Wanderers lack cutting edge

But at least it provided further evidence if it was needed that Wanderers are continuing to hone their defensive troops into a unit capable of forming the foundation to a serious promotion challenge.

Wanderers were going nowhere before Colin Todd struck a double loan deal which saw Newsome come in followed two games later by Paul Warhurst.

A sloppy defensive operation had conceded 13 goals in its previous seven games. In the following seven that goals against figure has been reduced to just three and the contrast in cohesion and confidence along the back line has been staggering.

The message is clear - if Wanderers don't want to start gift-wrapping a chance of victory to their First Division rivals again they must do all in their power to buy themselves either Newsome or Warhurst as a late Christmas present.

The chance of the former returning to the Reebok Stadium could be scuppered by a difference in fee valuations but there are no such major problems with Warhurst who wants to come and Wanderers want to sign him and can afford him.

He has done his chances of the permanent move he craves no harm with a string of solid and assured performances of which Saturday's was arguably the best. Without the towering Newsome alongside him, he successfully took on the role of head man at the heart of the defence, directing operations and helping Mark Fish settle back in after four games on the sidelines.

And Fish, for one, hopes to have his latest partner alongside him a long time after the last game of his one-month loan at Port Vale this afternoon.

"He has done very well for us and the players would like him to stay but that's up to the administration of the club," said Fish.

He has been in the game a long time and he is a good player. He's also a good talker on the pitch and you need someone like that next to you when you have been out for four games as I have.

"It was also a good defensive display by the team."

What Wanderers gained at the back, however, they lost at the other end where they only rarely showed flashes of a serious cutting edge.

Neither striker was a disappointment. Bob Taylor and Dean Holdsworth, in for the recently off key Arnar Gunnlaugsson, both had chances and got through a mountain of work. But the end product was all a little too predictable for the visitors who left Bolton believing they could have got more out of the game.

"If we had been offered a point before the game we would have taken it," admitted Bradford boss Paul Jewell.

"But we matched them without ever really playing that well.

"Bolton are a good side but we restricted them to long range efforts and I expected us to cause them a few more problems than we did." Wanderers had the only clearcut chance of the first half when Claus Jensen cleverly sent Holdsworth bearing in on Gary Walsh's goal only for the keeper to get down smartly to save the striker's angled low drive.

Walsh's opposite number Jussi Jaaskelainen gave his side palpitations when he spilled Peter Beagrie's fierce rising drive but quickly recovered to punch the loose ball clear with two strikers about to pounce.

But the biggest talking point of the opening 45 minutes was referee Steve Baines' rejection of three noisy penalty appeals by Wanderers which sparked scenes of wild celebration by the home fans when he awarded their team a throw-in.

The tempo rose after the break as Bradford came out showing the style which had earned them maximum points from their previous three games and third place in the table.

Dangerman Robbie Blake produced a dazzling run and shot that severely tested Jaaskelainen's reflexes before another thrilling flash of the striker's trickery led to Stuart McCall thrashing in a 25-yard screamer which crashed against the outside of a post.

Ironically, Wanderers enjoyed their best spell of the match after a decision by Colin Todd to substitute Per Frandsen which incensed the Reebok faithful.

Unknown to the crowd the influential Dane was suffering with a virus which saw him go straight home to bed after the match. He didn't let it stop him running himself into the ground and it is to his credit that he still stood out before it was decided enough was enough. Wanderers then enjoyed their best spell of the game with three glorious chaces in four minutes as the balance of power of an intriguing clash swung sharply in their favour.

First Taylor smashed in a drive which Walsh spectacularly parried around the post. Then Neil Cox crashed a header from a Gunnlaugsson corner fractionally over before Scott Sellars's inviting inswinging cross gives Taylor a free header which he directs straight at Walsh.

Both sides were left thinking what might have been but neither argued that a draw was a fair result - and an appropriate one in the Christmas season of sharing.

"You are always disappointed when you don't pick up maximum points," lamented Todd.

"We had opportunites but not clear-cut ones and a draw was a fair result.

"The boys gave all the effort them could. Our problem was that we lost some balance in midfield with Michael Johansen not being there. We played Ricardo Gardner on the right and it didn't really function as I would have liked.

"People wondering why Per Frandsen was taken off should know that he was not feeling very well. He has got a virus and is on medication.

"His workrate was not what it usually is and there was no point in keeping him on and suffering out there."

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