Simon Grayson celebrated his first win as Bradford boss to end their miserable recent form with a 1-0 victory against Gillingham.
The hosts came into the game having picked up just two points from a possible 30 but Dominic Poleon's fine strike after 48 minutes proved to be the difference.
Gillingham started strongly, with Conor Wilkinson going close before defender Callum Reilly tried his luck from 25 yards, his effort flying narrowly over the crossbar.
Alex Gilliead saw his cross cleared off the line by Max Ehmer in a rare Bradford attack while Tony McMahon saw his 25-yard free-kick drift just wide on 29 minutes.
The impressive Wilkinson headed straight at Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Colin Doyle before Scott Wagstaff fired just over on two occasions as the visitors looked most likely to break the deadlock.
However, Bradford were ahead just three minutes after the restart when a neat passing move found Poleon free on the edge of the area to fire into the bottom left corner for his seventh goal of the season.
Poleon missed a glorious chance to double his tally when he failed to make contact when he was free in the Gillingham area on 74 minutes, while substitute Kai Bruenker could only shoot at away goalkeeper Tomas Holy.
Tom Eaves stung the hands of Doyle at the other end and Wilkinson somehow headed over from six yards, while late efforts from Connor Ogilvie and Liam Nash failed to hit the target as Bradford held on.
English League One Standings
POS | Team | GP | GD | PTS |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Wycombe Wanderers | 19 | +14 | 40 |
2 | Ipswich Town | 18 | +15 | 36 |
3 | Peterborough United | 19 | +17 | 32 |
4 | Blackpool | 19 | +7 | 32 |
5 | Bristol Rovers | 18 | +3 | 31 |
6 | Coventry City | 19 | +3 | 31 |
7 | Oxford United | 18 | +18 | 30 |
8 | Rotherham United | 19 | +11 | 30 |
9 | Fleetwood Town | 17 | +7 | 29 |
10 | Portsmouth | 18 | +8 | 28 |
11 | Sunderland | 18 | +4 | 26 |
12 | Shrewsbury Town | 18 | -3 | 25 |
13 | Doncaster Rovers | 16 | +7 | 24 |
14 | Gillingham | 19 | +1 | 24 |
15 | Burton Albion | 18 | +1 | 24 |
16 | Rochdale | 20 | -11 | 22 |
17 | Lincoln City | 18 | -2 | 21 |
18 | Accrington Stanley | 19 | -4 | 19 |
19 | AFC Wimbledon | 19 | -7 | 17 |
20 | Tranmere Rovers | 18 | -11 | 17 |
21 | Milton Keynes Dons | 19 | -14 | 14 |
22 | Southend United | 20 | -37 | 6 |
23 | Bolton Wanderers | 16 | -27 | 2 |
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