Johnson’s sigh of relief

LEE Johnson was relieved to get through a testing second half, squeezing out three points against a rugged Bradford side Athletic had at one stage threatened to blow out of the water.

Jonathan Forte's 11th goal of the season was followed midway through the first half by Mike Jones's accurate strike.

Despite Athletic creating a host of opportunities with sparkling attacking play, the visitors from West Yorkshire halved the advantage through a sweet strike from Andy Halliday just before half-time.

A change of shape from Phil Parkinson's side went on to pose stern questions of Athletic, with imposing front two Jon Stead and James Hanson to the fore.

Athletic still carved out chances without taking them and in the end were grateful for a final whistle and their 13th game unbeaten.

“It was a really tough game and you know what you are coming up against when you play Bradford,” said Johnson.

“They are very direct and physical and are effective at it. Their goal was perfect for their style of play and contained poor defending by us.

“But to be honest, I thought the game could have been out of sight by then. I am disappointed we didn't have at least three goals, maybe four, before that.

“Even in the second half we had chances to finish it off. They thought they should have had a couple of penalties – I didn't think so myself, but maybe I am biased – and we had to dig in.

“We had to win in a different way here and it showed character.”