Bradford Town 4 Andover Town 0.

Town’s road to Wembley was cut short by a converted penalty and a sending off in the first half in their FA Vase tie at Western League Bradford Town on Saturday, writes Patrick Barlow.

Manager Neil Benson made four changes to the team which started against Petersfield, with goalkeeper Jake Wellesley-David, defenders Lewis Alderman and Ryan Inskip and midfielder Cameron Hough replacing Michael Horne, Joe Woodward, the suspended Matt Scott and Danny Urry respectively.

Town were forced to defend early on, when Jake Hopper forced Wellesley-David to push the ball onto the post and neither side made any major chances until ten minutes from the break Inskip was adjudged to have brought down Mark Wall just inside the penalty area and, despite protests, Twaine Plumber gave the home side first blood.

Things soon went from bad to worse for Andover when, three minutes later, Inskip tackled Plumber, with Ike Robertson appearing to trip innocuously over the fallen number ten. Robertson was shown red, making Andover’s task even harder, with a man disadvantage leading into the half-time break.

Andover started quickly in the second half, with Alex Dockree and Ollie Yates putting in Michael Dixon who forced a save from home keeper Ed Baldy but on the hour Bradford doubled their lead when, once again, Plumber, slotted home.

Benson threw on Claudio Herbert and debutant Aqwasi Nyarko-Marfo and although Andover threatened briefly, with 15 minutes left Bradford sub Sean Percival crossed to Sam Jordan, and the striker who netted more than 70 times last season headed over Wellesley-David giving Andover a mountain to climb.

Craig Blakeman was replaced by Charlie Gunson but they could only manage a couple of shots wide before, in the 85th minute, Andover’s hopes of reaching the next round were finally extinguished by Jordan who tapped to double his tally, and give Bradford a ticket to the first round proper.