Bradford City 1-4 Burnley: Andre Gray scores twice in convincing pre-season win

July 23, 2016

Burnley's pre-season preparations took a turn for the better on Saturday afternoon as they thumped League One opposition Bradford City.

Three goals in five first-half minutes put the Clarets firmly in control at the Northern Commercials Stadium - in a display that would have pleased manager Sean Dyche.

Star striker Andre Gray opened the scoring on 15 minutes - and in truth the Premier League outfit never looked back after that.

MATCH FACTS

Bradford City (4-4-2): Doyle, McMahon, N Clarke, Knight-Percival, Devine, Marshall, Dieng, Law, Anderson, Morais, B Clarke.

Subs: Sattelmaier, Boateng, Agnew, Hiwula, Webb-Foster, Payne.

Goal: Morais

Burnley: Heaton (Pope 46), Darikwa (Lowton 73), Keane (K Long 73), Mee (Tarkowski 73), Ward (Lafferty 66), Arfield (Ginnelly 81), Marney (Ulvestad 66), Jones (O’Neill 81), Boyd (Kightly 73), Gray (Agyei 66), Barnes (Jutkiewicz 44) (Hennings 46).

Subs not used: Aghayere, Agyei

Goals: Gray 15 and 17, Mee 21, Kightly 79

The 25-year-old netted his third strike of pre-season with a clinical header following a sweeping move. George Boyd found Stephen Ward out wide before overlapping to cross for Gray at the the near post.

It was two in two minutes for Gray soon after as he demonstrated he is as good with his feet as he is his head.

Played through by Dean Marney's perfect through ball, the current Championship player of the year wonderfully lobbed Bradford goalkeeper Colin Doyle from 15 yards.

At this point Bradford simply had no answer to Burnley and things soon got worse for Stuart McCall's side as the visitors extended their lead.

Following a David Jones corner, defender Ben Mee rose highest to powerfully head home from six yards.

That goal finally drew a response from the hosts who came close to scoring through Billy Clarke, Paul Anderson and Filipe Morais. The former hitting the post from a tight angle.

However, just before half-time Bradford did pull one back when Morais pounced to score after Clarke's initial effort was saved was by Tom Heaton.

The second half saw a string of substitutions and it was one of those who completed the scoring for Burnley.

Michael Kightly, who came on in the 73rd minute, added a fourth from close range after Tendayi Darikwa's low cross wasn't cleared properly.