Sunderland denied by Bradford

Phillips: No way through

Sunderland 0-0 Bradford City

Relegation battlers Bradford City survived a desperate late Sunderland onslaught to earn a draw against the Premiership's second-best side.

Both teams wasted several clear-cut chances to take the points in front of a record 47,812 crowd at the Stadium of Light.

We had our chances but it wasn't enough to break down a very, very good and well-organised Bradford defence

  Sunderland manager Peter Reid

Kevin Phillips had some of the best of them but his running and vision will have surely done enough to impress visiting England manager Sven Goran Eriksson, who declined to pass judgement afterwards.

Bradford played like a team scrapping for their Premiership lives and deserved at least a point.

The Bantams held on during an increasingly frantic final 15 minutes to keep a flicker of Premiership hope alive.

Niall Quinn, Phillips, Don Hutchison and Alex Rae all had chances to find the net.

Quinn: Closely marked by Molenaar

And Bradford had their own regrets, veteran Dean Saunders and leading scorer Dean Windass squandering two of the best chances of the game.

Robert Molenaar won a tremendous tussle with Quinn, who mis-directed two free headers and was substituted late on.

Phillips, the club's record goal scorer, had a couple of half chances to find the net but his normally assured touch deserted him.

But his unselfish play was typified by a second-half move which saw him win the ball on the half-way line then run 40 yards to recieve a return pass and set up Rae for a shot.

Earlier he had played Rae into space on the edge of the six yard box only for the Scot to slash his shot straight at the big right hand of Bradford keeper Gary Walsh.

Bradford had chances to punish Sunderland.

Saunders really should have opened the scoring from a Jamie Lawrence knock-down but he ballooned the ball over the bar from six yards.

Bradford battled for their lives

Windass had an even finer chance to give Bradford a shock lead when Robbie Blake slid over a pinpoint cross in the 54th minute but he too missed the target.

A minute later Blake decided to go it alone and carved out the opening for a shot, only to see Thomas Sorensen tip it onto the bar.

But Jim Jefferies patience had run out and Blake and Saunders were replaced by Peter Beagrie and Ashley Ward.

Peter Reid waited until the final 20 minutes to make his changes - Quinn replaced by Daniele Dichio and Stefan Schwarz replaced by Kevin Kilbane.

Kilbane thought he had found the net with 15 minutes to go but Jame Lawrence just did enough to deflect the shot.

Another desperate tackle also denied Rae in the closing stages.

It allowed Bradford to end the match with their first clean sheet since last April - when their victory over Sunderland prompted their late surge away from the relegation zone.

How they would love that to happen again.

Teams:

Sunderland: Sorensen, Williams, Thome, Craddock, Gray, Hutchison, Rae, McCann, Schwarz, Quinn, Phillips. Subs: Ingham, Dichio, McCartney, Kilbane, Thirlwell.

Bradford: Walsh, Atherton, Molenaar, O'Brien, Lawrence, Windass, McCall, Jacobs, Jess, Blake, Saunders. Subs: Ward, Beagrie, Sharpe, Davison, Hopkin.

Referee: M Halsey (Welwyn Garden City)