REPORT | Bradford PA (H)

By Noah Woodland

Gloucester City beat Bradford Park Avenue 5-1 after two goals and two assists from Dom McHale helped move his side up to 9th in the National League North standings.

The Tigers came out fast and hunting, and within two minutes it paid off as Dom McHale finished off a brilliant team move to make it 1-0 with a lovely drilled finish into the bottom corner.

City continued to dominate the ball, winning a free kick in the 13th minute. Dom McHale whipped the ball in from the right hand side and found centre-back Kennedy Digie at the back post who volleyed in his first goal for the club to make it 2-0.

Almost straight after, The Avenue came back fighting and with their first real attempt of the game, a lofted ball towards the box found striker Brad Dockerty, who headed in to get one back for his side, 2-1.

The game became a bit scrappy after this goal, with City controlling possession, but no real clear cut chances to show, and in the 35th minute a Digie head injury brought the game to a stand still for two to three minutes, which killed all momentum that City had built up.

The Tigers managed to create a great chance in the 40th minute, where Jacob Agyepong found himself inside the opposition's box with the ball at his feet, however he couldn't get a shot off before keeper George Sykes-Kenworthy grasped the ball away from the attacker.

It was an end-to-end finish to the first half, with no real clear cut chances for either side right up until the half time whistle.

Gloucester began the second half very strong and within two minutes Dom McHale looked to threaten, after he took on his man down the right flank and was brought down inside the penalty area, the referee had no choice but to point to the spot. Tope Obadeyi stepped up and placed it nicely into the right side netting, to give his team a two-goal advantage early in the second half.

Both teams then shared spells in possession for around 20 minutes, however neither side managed to create any meaningful chances from them.

Then came the 68th minute, when that man Dom McHale found himself yet again in more space, drove at the Green Army's right back and cut it back to Kieran Phillips for his seventh league goal of the season after a lengthy absence throuhg injury, making it 4-1 in front of the home support.

Shortly after, the City captain and number 10 was not done there and he captialised on a quickly taken corner, rounded Sykes-Kenworthy and placed the ball into the empty net for his second of the day, and fourth goal involvemet.

Steven King's side managed to see out any attacking threat from The Green Army and secured all three points at the TigerTurf, moving The Tigers up to ninth place in the standings.

Next up for City is an away trip to 18th place Curzon Ashton on Saturday in which they will look for another three points.