CITY 2 SHREWSBURY 0

STUART McCall was a 19-year-old midfield pup in the last City side to go this long without defeat.

Add the three final league wins under Phil Parkinson to this current record unbeaten start and it’s now 15 games since the Bantams were beaten in mid-April.

It is the best run for 32 years since Trevor Cherry’s team went 17 without a loss between November 1983 and March 1984.

That charge eventually ended at Scunthorpe, the one side who sit above City right now, although the gap has been chopped to a single point.

McCall will continue to ignore the league table – he is quite happy to keep his side under the radar and avoid the spotlight that on-going success will inevitably attract.

But he can understand the pride within the dressing room at protecting an unbeaten tag which only League Two high-fliers Carlisle – and Tottenham from half the number of games in the Premier League – can match.

McCall could hear the excited chatter at half-time on Saturday after they had gone in a goal to the good.

“We don’t speak at being unbeaten as a staff and certainly don’t talk about it to the players,” he said.

“But you do sense that feeling. You can hear them. They were all saying ‘let’s not concede’. They knew if you kept a clean sheet, you’d win the game.

“There is a sense of that pride between the lads, not just those starting but throughout the club. Whoever gets the opportunity wants to do their best for the team and try to keep this unbeaten run going.

“We couldn’t have imagined the start we’d have with all the new things – new staff, new players and the changes for them. It’s been a big upheaval.

“Everything comes to an end soon but we’ll enjoy it while we can. The players deserve great credit for what they are achieving at the moment.”

City have got such an air of invincibility about them that you almost start getting picky about the points.

This was no vintage victory; the Bantams were very good in parts and bossed it up to the break but scrappiness crept in through an occasionally twitchy second half.

Not that Shrewsbury were good enough to take advantage of any apparent nerves within the home ranks.

Maybe Colin Doyle couldn’t have gone off again after three minutes as he did in City’s two fingers to the Checkatrade Trophy in midweek but he barely had to muster a save.

Goalkeeping coach Danny Coyne was happy that his side gave it a go under his temporary touchline leadership. But it was a toothless response; the most anxious moment coming from the let-off when the ball struck Stephen Darby’s hand in the penalty area.

Still there was an anxious air around the place for a while. Memories were no doubt still fresh of the last encounter at Shrewsbury when a late blunder from Ben Williams blew two points on a day when City had dominated 19-0 on the corner count.

Three days after that, the Bantams went down to a wonder goal at Coventry – their last league loss under Parkinson. And McCall combined…

For all City’s efforts to play down the form book, Shrewsbury’s visit was therefore viewed as a home banker. That delicious football phrase “banana skin” featured in every pre-match interview.

Shrewsbury were expected to park the bus. But with only one clean sheet in their last 27 attempts, it was likely to have three wheels.

And so it proved as City jumped on them from the off.

Jason Leutwiler’s wobbly kicking betrayed the uncertainty at the back as the game quickly camped in the Shrewsbury half. Doyle, a distant spectator, must have wondered why he was still out there.

McCall had opted for Filipe Morais instead of Danny Devine to fill the Josh Cullen-sized hole in midfield. But instead of playing two out-and-out widemen he tucked the Portuguese inside and reprised the diamond.

Nicky Law, as always, was a perpetual attacking dynamo – which finally brought the elusive goal he had been craving.

That embarrassment at not scoring he had expressed in the paper the day earlier disappeared after 21 minutes of one-sided combat.

Morais intercepted a loose clearance from Joe Riley and weaved into the penalty area where his shot was half-blocked by a sliding Abu Ogogo. But the loose ball ran conveniently for Law whose sure finish sparked a tidal wave of personal relief.

It was his first goal for 13 months – and first in City colours since scoring against Grimsby in January 2009.

There was also communal joy for one of the most popular members of the squad. The drought done, it must surely now be the first of many.

City looked to go for the jugular and only a last-ditch block by Jack Grimmer denied Morais a quick-fire second.

Leutwiler continued to flap, failing to hang on to a Morais free-kick before Riley bailed him out from the cross back into the mix from Timothee Dieng.

Much like his team, the Frenchman’s progress this season has not been headline-grabbing. He goes quietly about his business and very effectively too.

His athletic, long-limbed presence sniffing out danger and breaking up opposing threats has been a key component in the division’s meanest defence.

That backline got some work to do after the break as Shrewsbury opted to go longer and bigger, trying to use their height advantage.

But apart from George Waring’s shot that landed on the top of the net and a late nod wide from Riley, Doyle’s third clean sheet in four games (and three minutes) was never really in danger.

And Valley Parade could relax right at the end of added time with the security of a second goal.

Antoni Sarcevic slipped and then clipped Devine in the corner of the box and Haris Vuckic sent Leutwiler the wrong way to slot home City’s latest penalty.

They are now five out of five from the spot; another perfect stat from a run that just keeps getting better.