Soccer
Neil Harris maintains his proud managerial record at Bradford as Cambridge win
Neil Harris maintained his proud managerial record at Bradford as Cambridge clinched a late 2-1 win.
Harris has never lost visiting Valley Parade and Ben Knight kept that run going with the decisive goal against the run of play after 88 minutes.
Sullay Kaikai had taken advantage of poor home defending to put Cambridge in front before Bobby Pointon levelled.
But Knight’s finish after being set up by fellow substitute Louis Appere sealed a memorable victory for the newly-promoted side.
Harris said: “We started really well for the first 15 minutes but then we had to stand strong. We knew from doing our homework on the opponent, they are such an athletic side.
“You don’t come in the top six of this division last season with very big clubs in it and not be dominant at home.
“This is a tough place to come and play and credit my players for doing that in front of a big crowd.
“They found ways to hurt us that no team’s this year found against us and very rarely last year. It just shows the travelling fans that’s the level of opponent we are playing now.
“I keep saying the league is the best I’ve ever seen and Bradford have just shown that today. They have aspirations to be in the top six and shown what a good side they are.
“We had to try and hang in there and if you do that and believe, and have impact from the bench, you get your reward sometimes.”
Bradford were made to pay for wasteful finishing. Striker Jake Beesley was twice denied by Cambridge keeper Jake Eastwood and then got the ball stuck under his feet in front of goal.
Kaikai struck from an Eastwood goal kick that Bradford failed to clear. Nick Powell headed against the bar as Bradford hit back and Pointon scored from the rebound.
Bradford manager Graham Alexander said: “It’s a game we should win but we have only ourselves to blame. We should take some of the opportunities we created and we should never concede the two goals that we conceded.
“They’re so poor. We just gave the game away with those two moments. They had two shots on target to score two goals from nothing.
“I thought they carried a threat. They’re a strong outfit, but we managed most of the game on that side of it.
“But the actual nature of the two goals we conceded are awful.
“The first 15 minutes second half, it was just one-way traffic. It was just a case of waiting for the goal to go in, but we conceded from absolutely nothing.
“We put ourselves under pressure, but the response was good from the team. We didn’t get downbeat and scored a goal to get back into it. We had plenty of time to create other opportunities, but then we conceded late and it’s so cheap.”
