City below par again

It is currently where the battered and bruised Bantams are trying to pick up the pieces after yet another black mark on their fading promotion credentials.

Golf was once referred to as a "good walk spoiled". City's current campaign is rapidly turning into a "good season spoiled".

Defeat number five in their last six league games - six out of seven if you include the Worthington collapse at Watford - and the Bantams have slithered down to 15th spot.

In golfing terms, three early birdies have been followed up by a bunch of bogeys. City have temporarily lost sight of the fairway and are left trying to hack it out the rough.

Unfortunately the way things are going at the moment, this lot are in danger of missing the cut.

The only consolation is that nobody is likely to streak away with it. Wolves, tipped again by Birmingham's caretaker chief Mick Mills afterwards, lost at home for the second time in four days as Crystal Palace roared into top spot.

Palace have now won seven on the bounce - including that lucky one on Tuesday - but those who followed City at Selhurst know they are no great shakes.

Everyone beats everyone else in this league as they all keep saying. Unfortunately, at the moment, everybody is beating Bradford City.

Since the ten-day break which ended their last hectic run of games, City have limped back into action with four losses in 11 days. They have also scored only once in that time and that was Ashley Ward's late penalty against Watford at 4-0 down.

That night it took the home side half an hour to break the stalemate and it was the same on Saturday, although on this occasion there had been no hint about the carnage that was to follow.

If anything, City had carved the slightly sharper chances of a featureless opening with Robbie Blake having a sniff of goal when Darren Purse and Nico Vaesen got caught up in a bout of "After you, sir" from a corner.

But the ex-Huddersfield stopper smothered his toe-end effort and City were not allowed the luxury of scoring first - something they haven't done since the Grimsby win on September 29.

And when you're down, as this lot currently are, once the opener goes in against you, that is usually it.

We all feared the worst with good reason when Marcelo wheeled away to celebrate the first of his hat-trick in the 36th minute.

A strong run from Jerry Gill created it and Stan Lazaridis delivered a precise cross right on the striker's head. But where, oh where, was the marking?

Robert Molenaar went walk-about and there was Marcelo all alone to pick his spot. Gary Walsh could and perhaps should have kept it out, having got so much behind the ball but it slithered far enough over the line to satisfy the eagle-eyed linesman.

And City were once more hurtling down the slippery slope.

Within three minutes, their wafer-thin confidence had been shredded once more by Danny Sonner's deflected shot.

And before Jim Jefferies had the chance to stoke up his troops in the dressing room, there was Marcelo again right on half-time to knock home from close range.

Goalless after 35 minutes, 3-0 at the interval ... on the green in two and then three putts!

With no Benito Carbone to call upon - although would he seriously have made any difference on this occasion - Jefferies had no super hero to summon from the bench.

Gunnar Halle came on for Molenaar as the formation changed to a conventional back-four, allowing Eoin Jess to link up with Ward and Blake in attack. But they were clutching at straws.

Not surprisingly, the first push of the second half was orchestrated by Birmingham - and it produced their fourth goal.

City's defence once again claimed the RBI failing to clear a cross not once, but twice and allowed Marcelo more freedom to beat Walsh from close in. For the second Saturday on the trot, they had fallen victim to a hat-trick but this time nobody could point to any unlucky breaks.

At this point, some of the restless away section were trying to make an early exit. Who could blame them if it meant avoiding a repeat of the traffic horrors they encountered on the way to the Midlands? After all, they were scarcely going to miss a legendary City fightback.

Admittedly the visitors did see far more of the ball as the game wore on but that was no surprise. Birmingham had done the job sweetly and could have been excused for pulling up the armchairs and opening a few tinnies for the last half hour.

The busy Blake, who to his credit refused to let his chin drop, saw a close-range jab hacked off the line by Martin Grainger and City nearly levelled the corner count. But it was academic stuff like watching a ten-over golfer birdie the last.

Millwall at the New Den await tomorrow - another par-five hole on this demanding First Division course. And the flag has never seemed further away.

David Wetherall and Robert Molenaar are pictured being beaten by hat-trick man Marcelo at St Andrew's.