Football Shorts

Bradford City were ruing their luck, after losing captain Ricky Ravenhill to a red card after Burton Albion’s Lee bell dramatically fell to the floor clutching his face after a clash between the two.

To make matters worse for City, their two centre halves were substituted due to injury, with the towering Luke Oliver and talismanic Andrew Davies both looking at a month out.

Despite Bradford’s patched-up 10-man team, Burton created few chances in the second half, and were only opened up on 80 minutes following a mistake from Garry Thomson, after he failed to clear his lines, letting in Damien McRory to cross for Calvin Zola to bury it home.

Parkinson now faces tomorrow’s Capitol One Cup clash with Premier League Wigan without Oliver and Davies, but will have Nahki Wells back as he returns from suspension.

Huddersfield Town were also the victims of a contentious red card, as they were picked apart by Millwall, as the east-Londoners ran out 4-0 winners at the Den.

Wood opened the scoring for the Lions on 28-minutes, before he doubled their lead on the hour mark. Millwall then scored twice in the last 10 minutes through Henry and the impressive Liam Trotter.

Defender Jack Hunt was sent off for dissent five minutes from time to compound Huddersfield’s misery. First team coach Glyn Snodin said: “Jack was sent off for dissent. He felt he’d been fouled and the referee has sent him off for what he has said. In fairness, he’s apologised to the rest of the players and put his hand up to that one.

“I think it’s in the heat of the moment – we’ve all done it – but he recognises he’s made a mistake.”

The defeat was Town’s second in a week, and sees them slip to ninth, two points outside the playoff pack.

Leeds United didn’t fare much better as boss Neil Warnock was left to rue missed opportunities as Leeds lost 1-0 at home to Lee Clark’s Birmingham City.

Leroy Lita won the match for the Brummies on 76 minutes, as his 30-yard piledriver flew past Paddy Kenny.

Leeds could point to a couple of goal-scoring opportunities that, on another day, may well have gone in as Rodolph Austin was denied by a rather fortunate first-half save by Jack Butland, who then kept out a flying header from El-Hadji Diouf in an altogether more impressive fashion after the break.

Speaking after the match, Warnock was quick to praise Lee Clark’s side, and said: “I saw the response of their bench at full-time. You would think they had won the World Cup.

“But in fairness to Birmingham, they came and had a go. Not like the other night where Charlton were just happy to get a throw-in. I can’t watch games like that.”

Leeds have another touch test ahead this week, as they travel to the Amex to take on playoff-chasing Brighton on Friday evening.

Elsewhere, Manchester United were lucky to come away from Chelsea with a victory, as Javi Hernandez netted a late winner adfter the home side were controvertially reduced to nine men. United had the perfect start after three minutes as David Luiz tyurned into his own net, before Robin Van Persie doubled the lead on 12 minutes as he clinically dispatched a Luis Valencia cross. Substitute Javi Hernandez poked in a late winner from an offside position to hand Sir Alex’s team the points.

The Merseyside derby ended with a 2-2 draw, after Liverpool raced into a two goal lead after Luis Suarez and a Leighton Baines own-goal before Everton levelled up the scores before half time. An injury time Suarez winner was controvertially chalked off for offside.