MATCH REPORT: Swindon Town (1) v (3) Bradford City

Goals from Caolan Lavery, Levi Sutton, and Theo Robinson secured an important 3-1 away victory for Bradford City as Swindon slumped to their third home defeat of the season in front of a packed County Ground. Total Sport Swindon’s Ryan Walker gives his match report in the aftermath of defeat.

Shared possession and a lack of goalscoring opportunities led to an uneventful opening ten minutes as both teams were allowed time on the ball in each others half. Swindon fashioned a half-chance on goal through Tyreece Simpson as his right-footed shot was deflected for a corner but there was nothing else of note as Swindon and Bradford looked to settle into the game.

Having warned his team of the threat Bradford posed from set-pieces, Ben Garner cut a frustrated figure in the home dugout as a long-throw in in the 16th minute from full-back Oscar Threlkeld was tipped on by Alex Gillead and finished on the volley by Caolan Lavery to give Bradford the lead.

Scoring his first goal since March, Lavery had put the visitors in front against the run of play and Swindon almost found themselves two goals behind just minutes after the restart. Confusion on the edge of the Town box saw the ball fall to Lavery who was clear on goal with a last-ditch slide from Baudry deflecting the shot behind for a corner.

Swindon looked shaken having gone behind and two quick-fire yellow cards for Mathieu Baudry and Ben Gladwin did little to help their cause as the home side struggled to adapt having gone behind.

Slow build-up play and a lack of chances in attacking areas left Swindon stumped and despite some minor opportunities from set-pieces, Swindon never looked like causing many problems for the Bantams defence.

Switching from a five-man defence, Town struggled to adapt to the new system implemented by Ben Garner as Bradford doubled their advantage five minutes from half-time. Crichlow failed to deal with a long cross from Matthew Foulds, Andy Cook’s close-range shot rebounded off the post and Levi Sutton was left with an open-goal to tap in too.

Kaine Kesler-Hayden was brought on at half-time in place of Crichlow as Town looked to grab an early goal in the second-half but it was the visitors who threatened first with a corner resulting in Sutton shooting over the bar from the edge of the box.

Andy Cook looked set to put Bradford out of reach in the 58th minute as he was found by Gilliead on the counter-attack, and after beating Rob Hunt the attacker managed to sky his shot over the bar.

Swindon responded with a chance of their own but Williams made the wrong decision after being found by a cross with his header put back across the box when an attempt on goal would’ve been the better option.

Attacker Alex Gilbert was brought on to try and inject some much-needed creativity into the Swindon frontline with 20 minutes left but the home side could do little to disrupt the resolute Bantams backline.

Former Swindon striker Theo Robinson came off the bench to score a goal-of-the-season contender with over 10 minutes left as he sent a curling effort past Wollacott to put the visitors three goals in front.

Jack Payne gave Swindon a slither of hope as he scored Swindon’s only goal of the game from the penalty spot after O’Connor was deemed to have handled the ball inside the box, but it counted for little more than a consolation as Swindon slumped to a disappointing 3-1 home defeat.