaway winner.

Of course, moments when you wish the ground would swallow you up come with the territory for goalkeepers.

Williams recently said himself that he’d have opted to play another position if he had his time all over again. Errors are compounded ten-fold when you are the last line of defence.

He will be remembered this season for setting a new personal and club best for shut-outs. But inevitably, mistakes such as Saturday’s and the one early on in the campaign at Fleetwood will also pop up.

It could present a potentially tricky conundrum in the summer when his contract is up.

The figures look fantastic on his record with so few goals conceded. But there remain misgivings in some quarters.

City’s clean-sheet spree does beg the question of just how much that is down to Williams or the rock-solid back four in front of him.

Phil Parkinson, as you would expect from a manager, jumped straight to his keeper’s defence but you wonder what the club’s long-term thinking for that position will be.

That is a debate for another day. For now, it’s about clearing heads and preparing for the next battle tomorrow night at a rejuvenated Coventry.

And City will hope to see a more clinical edge to their play at the Ricoh after so obviously letting Shrewsbury off the hook.

While Williams will accept the blame for the equaliser, fingers could also be pointed at the other end and the failure to turn total territorial dominance into more goals.

Parkinson was delighted with the overall level of performance and rightly so. City pressed, they harried, they popped the ball about at a brisk tempo and generally did as they pleased.

And yet.

Seventeen corners went unrewarded – a staggering amount for an away team.

Perhaps corners are over-rated? After all, Sunderland didn’t need any to win 3-0 at Norwich in the Premier League.

And someone informed me afterwards that Chelsea had once thrashed six past Wigan in a game that didn’t feature any corners whatsoever.

But it will be a niggling concern for Parkinson to see his team dry up in an area which should be rich pickings for such a physically big team. Remember they began the season without a set-piece goal in the first two months.

The afternoon could have panned out very differently if Billy Clarke had not been flagged offside when he bundled in Kyel Reid’s cross early on.

Or if referee Andy Haines had looked more favourably on apparent penalty-area pushes on Jamie Proctor and Steve Davies – “our customary two penalty shouts” as Parkinson drily remarked.

The starring role of Shrewsbury keeper Jayson Leutwiler should not be overlooked either.

While opposite number Williams carried the can, Leutwiler made the most of his recall for the banned Mark Halstead with a string of second-half saves – culminating in one stunner to deny Proctor.

At that point you wondered if City were ever going to break through as they continued to hammer away.

But then – from corner number 15 – Josh Cullen relayed the ball back to taker Tony McMahon and Proctor snuck between two markers to steer his header inside the post.

Another 1-0 beckoned to put City potentially within four points of an automatic promotion spot.

Shot-less Shrewsbury did not look capable of mounting a response.

But then Williams had his rush of blood and the home side had boosted their survival fight with the most unexpected of points.

And none of us there to witness it still know how.

REFEREE: Andy Haines (Newcastle)

BOOKINGS: Smith (Shrewsbury); Cullen (City)

ATTENDANCE: 6,247

Shots on target: Shrewsbury 1, City 7

Shots off target: Shrewsbury 1, City 9

Corners: Shrewsbury 0, City 17

Fouls committed: Shrewsbury 13, City 13