Crewe Alexandra - 2 Bradford City - 1

CREWE held on bravely in this hard-fought encounter to earn their second win of the season and send big-spending Bradford home still clutching their single league point.

The Alex held off a full half of relentless city pressure after taking the first half spoils in front of a fired up Gresty Road crowd.

Among the £10 million of summer signings on show for City were Alex old boys Ashley Westwood and Gareth Whalley - so the game was never going to lack bite.

Yet after youngsters Kenny Lunt and James Collins had fired Crewe into a two-goal lead after 18 minutes memories of last year's 5-0 drubbing soon began to resurface.

Lunt struck in the 13th minute after Collins combined well with Rodney Jack to send a dangerous cross into the box. Steve Anthrobus managed to touch the ball on and Lunt was on hand to force it home from close range.

Collins added to Crewe's domination of a pulsating first half when he latched onto a defence-splitting pass from Seth Johnson and tucked the ball away in the bottom right hand corner.

To their credit Bradford kept fighting with a never-say-die attitude embodied in Bantam braveheart Stuart McCall.

Seven minutes before the break Peter Beagrie flicked on a Westwood corner and courageous captain McCall launched himself at the ball to powerfully head his side back into the game.

The home side looked shell-shocked at the start of the second half as their previously iron defence began to rust under torrents of City attacks which rained down with force on the Alex back line.

Lee Mills came closest to drawing his side level when he was denied by the woodwork after a goalmouth scramble from a Beagrie free-kick.

Crewe's shaky defence eventually hardened and although Bradford's incessant pressure never faded, the longer the scoreline remained in their favour the less likely they looked to relinquish their grip on the three points.

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