Bantams stick boot into Cobblers

Nahki Wells scored a hat-trick as Bradford ended their poor away run with a comfortable 3-1 victory at Northampton.

The impressive Wells gave City an 11th minute lead, racing on on to Craig Fagan's defence-splitting pass to calmly round Neal Kitson and finish with ease. Either side of the opening goal, Fagan headed Michael Jacobs' inswinging corner off the line and Ben Tozer struck the crossbar for the hosts after Adebayo Akinfenwa headed down a Blair Adams free-kick.

Top scorer James Hanson should have made it 2-0 in the 25th minute but he headed wide from Reid's excellent cross after another quick break. However, Hanson was in the right place moments later to hack Akinfenwa's close-range effort off the line.

Bradford did doubled their lead six minutes before the break when Hanson headed down Reid's free-kick and Wells netted with a neat overhead kick, despite Kitson getting a hand to the ball.

Northampton had another effort cleared off the line on the stroke of half-time when Simon Ramsden denied Adams before Cobblers captain Clarke Carlisle reduced the arrears seven minutes after the restart, forcing the ball home from close range after City failed to clear Jacobs' corner. But straight from the kick-off, City skipper Ricky Ravenhill put Wells away and he completed his hat-trick with a deft lob over the advancing Kitson.

There was still time for Kelvin Langmead to see his header hit the crossbar and for Luke Guttridge to have a goalbound effort deflected over by Luke Oliver but Northampton were left to rue missed chances while Wells took all three that came his way.