Nigel Clough hails Burton's battlers

Derby loanee Mason Bennett scored on his full debut and victory was sealed by second-half goals from Tom Naylor and Mark Duffy before Rory McArdle scored a late consolation for the visitors.

Clough said: "It was a fighting performance that restricted a very good Bradford team to very few chances in the game.

"It wasn't always pretty and we rode our luck a little because there were a couple of times we could have been punished. But we battled away and gave absolutely everything.

"We possibly didn't deserve the margin of victory, but we're glad to get the three points and I thought the goalkeeper and the back four deserved it.

"Bradford came out at the start of the second half and put us under an immense amount of pressure.

"There was nothing much we could do about that. It was just a case of hanging on in there and taking our chances at the other end."

The hosts had to wait only until the 17th minute for the opener when Bennett struck with a deflected shot from 12 yards.

James Hanson could have levelled 10 minutes later but steered his angled shot wide.

The Bradford striker had a header comfortably saved and saw another loop over the crossbar before Burton tightened their grip.

Naylor met Damien McCrory's cross with a first-time shot that bounced in off the underside of the crossbar in the 73rd minute.

Four minutes later Duffy was on hand to turn home Stuart Beavon's cross.

McArdle reduced the deficit with a header in added time, but the goal came as small consolation to Phil Parkinson.

The Bradford boss said: "We got off to a bad start, while Burton started very quickly which is what we expected.

"We got caught on the back foot early in the game, but we also had two or three great chances in the first half as well.

"When you come up against a team like Burton who concede very few opportunities, we needed to have a clinical edge about us to get us back into the game.

"We've been clean through on goal and we've had a couple of headers from six yards.

"We changed things around and started the second half brightly, but I think we have to hold our hands up and say that Burton were better than us on the day.

"We came up short against a team that's physical, hard-working and plays with great desire.

"It always hurts when you get beat and we need to come up with a plan that will get us a win next week."