Ex-Cobbler ends Bradford City's top-three hopes with 101st-minute winner

Ex-Cobbler Chris Long scored a 101st-minute penalty as Crewe Alexandra ended Bradford City’s automatic promotion hopes with a dramatic 3-2 victory on Wednesday night.

After winning at Sixfields on Saturday, another victory in midweek would have given Bradford an outside chance of pipping Northampton and Stockport to third place on the final day of the season.

The Bantams trailed 2-0 at half-time after Daniel Agyei’s brace but looked to have the momentum when Andy Cook and Jamie Walker both scored within nine minutes of the restart to level things up.

However, Crewe stole victory at the death through Long’s penalty in the 11th-minute of stoppage-time. Long then seemed to confront Bantams boss Mark Hughes after the full-time whistle.

Hughs said: "The lad seemed to want to make a point and say hello. He got in my face. I wasn’t quite sure who he was, if I’m honest, so you’ll have to enlighten me. He seemed to want to put his face in my face and I didn’t appreciate that so, in the end, he went away.”

Bradford can no longer catch Northampton and aren’t yet assured of a play-off place going into Monday’s game against Leyton Orient.

The final automatic promotion place will be a straight shoot-out between the Cobblers and Stockport County.