Bradford City Reserves 1, Blackburn Reserves 1; Match Report by David Markham.

Bradford City are still looking for their first win in the FA Premier Reserve League after Blackburn snatched a late equaliser in an entertaining match at Valley Parade last night.

The result means City have drawn three and lost one of their first four matches, but they were only eight minutes away from beating Blackburn when 19-year-old defender Martin Taylor scored their equaliser.

It was tough luck on goalkeeper Matthew Clarke who had made a string of superb saves in the second half to deny the visitors.

Clarke, who joined City from Sheffield Wednesday during the summer under the Bosman ruling, is proving to be a fine understudy to Gary Walsh who has been in outstanding form for the first team.

"Matt Clarke had a great game and deserved a clean sheet," said manager Paul Jewell. "He and Gary Walsh bring the best out of each other."

Dean Windass gave City the lead after 35 minutes, beating goalkeeper Alan Kelly with a well placed header low into the corner of the net after Gareth Grant had made a run down the left before finding the striker with a pinpoint cross.

Earlier, Bruno Rodriguez burst through before firing narrowly over the bar. Other than that effort, though, the Frenchman had a quiet game.

Grant also missed an early chance, shooting wide of the far with only Kelly to beat, but the pacey 19-year-old winger often posed a threat to the Blackburn defence and he almost gave City a second goal ten minutes after half time.

He ran after a through pass from left back Wayne Jacobs, took the ball off the visiting defender before stepping forward to deliver a 25 yard shot which Kelly managed to save at the second attempt.

The main threat to City's defence came from Blackburn's tricky winger Damien Duff, but central strikers Gary Hamilton and James Thomas began to cause problems in the second half. Hamilton had a great chance to equalise after 57 minutes, but could not get any power into his shot and the City defence managed to scramble the ball away for a corner.

Then, two minutes later, the alert Clarke raced 15 yards out of the penalty area, just beating Thomas to the ball and coolly headed it into touch.

As Blackburn kept up the pressure , Damien Johnson saw his shot deflected for a corner and Duff had a low shot brilliantly turned round the post by Clarke for another corner.

City seemed to have weathered the storm, though, when Andrew Patterson fouled Duff near the left hand corner flag and the powerfully built Taylor scored with a close range header.

Bradford City: Clarke, Wright, Jacobs, Dreyer, Westwood, Bower, Patterson, Kerr, Rodriguez, Windass, Grant. Subs (not used): Jordan, Worsnop, Hardy, Whiteley, Emanuel.

Blackburn Rovers: Kelly, McNamee, Richardson, Gill, Taylor, Murphy, Johnson, Dunn, Hamilton, Thomas, Duff. Subs (not used): Scates, Bingham, Hawe, Dunning, Baldacchino.

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