Doyle shows a lotta bottle to become toast of Bantams

It was appropriate that Nathan Doyle should be clutching a bottle as he walked out of Valley Parade.

After all, the youngster had been pelted with a fair few of them as the derby turned nasty.

Doyle didn't mind taking this one home because it was full of champagne after being nominated City's man of the match on a day when it was once again the blue and white half of West Yorkshire celebrating.

The youngster had certainly shown plenty of bottle not to be affected when the plastic variety rained down on him after Danny Adams had been sent off.

Weaker characters would have cracked under the barrage, both physical and verbal, that he came under from the surprisingly small Huddersfield contingent in City's biggest home crowd.

But Doyle, a cocky little so and so, revelled in the "acclaim" and seemed to demand the ball even more from that point.

City will be waiting anxiously to find out if the Football Association want to hear more about the crowd disturbance which is likely to appear in referee Keith Hill's report.

Then again, judging by Hill's weak-willed display on Saturday, there is no cast-iron guarantee it will be mentioned.

If ever there was a case for a Premiership referee to take charge of such a highly-charged occasion, this was surely it. On a weekend when most of the top-flight whistle blowers had their feet up because of the international games, we instead had to suffer Mr Hill.

He has got previous at Valley Parade. In April 2004 against Reading, he booked half a dozen players and sent off two, including Michael Branch for diving.

Games like Saturday need a firm hand to keep the obvious emotions in check. But instead of Graham Poll we got Graham Norton.

And that's not just bitter Bradford talking, either.

"I thought the referee controlled the game poorly," said Town boss Peter Jackson. "It wasn't a really dirty game and we had a sending off and numerous bookings.

"There were one or two of my players on yellow cards and it was only a matter of time before the referee did send someone off."

Opposite number Colin Todd was more annoyed with Hill's whistle-happy approach.

"I never criticise referees but he wasn't strong enough to handle the game. It was stop-start which suited them more than us and the referee contributed to a lot of that."

It was clear that Huddersfield had come to contain and frustrate when they lined up in the 4-5-1 formation that had done a job on Swansea a fortnight before.

Local lad Chris Brandon was one of several absentees with a late bout of sickness but Jackson decided to cram the midfield. He had also done his homework as Town went out of their way to stop the wingers from playing.

Joe Colbeck got an early taste of that mission just 62 seconds in when Adams went clattering through the back of his legs. Mark Hudson had already been lucky to escape an immediate yellow card straight from the kick-off after a studs-up challenge on David Wetherall.

The visiting intentions were clear as Huddersfield looked to rattle City out of their stride.

With referee Hill reluctant to let the game flow - I always thought there was an advantage rule - the home side struggled to find the rhythm that had destroyed Tranmere in the second half the week before.

It cried out for somebody to run at the massed ranks of blue and white stripes and force an error. In other words, it cried out for Jermaine Johnson.

But unfortunately the main man of the moment was not there. Youngster Colbeck was given the task of trying to fill his boots but could not produce the same.

Colbeck certainly gave it his all but he found the immovable Adams in his face throughout. And with the right flank shut off, City lost the width that has served them so well in the push up the table.

Todd said: "We're a side that likes to play and move the ball but didn't have enough on the right. On the left I thought there was one player who was going to unlock the door for us and that was Lee Holmes."

While Doyle was in the spotlight, his Derby buddy Holmes provided the spark that City had been lacking in the first 45 minutes. But by the time he started to stretch his legs, the home side were once again chasing another game.

City had already enjoyed one life before the goal. Donovan Ricketts should have gone nowhere near Michael Collins' outswinging corner and was left in no man's land by Martin McIntosh but fortunately Ben Parker cleared his header off the line.

Clearly rattled by that, Ricketts decided not to come out for the next cross, dug out from the right touchline by Gary Taylor-Fletcher, and Hudson got above Mark Bower to nod inside the near post. It all seemed to happen in slow motion and there was a pause before the Huddersfield sides of the ground went mental.

Less than 3,000 Town fans had bothered to pop up the M606, a protest at their indifferent start to the campaign. One of the biggest beefs, when they haven't been shouting for Jackson's head, has been his insistence in playing Hudson.

But now, in the fickle world of football fans, he was once again the hero after opening the scoring at Valley Parade for the second year in a row.

The home support, who had taunted their rivals with a pre-match chorus of "you could have come in a taxi", were momentarily stunned.

City were knocking the ball round well enough but Huddersfield had something to protect and became even tighter and more possessive.

The best chances of a response before the break both fell to Dean Windass, whose search for that 200th goal still goes on.

Holmes laid back a drilled cross from Doyle for Windass to flash a drive over the bar. And he wasted a great opportunity in stoppage time when Huddersfield stopped for a non-existent offside flag from Doyle's long punt.

Windass chested it down in yards of space but opted for a tricky first-time shot which screwed harmlessly across goal instead of knocking a pass into the path of the supporting David Graham. A rueful Todd later talked about "sometimes playing for ourself at times".

The second half was only minutes old when City produced the move of the match, Holmes exchanging passes with Graham to slice his way through. His shot beat the diving Matt Glennon and looked in all the way but rolled just the wrong side of the far post as Valley Parade held its breath.

City had seized the initiative and dominated possession. But still too many crosses were gobbled up by the Town centre halves and keeper as the home frustration continued to grow.

Graham rose to meet a Holmes corner but his header had no power and then Huddersfield were forced into a re-shuffle after Adams saw red.

Doyle whacked a ball upfield from the Midland Road touchline but Adams came crashing in as he cleared. The youngster flipped in the air before staying down and referee Hill was so excited to early bath Adams that he dropped his cards on the way across.

Adams furiously protested his innocence and initially refused to leave the pitch, having angry words with Doyle before squaring up to a posse of claret and amber shirts. Commonsense, on the pitch at least, prevailed when the Huddersfield left back was persuaded to walk off.

Emotion in the stands was rising and when Doyle went to take a throw-in by the away supporters, several bottles landed on the pitch. It was threatening to get out of hand as stewards and police moved in to the offending area.

Doyle was getting constant abuse and Matty Young nearly put him up in those seats with an ugly clatter that got him in the book. It takes a lot to get David Wetherall riled but he was straight across to tell Young exactly what he thought.

Eddie Johnson came on for Colbeck and skied his first sight of goal. But the substitute thought he had done everything right in the 88th minute with a firm header from Holmes' centre.

The ball was arrowing towards the bottom corner but Glennon managed to bundle it round the post and City's derby misery was confirmed.

Huddersfield, now beaten only once in their last seven Valley Parade visits, had done it again.