A painful reminder of the narrow margins which separate success from failure condemned Shrewsbury to their first League Two home defeat of the campaign.

Trailing 2-0 at half-time, Town staged a second period rally which twice saw them come within a width of the crossbar of levelling the scores.

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But the hosts were left wondering what might have been after Bradford recorded their first victory in 15 years at Shrewsbury, although even Bantams boss Stuart McCall was forced to admit his team had been aided by fortune during the closing stages.

“Let’s be honest, we rode our luck,” said McCall.

“But hand on heart, how many times since I’ve been in charge have we been able to say that?

“Something went for us and I feel sorry for Simmo and their team. They started really well first 10 or 15 minutes.

“We scored two very good goals and if they hadn’t scored at the time they did, I thought we would see it out quite comfortably.

“But it was a great finish by Hibbert and you know when you come here you are going to have to defend because they get good balls in.

“It was hard-fought and I’m the first to admit we haven’t deserved three points but we only had a fit squad of 17 and the endeavour was fantastic.”

Although Town were briefly subdued either side of half-time, they can reflect on a host of positives in defeat after bossing both ends of the game.

Indications it wasn’t to be Shrewsbury’s day came in the opening stages.

Nathan Elder was denied by a combination of a Simon Eastwood save and James Hanson clearance, Paul Murray looped a header onto the roof of the net, Graham Coughlan and Kelvin Langmead went close with headers and Dave Hibbert saw his overhead kick produce a spectacular stop from Eastwood.

It was the ultimate sucker punch, then, when Bradford took the lead with their opening attack on 15 minutes, Michael Flynn capitalising on being afford too much space in the penalty area to square for a Gareth Evans tap-in.

Bradford were to double the advantage 19 minutes later, Flynn giving Steve Phillips no chance with a spectacular 30-yard piledriver.

So sweet was the strike that it even drew applause from a section of the home supporters, although Flynn was again given the time to pick his spot.

Which brings us to one area of anxiety. It’s now no clean sheet in seven matches this season, a statistic which will continue to cause concern so long as Town have periods of defensive uncertainty throughout each game.

To their credit, Shrewsbury’s rearguard appeared much tighter after the break, Steve Phillips’ only work being to parry over two rasping efforts from distance from Flynn and Scott Neilson.

Instead, it was Shrewsbury posing the vast majority of the questions as balls were propelled into the Bradford penalty area from wide areas, with the introduction of the impressive Lewis Neal and Jake Robinson providing fresh impetus.

Jake Simpson, on his first full Football League start, became an increasingly influential figure and, shortly after Kelvin Langmead had headed against the bar, it was the winger’s cross which was expertly headed home by Dave Hibbert to give Shrewsbury hope on 69 minutes.

Simpson almost became the hero as he latched onto Neal’s through ball before blasting a shot from the edge of the box off the underside of the bar which bounced the wrong side of the line before rebounding to safety.

Still the pressure continued but, despite six minutes of added time at the end of the second half to accompany four at the conclusion of the first, the hosts couldn’t salvage a deserved share of the spoils.