Barnsley 0, Bradford City 1; match report, by Richard Sutcliffe.
Barnsley supporters must be sick of the sight of Gordon Watson after his well-taken strike sealed a vital three points for Bradford City in this dour Yorkshire derby.
The Bantams' substitute gave himself an early birthday present when he guided a ten-yard header expertly wide of Tykes goalkeeper Tony Bullock for only his third goal of a season which has seen him battling hard to revive his career after 18 months out with injury.
And to make matters worse for the fans of the south Yorkshire club, Watson's only two other strikes came in the thrilling 2-1 victory over the Tykes at Valley Parade back in September.
Add to that a hat-trick he scored against Barnsley for Sheffield Wednesday and the fact that one of his first career goals clinched a victory for Charlton over the Reds, it is easy to see why the Oakwell fans could have had a sense of foreboding when Watson came off the bench to replace Isaiah Rankin last night.
The winner from Watson - who celebrates his 28th birthday later this month - came as a huge relief to a City side who had a number of players looking slightly jaded after several recent games on heavy pitches.
Jamie Lawrence worked hard on the right and Robbie Blake had the odd flash of inspiration on the left flank, but otherwise it was a victory built on hard work rather than flair.
However at this stage of the season, it is results and not performances which are important and this was a victory similar to the ones at Tranmere and Oxford where sheer guts got the Bantams through.
This was certainly no classic encounter between old rivals in front of a bumper Oakwell crowd.
When Barnsley were on their way to promotion to the Premiership just two years ago, their fans took to singing 'It's just like watching Brazil' such was the impressive standard of their attacking play.
Unfortunately, last night the song 'It's just like watching Grange Hill' would have been more relevant, such was the number of schoolboy errors committed by both sides.
On far too many occasions the two sides looked unable to string together more than three passes without the ball going out of play or to an opponent.
Despite this general lack of guile, it was City who created the better chances with Lee Mills going close to grabbing his 20th league goal with a volley which passed just inches over the crossbar in the first half.
Watson also had what looked like a perfectly legal 'goal' ruled out for offside when he appeared to be at least two yards behind the defensive line when the original through ball was played.
Barnsley also had a 'goal' disallowed when Mike Sheron was harshly adjudged to have strayed offside in the 63rd minute.
Manager Paul Jewell continually stresses to his side that if they cannot get their flowing football going, then they all must dig in and grind out a result.
And that is just what happened against a Barnsley side who, Bruce Dyer apart, looked decidedly unimpressive on the ball.
City's defensive work against the Tykes deserves the highest praise with John Dreyer and Darren Moore complementing each other well while full backs Wayne Jacobs and Lee Todd again had strong defensive games.
Just in front of the back four, Stuart McCall worked tremendously hard to close down Craig Hignett in the second half - a tactic which completely nullified the former Aberdeen man's attacking threat.
Special praise must be reserved for goalkeeper Gary Walsh. His handling was exemplary and when Mike Sheron looked certain to score when free in the second half, the City keeper pulled off a fantastic block to keep his fourth clean sheet in five games.
And the importance of that was illustrated just 60 seconds later when Watson nodded City in front and ultimately pushed them back above Ipswich into that vital second automatic promotion slot in the First Division.
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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