BRADFORD City Women went down to a 5-0 defeat against a rampant Stoke City LFC at a windswept Mitton Group Stadium, the visitors claiming their 11th win in a row.

Bradford manager Steve Winterburn was looking for a response from his young side after they crashed to double-figure defeats in their last two games.

City started brightly against a physical Stoke team, with captain Harriet Jakeman making herself known with some crunching tackles early on. But it was the weather that played a big part in Stoke taking the lead, a high cross from Hudson on the right caught everyone unawares as it was blown over the head of stranded City keeper Aimee Routledge into the open net.

Stoke enjoyed long periods of possession and pressure as they attacked downhill on a boggy Eccleshill pitch, but City’s determined defence stood firm with Routledge making a string of outstanding saves.

On the half-hour mark Stoke doubled their lead as Bradford failed to clear an inswinging corner, giving Tezgel a free header at the far post.

In front of a brave crowd of 62, including the Bradford City Disability FC squad, City looked for a way back after the break, and early pressure from Sophie Moulden and Falone Sumaili forced a save from the Stoke keeper.

Stoke went three up when McCoy thumped a long-range effort past Routledge from outside the box.

Keryakoplis swept home a fourth to round off a slick passing move, and the scoring was complete on 70 minutes when Routledge made another save, only to see the ball squirm straight to Hughes who poked home.

Winterburn said: “Those who have followed Bradford City Women FC for a long time will be well aware that the history between these two teams has been pretty hostile to say the least and before the kick-off I was a bit concerned for my players.

"After two very heavy defeats Stoke City wasn’t really the next team I would have wanted to play.

“Stoke were sitting fourth before this fixture and there was no doubt they wanted to get off to a flying start, in the knowledge that on paper we are easy pickings at the moment.

"But against the strong wind and a very bullish, powerful team, I felt we put up a good fight to keep the score line to a minimum of 2-0 by half-time.

“The conditions played a big part and despite Aimee’s heroics between the sticks, Stoke’s first goal could have and maybe should have been saved.

"That said, without Aimee’s outstanding performance we could have been looking at a bigger third consecutive drubbing.

“The second half saw us on the back foot again as Stoke came out of the blocks at a rapid pace and we were just a little bit too stand-offish and showed them far too much respect.

"In the end the 5-0 defeat was probably a fair result despite three of the goals being a bit soft for my liking, but Aimee’s courageous performance kept the overall result a bit more respectable.

“As with last week I’m seeing encouraging signs of improvement from the team and our campaign to find our feet again is slowly but surely heading in the right direction."

Bradford’s next home game is on February 10 when they host Nottingham Forest.

Bradford City: Routledge, Norde, Clark, Shuttleworth, Parrish, Sales, Moulden, Jakeman (c), Edwards, Donnan (Dunlop, 64), Sumaili (Durrant, 76)