Bradford blew a chance to force their way into the automatic promotion places as they were held to a goalless draw by Darlington, who move up to eighth.

Michael Boulding squandered a chance for the hosts as he allowed Dan Gerken to smother his shot when clean through.

Peter Thorne went one better, seeing his dipping effort beat the keeper, but thump back off the crossbar to safety.

The Quakers almost snatched victory on 80 minutes as Pawel Abbott's thunderous effort was parried by Rhys Evans.

"We could have pinched all three points, we haven't played since 31 January - we had 18 days since our last game.

"We're not quite sure if we're going to be ring-rusty but came out sharp and bright and there was a real work ethic.

"It's not an easy place to come with 12,000 screaming fans but we'd settled for a point, we didn't have to win, we just needed to take some points from the game."

Bradford: Evans, Rehman, Lee, Clarke, O'Brien, Jones (Bullock 73), Law, Furman, Daley (Colbeck 23),Thorne (Conlon 78), Michael Boulding.
Subs Not Used: Arnison, McLaren.

Darlington: Gerken, Austin, White, Foster, Valentine, Purdie, Kennedy (Hulbert 83), Ravenhill, Tremarco (Hatch 67), Abbott, Carlton.
Subs Not Used: Miller, Kazimierczak, Poole.

Booked: White, Carlton.

Att: 12,782

Ref: Tony Bates (Staffordshire).

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