MARK Bower bemoaned his Bradford (Park Avenue) team's second half showing as they crashed out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle after a 3-1 defeat at home to Spennymoor Town.

Despite, Glen Taylor missing a penalty, Bradford were the better side in the opening period and took the lead through Lewis Knight's measured effort.

It was the complete contrast after the break though. The hosts began to sit back and it only seemed like a matter of time until Town would find an equaliser.

Taylor spurred another spot kick before getting his goal from a corner with just over 10 minutes to go. 60 seconds later, Mark Anderson struck to hand Spennymoor the initiative.

The Moors number nine finally converted a penalty on his third attempt before the final whistle.

Bower is keen to take the positives but feels his team's drop off cost them in the end.

He said: "For 45 minutes, we went toe to toe with a very good team, and probably shaded the game.

"We were solid out of possession and I thought we caused them problems when we had the ball.

"We can take the positives from that but equally we will have to learn from that second half.

"Naturally players will start to drop when you are holding onto the lead. We did that and invited a bit of pressure

"We were really disappointing when we were in possession. We never strung four or five passes together, our players are capable of more.

"We were in a winning position and looked scared. We seemed to have the attitude of clearing the ball as far away from our goal as possible.

"When you are playing a team of the quality of Spennymoor you are asking for trouble.

"While you look at them and say they will be one of the teams up there and us probably not, I feel we could have gave ourselves a better chance to get something from that game."

After the second goal, things went from bad to worse for Avenue.

The injury to Nicky Clee on the hour mark, was compounded with both Isaac Marriott and captain Luca Havern leaving the field.

Bower fears his squad will get severely tested in the upcoming weeks.

He added: "(I am) Very worried.

"You have seen how thin we are in terms of squad numbers. Senior players suffering all impact injuries.

"Ones that can happen in games, unfortunately for us three have happened all in one afternoon."