Former Dale defender Simon Ramsden figured in the centre of defence for Bradford, but he wasn't booed, his family weren't the subject of chants and no one ran on the pitch to try and maim him. As we said on the boards, it's not just eight miles that separates us from them lot. It's a class thing.

We had a few changes from the weekend. The two Oldham loanees were presumably not allowed to figure by their Biffo employers, meaning a recall for Rundle as we pushed Buckley or Thompson up front depending on what time of the game it was. Also we had the return of Flicker in the centre of midfield replacing Gary Jones who after 400 odd games for the club was probably due a day off.

The first half followed a similar pattern to Saturday's in that neither keeper was properly tested throughout, but it was much more open than the Bury game. Bradford had chances but seemed intent on kicking it as high as they possibly could into the WMG.

Bradford looked a decent outfit, and were quite direct about their play. Not direct in a horrible long ball sort of way, but more in a having plenty of pace up front and trying to take advantage of that. We played some lovely football at times, with Flicker showing that he could have been a much better player during his day had he played with the intelligence that he now does.

But if there's criticisms, it's once again that issue about playing the great football without actually forcing the opposition keeper into making saves. But I'd say things are moving in the right direction, and the two goals in two games looks to have had a huge effect on Dagnall who looked very lively.

Half time came and went, and it was as you were for the start of the second half. Same Dale players, same good football and there was some real confidence about our play.

Now young Craig Dawson has picked up plenty of plaudits along the way this season. No one had expected him to come in and go from some young lad from the Unibond that we might have to chuck in to cover injuries to someone fast becoming a stalwart at the back. And even if you're some sort of know it all football type, who claimed to have seen the future whilst he was playing in the reserves or playing for Raccy Boro or warming up for Rochdale Cricket Club kicking a corky about, nobody would have predicted him to be capable of scoring goals like this.

With back to goal, he controlled, turned round and somehow fired in this shot. We've spent eighteen months for a front man capable of doing that, and this kid filling in at the back did it with ease. Reminded me very much of a goal I scored against Caldershaw back in about 1984, but from a much tighter angle and I must confess that Dawson's was a slightly better effort than mine.

And this stage, it probably comes down to me. I'd started to try and think when the last time was that we'd made back to back clean sheets. That sort of thinking was always going to see us concede.

Perhaps more accurately, it seemed that our goal was the turning point of the game. It gave City a jolt, we stepped back a bit, and the momentum of the game was lost. Perhaps if Spencer had scored from that one on one, it could have been game over time, but the pattern of play completely changed and if we were looking to pick them off on the break like we did at the weekend, we were very much mistaken.

They had a couple of decent efforts, one which saw the ball rattle the post after a slight deflection of Jason Kennedy's shirt and another saw Arthur pull off a superb save to tip it out for a corner. It was certainly game on, but the much cherished second successive clean sheet didn't last for much longer.

Whilst on an attack, there'd been a foul on a Bradford attacker, with the ball spilling to another Bradford player who just managed to get enough on it to push it further wide, only to see Tom Kennedy intercept.

At this point the referee decided that no advantage had been gained and was giving the free kick. I felt he was right to do so, as despite it being a while after when he blew his whistle, the original foul had dictated the play.

Now the surprise and controversy came from the free kick being awarded where the ball was when he blew his whistle, rather than where the original infringement took place. And from this point, there was only going to be one outcome. Their Flynn blasted it straight at the goal and Arthur was unable to prevent it from going in, especially with the suspicion of a deflection along the way.

Chants of cheats aimed at the Bradford players seemed a little off the mark as they themselves had done nothing wrong. But from now on, we pretty much went to pieces and never seemed like getting anything out of the game.

There was a shade of misfortune about the Bradford winner, as they continued to push forward and we backed off and off and off, and eventually their Neilsen let fly, with the ball taking an immediate deflection off Holness, looping over the head of Arthur into the back of the net to give the Bantams the lead and prompting chants of "2-1 in your cup final". Yes, it looked like it.

Ten minutes to go, and despite a little bit too late subs for Flynn and Flicker, we could do nothing to really get anything back out of the game, and it was the visitors who looked the most likely to score whilst we looked like we'd run out of ideas.

We had a great move by TK, but he just seemed to go on this massive run hoping beyond hope that there might have been someone there to help him out by giving him an option. They didn't.

So defeat in the JPT and our second possible route back to Wembley saw us knocked out at the first hurdle again meaning that it's either going to have to be the FA Cup or the Play Offs if we want to be paying £8 for chicken and chips this season.