City throw win away

In a moment, the Bantams pressed the over-used self-destruct button and remained First Division non-movers.

As they got on the coach to munch their supper from Les' Fish and Chip bar over the other side of Gresty Road, the players must have been cursing the fact they didn't gobble up the game that the local fryer had sponsored.

If Wimbledon three nights earlier was a winning draw, this was the opposite. City had it in the bag, wrapped and ready to go - only to see the win slither away in the sloppiest fashion.

City were 2-1 up and cruising and Crewe, in their panic, had abandoned the Dario Gradi passing principles. There was no culture about the 86th minute hoof into the penalty area.

Gunnar Halle should have dealt with it - but sliced his clearance spiralling into the air towards his own goal.

There Aidan Davison, a shock choice ahead of Gary Walsh, should have dealt with it, but he chose to punch instead of catch, obviously fearing the ref would see it as a back pass.

Under pressure he fisted weakly to his right and instead of leaving it for someone else to clear, Davison chased.

His second connection was flimsier and the ball broke loose to Shaun Smith who floated it back into the danger zone where Steve Foster headed past the out-of-position goalkeeper.

Still, there was time for Matt Etherington and Eoin Jess to nearly win it for the Bantams - and Davison to make instant amends by blocking another close-range bullet from Foster.

But City should have been adding Crewe to Portsmouth's name in the away wins column and going above the Hampshire side on the first page of teletext for 24 hours at least in the process.

Jefferies said: "We didn't clear our lines, and when we didn't we reacted badly and got punished for it. Unfortunately we've seen a lot of that in the last few weeks.

"The good thing after our recent run of results is that we've now gone three games undefeated. But we should have been going back up the road with seven points out of nine from the week, not five."

It had all begun so promisingly with most of the edgy defending coming from the other end where Nigerian Ademole Bankole, briefly on loan at Valley Parade two years ago and once Davison's temporary deputy for Grimsby, showed the one place he didn't look at home was in the Crewe penalty area.

After one Barthez-style dribble round Andy Tod to get himself off the hook, he ran into Smith to gift City their first corner and created an air of panic every time he got near his own men.

Amid all the craziness, he did find time to tip away a Tod header from a cross by the all-action Blake. But Bankole had no chance when Blake had a go himself.

Crewe thought they had a penalty - the first of three spot-kick shouts - when Dean Ashton tumbled in a challenge with Robert Molenaar. The linesman was flagging and the home fans roared in hope when the referee consulted his assistant.

But the flag-waver indicated a foul on the City man. And to add to Crewe's anger City strode into the lead.

It was a fantastic individual effort from Blake and when he's in this sort of form who needs Beni Carbone?

Eoin Jess found him lurking midway inside Crewe territory. Blake took a couple of touches on to his killer right foot, saw the gap, and boomed the ball beyond Bankole and into the bottom corner.

Yet within six minutes the deadlock was restored as City's defence were caught napping. Jefferies had warned all week about Crewe's danger from free-kicks - on this occasion the advice had gone in one ear and out the other.

Kenny Lunt lofted the ball into the City box and there, completely on his own, was Ashton who needed no second invitation to head the equaliser.

First half honours were just about even but the second belonged to City. After a tense opening five minutes, when Crewe had another half-decent penalty claim against Halle denied, the visitors grabbed the game by the throat.

Etherington's pace was becoming more dangerous with every attack and having been encouraged at half-time to have a go himself rather than cross all the time, he did just that with a fierce drive that was too hot for Bankole to hold.

The keeper did hang on to Andy Myers' well-timed header from the corner that followed and then pawed away a bending effort by Jess.

But a City goal was surely coming and Stuart McCall provided it in the 71st minute with a sliding finish after Jess had seen his run with a great ball.

Jefferies said: "We felt at half-time that whoever got the second goal would go on and win. When we scored I couldn't honestly see us losing another one unless it was of our own making."

But one scramble too many proved City's undoing as route one came to the rescue for Crewe's footballing conniseurs.