BURTON RES 5 CITY RES 0

THERE was no sign of Sam Allardyce at England’s training HQ.

Instead it was a forward capped once by Slovenia who was the main point of interest for City’s trip to the grand lands of St George’s Park.

It has been a long wait to see Haris Vuckic in a Bantams kit – a trial three years ago under Phil Parkinson and numerous links since have come to nothing.

While the scoreline at the National Football Centre will have stung, all the goals coming after the break, Vuckic played the first full game of his loan.

He didn’t see much of the ball but looked in good shape and ready for to be called upon at Gillingham.

Filipe Morais also got another 90 minutes under his belt and produced the first shot of note with a free-kick whistling past the post after Damien McCrory had pulled back Webb-Foster.

McCrory, who would have seen red for the foul in a league game, was one of the experienced faces in the Burton side.

Striker Stuart Beavon was another and he forced a good reaction save from Rouvens Sattelmaier with his flick from a Marcus Harness cross.

Webb-Foster showed his willingness to try a shot from anywhere with an audacious 35-yard chip that wasn’t too far away. It was certainly closer than Beavon’s wild drive at the end of a tight first half.

Matt Kilgallon was the only experienced head in a back four that included James King for the first time after recovering from his knee injury.

Kilgallon, who captained the side, looked in cruise control with everything he dealt with – and demonstrated to the watching Stuart McCall that he is also ready for the first-team fray.

There was no indication at half-time what was to follow.

But the signs were there within three minutes of the restart as Joe Sbarra’s drive from just outside the box squirmed through Sattlemaier at the near post.

The little Burton midfielder soon had a second as he tapped in from close range after good work from Harness.

City had gone sloppy in the second half and Kilgallon’s sliding block denied Beavon another goal before the striker clipped the outside of the post from another cross by the confident Harness.

But it was becoming one-way traffic and Beavon picked up a loose ball to slide Marcus Dinanga through to roll in the third.

As Europop blasted from a corporate event behind the pitch, City’s performance had gone completely off tune.

Sbarra's reverse pass set up sub Dylan Garnett to thrash a fourth before a rash lunge from City replacement Omed Gardezi allowed Sbarra the chance to clinch his hat-trick from the spot.

CITY RES: Sattelmaier, Windle, King (Warren 52), Kilgallon, Wright, Morais, Boateng (Gardezi 85), Payne (Rabiega 67), Hudson, Webb-Foster, Vuckic.