Bradford City 1

Hartlepool 2

It's Donny or bust for City.

And even another Yorkshire scalp at the Earth Stadium on Thursday night may not be enough to resurrect the fading play-off hopes.

If Hartlepool haven't delivered the knock-out blow, they have certainly left City wobbling jelly-legged on the ropes. One more blow and they will certainly be counted out.

Colin Todd admitted as much as he watched his side's big chance of jumping back into the frame fizzle out tamely.

Hartlepool had lost four in a row coming into Valley Parade. Another one and City would have been snapping at their heels just two points adrift.

It should have been the time for a rip-roaring performance backed up by a cauldron of noise. Todd got neither.

"Typical City, back to normal at home," moaned one fan loudly. The buzz and spark from the Huddersfield game was never there - on the pitch or off it.

I wonder what chairman Julian Rhodes must have thought when he saw the attendance flashed up on the electronic scoreboard. A crunch match and less than 8,000 bothered to turn up.

Those who did included one critic who decided that criticising from afar wasn't enough. So he marched down to the front of the Midland Road stand to confront Nicky Summerbee personally.

City's right winger was not having a great afternoon. But he didn't need to hear it from a finger-wagging fan standing barely five feet away.

With the stewards surprisingly reluctant to step in, City Gent fanzine editor Mike Harrison decided to make a "citizen's arrest".

"I tried to reason with him," Harrison said. "By shouting at the players you aren't going to make them do any better.

"He said he hadn't been swearing but that's not the point. We all have a go from time to time but there's no need to stand there and dish out abuse right in their faces.

"I asked the stewards to move him and the supporters around us were all shouting 'out,out, out'. But they didn't want to do anything until he decided to leave by himself."

With "support" like that, no wonder City find it so tough to perform at Valley Parade.

And unfortunately the first-half display on Saturday was as flat as the atmosphere that had greeted them.

City were a yard slower to everything and the ball kept being given away. For the first 20 minutes, Hartlepool hardly let them cross the halfway line.

Paul Henderson saved well from Eifion Williams and Joel Porter wormed his way through four claret and amber shirts before the ball was hacked clear from the penalty area.

Fortunately Hartlepool had left their shooting radar switched off with the frequent long-range shots peppering the Kop rather than Henderson's goal.

City, in fact, had the best chance of the opening half-hour when Jim Provett spilled Owen Morrison's low drive. Andy Cooke came powering in for the rebound a little too eagerly and the loose ball ran past him as he stretched to make contact.

But still City were struggling to string more than a couple of passes together. Even Dean Windass was affected as his over-ambitious volleyed pass across the field ran into touch rather than to intended target Peter Atherton.

It was no shock to see Hartlepool in front three minutes before half-time, although City will question the legitimacy of the free-kick which led to it.

Porter tripped over David Wetherall's heels as the pair chased a high ball and referee Phil Joslin saw it as a foul. The home side were distracted and Hugh Robertson took advantage with a quick pass to Porter who swivelled and crossed low for Williams to convert.

Steve Schumacher lashed wildly wide a minute later but it needed a fine save from Provett on the stroke of half-time to deny Cooke his fourth City goal after he was well picked out by Windass.

It was a livelier finish but Todd demanded much more after the break and abandoned his perch in the press box to join Bobby Davison barking out commands from the technical area.

The message seemed to get through and there was a bit more spark about City's play with Marc Bridge-Wilkinson testing Provett after a neat passing move started by Atherton.

Morrison was looking more interested and began to tease the Hartlepool defence, although the threat remained on the break, and Wetherall produced a crucial block to deny Porter's cross at the near post after the striker had breezed past Mark Bower.

But the equaliser arrived on the hour and showed the value of never giving up.

The ball looked a lost cause as it ran towards a goal kick but Cooke refused to give it up and hassled and harried his way to win a throw-in. Lewis Emanuel turned that into a corner and Morrison took the return from Bridge-Wilkinson to deliver a looping cross which Bower crashed into the roof of the net.

A day after putting pen to paper on a four-year deal with the club, the centre half had scored his first goal since August. It should have been the fairy-tale ending.

For a while the team - and the crowd - lifted their performance. Cooke and Wetherall both headed over and Bridge-Wilkinson shaved the post with a scorching effort from distance.

Then it all fell apart once again from Matty Robson's long throw-in. Atherton tried to clear but only nodded the ball across the City six-yard box towards the unmarked Porter who gleefully nodded it into the far corner.

Todd gambled with a triple substitution and threw on Danny Forrest, John Swift and Craig Armstrong.

And City had a good shout for handball against Michael Nelson but referee Joslin was the only man in the stadium to think otherwise. Then again, he was the same official at the Galpharm in December who had denied Windass a spot-kick when he was blatantly levelled.

City threw everything forward and Windass and Nelson tangled on the floor as another dangerous ball pinged across the six-yard box. But the frenzied pressure could not deliver an equaliser.

On the overall performance, City could not argue with that.