Shrewsbury 2 Bradford 0

Shrewsbury Town’s youngsters have a pre-Christmas trip to Ipswich to look forward to after reaching the third round of the FA Youth Cup for the second successive year.

Goals from  Welsh under-17 international Gareth Partridge and Will Richards settled an encounter which was always competitive, despite Town holding the upper hand throughout.

And Head of Youth Nigel Vaughan was delighted with his team’s efforts.

“We’re going to Ipswich to take on an academy side and that’s something I wanted and the lads wanted,” said Vaughan.

“We had a couple of early chances and I just felt it was going to be one of those nights.

“But we always looked to create chances. I went to watch Bradford against Scunthorpe and I felt there was a lot of space behind their back four and we worked all week on that.”

Shrewsbury set a high tempo from the opening whistle with Andre Gray twice going close, while a scramble ensued from an Aaron Gibson corner which Bradford were forced to clear off the line.

The pacy visitors remained a threat on the counter-attack and Nathan Clarke wasted their best chance of the night when he found his way through Town’s back four all too easily.

But Shrewsbury remained on top and Tom Batchelor had a goal disallowed for offside before Richards and Gibson both wasted golden opportunities.

Town’s pressure, however, finally paid off with 20 minutes remaining when a cross from Thomas Dix was half cleared and the impressive Partridge perfectly struck a sweet 20-yard volley which rifled into the bottom corner.

Bradford protested about a foul in the lead-up to that opening goal, but they could have no complaints about the decisive second which arrived seven minutes later when Richards fired home from close range after a Jan Coulston cross wasn’t cleared.

Shrewsbury: Maguire, Farmer (Keyes 84), Hooman, Batchleor, Gibson, Coulston, Dix (Turner 89), Richards, Taylor, Partridge (Davey 90), Gray. Subs not used: Flynn, Evitts.

By James Garrison