Bradford City and AFC Wimbledon play out a dull goalless encounter at the University of Bradford stadium. Both sets of supporters will travel home disappointed as neither of their sides ever showed any real threat in the final third.
After shrugging off Doncaster in midweek, Bradford City came into the game full of confidence and looking to make it consecutive wins for the first time in 2024 against play-off contenders AFC Wimbledon. The Dons made the 460 mile round trip knowing a win could potentially leave them sitting pretty in 7th place by 5pm.
Bradford started brightly in the first 10 minutes and had Valley Parade rocking causing the visitors some problems early on. Lewis Richards and Harry chapman combined well down the Bantams left flank and caused Wimbledon’s full back Isaac Ogrundere a few headaches turning him inside and out. As the game settled down the nearest opportunity to break the deadlock was a free kick by Harry Chapman but the forward couldn’t trouble Alex Bass. The biggest compliment of the half by far was the AFC Wimbledon’s travelling support who were loud despite the long journey to West Yorkshire. They weren’t too complimentary of the match officials performance to put it politely.
The first action of the second half came again from the hosts as Alex Gillead strike from the edge of the box flashed narrowly wide. Like the first 45, Bradford’s main threat was Lewis Richards who crossed for Brad Halliday, but the full back couldn’t quite stretch out his right foot and convert.
It was Richards causing problems again, this time he found Andy Cook who you’d expected to be calm and composed in the final third, but number 9 couldn’t sort out his feet in the muddy Valley Parade surface and fired wide. Kevin McDonald’s strike looks to be flying into the top corner if not for Wimbledon’s centre-half rather large head blocking his effort. That’s the closest either side came to leaving Valley Parade with 3 points. If this was a televised match, you’d delete it pretty quickly from your planner.