Motherwell 0, City 3

THE cruel side to the beautiful game was clear to see as Joe Brennan was carried carefully across the athletics track on a stretcher.

The young striker's grimace spoke volumes; his first year as a professional wrecked by the moment he twisted and his studs stuck in the thick grass at the Grangemouth Stadium.

Brennan suffered pre-season injury last year when he fractured his arm against Ossett. But nothing as serious as the knee ligament damage yesterday afternoon which could potentially end his campaign before it has even got off the ground.

Concerned boss Phil Parkinson said: "It's a real shame because he's growing with confidence through pre-season. But those are the pitfalls of being a footballer sometimes.

"We won't know the extent of it until it gets looked at and scanned the next day. But the early signs are it looks a bit nasty."

Brennan's first-half injury when trying to tackle Ross MacLean took the shine off an otherwise entertaining afternoon – and a promising one from a Bantams viewpoint.

The friendly battle for claret and amber bragging rights was won ultimately fairly comfortably by those in the home kit against a Motherwell side who were a week ahead in their preparations after their own two-game tour of Holland.

Parkinson admitted the team that started the afternoon had been "thrown together", leaving most of the bigger hitters sitting on the school gym benches by the side of the pitch.

His selection featured two more Scottish-based trialists in Mark Fotheringham and Leeds-born Conrad Balatoni, the latest in the centre-half slot that City are anxious to fill.

Balatoni's cult status with Partick Thistle earned a Conga-style song in his honour but the surprisingly healthy away following resisted the temptation to take to the track.

It was another City wannabe who had them on their feet on the stroke of half-time with the opening goal.

Motherwell had looked the only likely scorers up to that point. Stephen McManus flashed a near-post header against the bar and Louis Laing was only denied by a desperate block in front of goal.

But then Luke James neatly controlled a long ball and squared it for Greg Leigh to do the rest. The left back committed keeper Dan Twardzik with a dummy before firing home.

It was a confident finish from a confident player who continues to catch the eye. It will be interesting to see how things pan out, given that it is a position where City are fully-stocked at present.

MacLean fizzed a volley narrowly over for Motherwell, teed up by one-time Peter Taylor loanee Louis Moult, before the standard mass City substitution just after the hour.

The eight new faces had been on the pitch barely 60 seconds when two of them combined for the second goal.

Billy Knott rolled it left to where Alan Sheehan was waiting with a thumping 18-yard drive that flew past Twardzik at his near post.

Seven minutes later it was 3-0 as Motherwell paid the price for criminally forgetting to mark James Hanson at a corner. McMahon crossed, the City striker headed and the result was inevitable for his third pre-season goal already.

City, by now fielding most of the team expected to kick off against St Mirren on Saturday, continued to go through the gears.

As Motherwell's threat faded away, Josh Morris again showed a keenness to get into the box with two more attempts to increase City's advantage.

Parkinson said: "I thought we looked fit and strong. The game was played at a decent pace and we've got to be pleased."

City: Cracknell, Hendrie (McMahon 62), Liddle (McArdle 62), Balatoni (Sheehan 62), Leigh (Meredith 62), Mottley-Henry (Hendrie 75), Wright (Morris 62), Fotheringham (Knott 62), Brennan (Routis 32), Morais (Clarke 62), James (Hanson 62).