The City chorus who had made the six-hour journey to the south coast were subjected to cheering on the lads for a second successive away game through the wind, rain and cold.

The Dell, for all its years in the top flight, is in very poor condition for watching the nation's number one game. Indeed it's only on a par with the majority of first and second division grounds visited in recent years.

City's first half performance? Rarely troubled the Saints, themselves hardly anything but lacklustre. But Jamie Lawrence (wide right before adapting to right back comfortably) looked promising, as did 'O B' with another fine show in defence. City would clearly have left the field 1-0 down at half time had O'Brien not somehow got his body in to block.

City fans, complete with huge claret and amber balloons and blow-up champagne bottles, gave the Bantams a warm welcome which spurred on the side to throw everything at Southampton, unfortunately to no avail.

Blake impressed, Saunders - if only! And a constant barrage of corners and crosses was not enough to erase the one moment we stood still and Davies struck.

Time for fresh legs up front? On another day pace may have been an answer, or maybe some raw energy from an as-yet-untried youngster scoring freely for the reserves.

Lindsay Wilburn

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.