Making a Mark

Match Comment, by Richard Sutcliffe.

From forgotten man to hero in just 90 minutes - this was quite an afternoon for Mark Prudhoe.

The 34-year-old goalkeeper has found life frustrating at Valley Parade since his £70,000 move from Stoke City last summer.

Prudhoe arrived as the Bantams' first choice keeper and was expecting to play a major part in helping the club to establish themselves in the First Division.

However, before facing Birmingham City he had played just six games with Rob Zabica and then Gary Walsh confining him to playing in front of a couple of hundred spectators in the reserves.

Prudhoe even has the distinction of being part of a Bantams side which went top of the First Division, but after a 4-1 hiding at Charlton in late September, the then-manager Chris Kamara brought in Walsh.

Since then the veteran keeper had played just one further first team game - the 2-1 win at Stockport County - before Saturday but when his chance finally came, Prudhoe took it with both hands.

Walsh was unable to play due to his father being seriously ill, and Prudhoe proved his worth with a superb all-round performance which saw the Bantams escape with a hard-won point against in-form Birmingham City.

The visitors undoubtedly enjoyed the better of an absorbing contest, but, thanks to Prudhoe, they could not turn that territorial advantage into a goal.

Facing one of his former clubs - although for a player who can bring a new meaning to Tommy Docherty's wisecrack about 'having more clubs than Jack Nicklaus' this is nothing new - he used his tremendous experience to great effect.

Prudhoe was magnificent in the 25-minute period before half-time when the Blues threatened to overpower the Bantams.

Birmingham had taken a firm grip of midfield during that spell and were providing great service for the lively strike pairing of Dele Adebola and Peter Ndlovu.

Both men possess great pace, and with the ball being played behind the Bradford defence with great precision, it meant the home side came under almost constant pressure.

However, Prudhoe held firm against this tidal wave of blue shirts and pulled off six good quality saves.

Central defenders Eddie Youds and Andy O'Brien also deserve credit for the way they stuck to their task against such an in-form forward line, who looked as dangerous as any faced by the Bantams this season.

It was easy to see why Adebola is so highly-rated after scoring five goals in the seven games since he made the switch from Crewe. Resem-bling former Birmingham striker Kevin Francis, but with the added bonus of being skilfull, his ability to peel away from his marker in that first half caused untold problems for Bradford.

At times in the closing stages of the first half, it seemed that Birmingham were the home side as Paul Jewell's team were restricted to trying to hit the Blues on the break.

It was a relieved Bantams side who heard the half-time whistle although they seemed much more prepared to deal with the Blues attack after the break.

In that second half, Birmingham gave Bradford just one real scare when Youds had to show great presence to flick a dangerous Simon Charlton cross to safety as Adebola waited at the back post to put the ball into the net.

However, despite Trevor Francis's side enjoying the better of the play, it was Bradford who had the best chance of the 90 minutes.

It came in an exciting opening to the game which promised a lot more than was delivered. Both sides were stroking the ball around with great confidence, and the 16,392 crowd seemed set for a high-scoring affair.

After 11 minutes a flowing move saw Robbie Blake and Peter Beagrie combine well to put Jamie Lawrence through, only for Blues keeper Ian Bennett to win the race for the ball.

And then just 60 seconds later Bradford should have gone in front when Rob Steiner threaded a magnificent ball through the defence for Blake. After controlling the pass, he rolled the ball past the advancing Bennett but, unfortunately for the Bantams, it also went past the far post and Blake was clearly angry with himself for missing such a good chance.

Wayne Jacobs also went close with a well-worked free-kick in that bright opening, but after this initial promise, Bradford offered little going forward.

In fact, Jacobs' free-kick was their only shot on target throughout the game, and although they improved slightly after the break, the Blues' defence had one of their easiest afternoons of the season.

This was due to the Bantams simply failing to stamp their authority in midfield and although Nigel Pepper put in several bone-crunching tackles, it was the visitors who were allowed to dictate the game.

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