Stockport County 1, Bradford City 0: Carlton Palmer has been called many names by opponents during his eventful career. It's safe to say that Franz Beckenbauer is not one of them.

But that was the comparison Nicky Law came up with to sum up the ease with which Stockport's player-manager helped snuff out City's pop-gun efforts at Edgeley Park.

Palmer has had a baptism of fire since being thrown into the hot-seat to replace Andy Kilner, mastermind of part one of the Bantams' humiliation back in September.

Last night, though, was the easiest 90 minutes work he will encounter. "Kaiser" Palmer and his defensive companions may have seen a lot of the ball - but they rarely batted an eyelid as City huffed and puffed their way to the humiliation of becoming the first side to lose to Stockport in 2002 and the only ones to have gone down home and away.

Law, trying desperately to keep a lid on his frustration, said: "Carlton was like Beckenbauer at the back because he was so much in control. I shook his hand as he came off at the end of the game and he hadn't even broken sweat.

"We had a lot of the ball but I could never see us scoring. It took us 35 minutes to win a corner and then we couldn't clear the first defender - you put that on at the training ground tomorrow and they'll be magnificent but they can't do it in front of 4,000 people."

What a difference a week makes in football. Seven days earlier Jamie Lawrence had conjured up an unlikely late goal against Nottingham Forest and City were celebrating two wins in four days and talking of pushing up into mid-table.

Now, having been humbled by Sheffield Wednesday and Stockport, the trap door is creaking open below them. And look at the next four matches - Manchester City, Birmingham and Burnley are all pushing for promotion and there's also the small matter of a home clash with relegation rivals Crewe.

At least Law can shuffle his resources and chop and change if things go further wrong. Er no, he can't, because all his other options are on the treatment table and they've now been joined by ankle-ligament victim Gary Locke.

Gunnar Halle made it onto the bench last night and David Wetherall is, by all accounts, looking good in his first few days back in full training. Just keep everything crossed that he comes through unscathed to return soon because the team needs a fresh injection of something.

A trip to Stockport, this season's music-hall joke, looked the perfect cure for the Sheffield Wednesday hangover. Eighteen games without a win, eight successive defeats at home, beaten 15 times in front of their own fans - there was a silly stat a minute for this comedy crew.

But the Bantams managed to succeed where everybody else in the division, bar possibly Norwich, have so far failed and lost. Not just once, but twice - and that's a punchline that nobody at Valley Parade will find remotely amusing.

Beforehand it had the feel of a cup tie between sides a couple of leagues apart. I would have said atmosphere but initially there was none as the home crowd clearly expected another night of misery.

That mood of apathy was swept away within ten minutes as Luke Beckett slipped away from the close attentions of Andy Myers and read the bobble of the pitch correctly to control a pass from youngster Fraser McLachlan and drill it into the City net.

There was a pause before the celebrations in the main stand began as if the Stockport fans couldn't actually believe they were ahead. They realised soon enough and it didn't take them much longer to work out that for all their possession, the Bantams were not exactly going to steamroller their way back.

Law must have feared this was coming and he certainly wasn't surprised to see Beckett, the striker he sold to Stockport from Chesterfield, thank him by scoring the only goal. The home striker had promised his old boss a pint afterwards if Stockport emerged winners - the manager's beer must have tasted as flat as his team's performance.

Law sighed: "Luke's a game lad who works his heart out and if you let him get in behind you he'll cause problems. He got away from Andy once and scored."

If that goal wasn't bad enough, City could have found themselves up to their necks in it as Stockport had two efforts kicked off the line and hit the post.

With the visitors still in a daze from going behind, Keith Briggs thought he had headed number two only for Gareth Whalley to block on the line. The ball ran loose to the super-confident Beckett who thrashed it goalwards - but luckily in the vicinity of Stuart McCall to complete another dramatic clearance.

McCall, as usual giving it all he had for the cause, came to City's rescue in the goalmouth again three minutes into the second half after Alan Combe got into trouble at another corner. The keeper was blocked as he tried to reach Jon Daly's looping header, the ball rolled against the far post and again there was McCall to usher it from harm's way.

Unfortunately City could draw no inspiration at the other end from their defensive efforts. As Law complained, their first corner took 35 minutes - and only real threat of a goal was double that.

Apart from an Ashley Ward side-foot, the Bantams had got nowhere near veteran keeper Andy Dibble until the 73rd minute when Danny Cadamarteri back-flicked a Gareth Whalley corner. But Dibble was alert to the danger and tipped it over the bar - that was the total of his discomfort.

Stockport greeted the final whistle as if they had just completed the great escape. As fans cavorted, the two old boys commentating for local hospital radio looked ready to join their listeners because they were so overcome with the excitement.

They were entitled to milk the moment, after all they are still going down. But City need to buck their ideas up pretty smartish or else, judging by last night's display, they could end up joining them.