Colin Calderwood ‘annoyed’ by red card decision

Cambridge boss Colin Calderwood was “annoyed” at referee Ollie Yates’ decision to send off midfielder Liam O’Neil but pleased with a point in a goalless draw at relegated Bradford.

O’Neil was shown a red card on the hour for tripping Clayton Donaldson, one of five new players in the Bantams’ starting line-up, seconds after the striker’s foul on Dan Jones had gone unpunished.

“I am annoyed about the decision to send him off,” said Calderwood. “I want to see it again, but it wasn’t violent. It should have been a yellow card, not a red.

“I know we moan about referees, but he definitely got that one wrong.”

In a game of few clear-cut chances, Bradford came closest to scoring in the first half through James Vaughan’s overhead-kick attempt.

He also saw a close-range header bounce past a post from Kelvin Mellor’s cross five minutes before half-time and had one of his side’s best second-half chances only to shoot straight at goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov.

“This is a difficult place to come and gain anything,” Calderwood continued. “I thought we played well with 10 men and I was pleased with the attitude and application.”

Bradford manager Gary Bowyer said: “I knew what to expect in this league – it is going to be tough and that was the case today.

“We started the game very well and after the first 10 minutes when both teams were nervous – which was to be expected – we dominated possession and were terrific going forward and what we worked on in training turned out well.

“James Vaughan could have had one of the goals of the season with an unbelievable bit of skill but the ball hit the bar and then he had a chance with a header.

“The sending-off was correct and the referee did well with that, but it was a foul the other way just before that.

“There were lots of positives from the game – we kept a clean sheet and individual performances were very good and collectively we did well.

“We had 22 attempts on goal, but not enough were on target and didn’t work their keeper enough.”