CITY 1 ACCRINGTON 2

JOHN Coleman’s always had a thing about Valley Parade.

Maybe it boils down to frustration over the job that got away. Remember, after all, that he was a serious contender to replace Peter Taylor at City in 2011 until Accrington demanded 50 per cent of his long-term contract in compensation.

Or maybe it’s because, whether with his spiritual club Stanley or during a less-successful stint at Rochdale, he has always relished the underdog status on one of lower league football’s grandest stages.

For whatever reason, Coleman and his players always cut the mustard when they cross the Pennines to BD8.

And so it proved again on Saturday as the Scouser’s sixth visit to the away dug-out showed no sign of ending his unbeaten record.

Yet afterwards, rather than crowing about his team’s ability to overturn City’s league superiority for the second time in three months, he preferred to heap praise on the beaten hosts.

Post-match flannel from a victorious manager is as old as the hills. It’s easy to lob plaudits when you’ve got three points – or a ticket to the next round of the FA Cup – sat snugly in the back pocket.

But it was a theme that Coleman kept returning to during the various media questioning.

"Bradford City are too big for League One, let alone Two; they need to be in the Championship – and the Championship needs them. Can they go up this year? I think they will."

Scoff away, if you like, but there has been no bigger cheerleader of Stuart McCall’s methods so far this season than the guy who always puts one over the Bantams.

It should come as no surprise that Coleman would inflict the first loss on home soil since McCall’s return. At least it was not as painful as the 3-0 midweek gubbing in his debut managerial season, a night when the defiant fans in the Kop never stopped even if his players never started.

Saturday was different, if nothing else because there was little noise from the home quarters of a predictably sparse crowd.

The only atmosphere as such, at least until the minutes surrounding City’s equaliser, stemmed from the 299 Stanley followers in the corner of the Midland Road stand who were determined to enjoy their FA Cup experience.

The sub-5,000 attendance was more suited to the visitors but McCall wisely did not offer it up as an excuse for City’s anaemic effort.

Coming just hours after Edin Rahic had gone public in the T&A with his thoughts on the changing playing philosophy, it felt like a throwback to those bad old days.

The current run of fixtures, Wimbledon, Accrington, Morecambe, Rochdale has that League Two ring and there was that over-riding impression of one of the basement’s smaller occupants coming to do a job on their flashy hosts.

Not that Accrington’s success was of the “lump it, smash it and nick it” variety. Like City, they try to play the right way – an approach that has been proving a hindrance in the bread and butter of the league.

Coleman reckons Stanley “could do a bit of damage” in League One where they would be granted more respect on the ball. For now, they are suffering the hangover effects of last season’s promotion near-miss.

Cup outings, therefore, are treasured breaks from the norm and they seize the opportunity. City will already attest to that, as would neighbours Burnley – and it also took West Ham until the final minute to break them down at the London Stadium.

McCall had made six changes but there was no deliberate suggestion of feet being taken off the gas.

With all the talk about strength in depth, the side sent out should still have possessed enough quality to see off a team mid-table in the division below.

Things might have been different if James Hanson’s early header had not been kicked off the line by Mark Hughes.

But instead, like a cheap bonfire sparkler, City’s initial fizzle soon blew itself out.

McCall has been regularly reminded how difficult it is to pick a first-choice team with so many options. But Saturday was an effective whittling-down process.

Few of those given an opportunity to nudge the manager’s thinking did themselves justice.

Haris Vuckic, in particular, summed up the frustrating nature of the fringe set.

Technically gifted, and he has shown quality moments in passing, but just not the right fit for how City are trying to go forward.

For 45 minutes, he proved more of a hindrance than a help for the willing Hanson before McCall took him off at half-time.

It’s too easy to say some were rusty but City looked a collection of odd individuals rather than the fervent team crafted by Coleman.

Accrington had the best player on the pitch in the free-spirited Rommy Boco. City never got a leash on him all day as he popped about behind lone striker Terry Gornell.

Boco admits he is playing with a chip on his shoulder after a previous boss, thought to be Portsmouth’s Paul Cook who he played under at several places, said he was finished.

He certainly ended any ambitions City might have had of a cup run to accompany the promotion push.

Giving the ball away too often in bad positions, they were in trouble from the moment Boco rattled the bar from 25 yards.

That was just a sighter and he made no mistake with the header that broke the deadlock, jumping in front of Rory McArdle to steer Sean McConville’s cross inside the near post.

City wasted chances to hit back, Vuckic guilty of the biggest when he took an age before firing straight at the legs of keeper Elliot Parish.

But they were thrown a lifeline 18 minutes from time when Matt Kilgallon emerged from the pack to convert Billy Clarke’s corner.

Was that a cue for another Wimbledon-esque fightback? Not this time.

Instead it was Accrington who pushed again for a richly-deserved winner.

McConville’s angled ball was flicked on too easily by Boco and Jordan Clark, on his own to the left, swept a neat finish into the far corner.

And the Championship pretenders had been shoved through the first-round exit door.