BRADFORD CITY 2

WIGAN ATHLETIC 3

CITY’S final dress rehearsal before the 2020-2021 kick-off ended with a 3-2 to Wigan at an empty Valley Parade.

The local COVID-19 lockdown restrictions ensured the game was once more played behind closed doors – just as the campaign will begin next Saturday at Bolton in the Carabao Cup.

City’s second pre-season outing on home soil, following on from the 4-3 loss to Darren Moore’s Doncaster, brought down the curtain on their build-up programme.

Stuart McCall may look at playing in-house on Tuesday but there are no plans to squeeze in another friendly before the cup opener.

All the warm-up games have been against higher-level opposition and Wigan, despite currently being in administration after their relegation from the Championship, provided another solid test.

McCall had planned changes to both personnel and formation from the Huddersfield game, ensuring as many of his squad get more minutes into their legs before the serious stuff begins.

Having employed three centre halves and wing-backs in midweek, McCall resorted to a back four as City set up in a 4-3-3 approach. Tyler French and Jackson Longridge played either side of central defenders Ben Richards-Everton and Finn Cousin-Dawson.

Having scored very early at the John Smith’s Stadium in their previous game three days before, the Bantams this time found themselves a goal down inside the first minute.

A short corner found Gary Roberts, whose cross was headed on by a trialist striker and Emeka Obi before Kal Naismith tapped home.

But City were level after 19 minutes through first-year pro Kian Scales.

Clayton Donaldson, starting up front alongside Billy Clarke, flicked on and Scales – who forged a reputation last season as a free-scorer in the youth team from an attacking midfield role - cleverly lifted the ball over Wigan keeper Jamie Jones.

McCall’s men had their moments but there was a growing confidence in Wigan’s play as the first half wore on.

And having had a hand in their opening goal, Roberts restored the lead when a cross from the right deflected into his path and he volleyed home from the edge of the area.

Sam Hornby got the full game in City’s goal but the back-up keeper was beaten again nine minutes into the second half.

Hornby failed to get a glove on a cross from Wigan’s trialist frontman and Naismith was presented with his second tap-in from close range.

Wigan had further chances to add to their lead and both Roberts and the trialist striker were denied by excellent blocks in front of goal on the hour.

McCall made mass changes midway through the second half with seven substitutions – and two of them were involved as City managed to pull one back with ten minutes to go.

It came from a blunder by Jones, who tried to be too clever for his own good when closed down by Kurtis Guthrie on the edge of his penalty area.

Guthrie blocked the keeper’s attempted clearance and then back-heeled the ball into the path of Harry Pritchard to knock home into the unguarded net.

But Jones did manage to redeem himself in the closing stages with a fine save to keep out Guthrie’s header, acrobatically tipping the ball over the bar to deny City a late equaliser.

That secured the win for Wigan who had ironically beaten Bolton 5-1 in their previous friendly.

McCall said: “We changed the team about and a lot of the young lads got starts. It’s a learning curve for them – and everyone still.

“For the younger ones at the back, it was good for them to be playing against strikers with real experience.

“Having said that, we were outwitted for a couple of goals and lost a really poor one in the first minute.

“Young Kian got a good finish for us. Him and Connor (Shanks) have shown from day one that they have got goals in them.”

Richards-Everton and the two full backs all played the full game after the rest were subbed around the three-quarter mark.

McCall added: “We wanted to give the other lads a sharp 20 minutes which they got.

“We flipped it around a little bit to look at different things and it was a decent work-out.

“The good thing was that we came through unscathed.”

Connor Wood and Dylan Mottley-Henry both did some running before the game and hope to return to training during the week.

CITY: Hornby, French, Cousin-Dawson (Novak 68), Richards-Everton, Longridge, Sutton (Sikora 68), Scales (Pritchard 68), Shanks (Guthrie 68), Ismail (Staunton 68), Clarke (Watt 68), Donaldson (Cooke 68).

WIGAN: Jones; Byrne (Jolley 83), Obi, Trialist (Long 55), Pearce; Merrie, Trialist (Perry 60); Trialist (Crankshaw 68), Roberts (Aasgaard 87), Naismith (Smith 89), Trialist (Joseph).