BRADFORD City condemned rock bottom Southend United to a third home defeat in the space of eight days tonight.

The Shrimpers again produced a subdued display and were punished by the in-form Bantams who recorded a 3-1 victory at Roots Hall to leave Mark Molesley’s side in deep trouble.

Blues are two points from safety and have now played more matches then five of the six teams immediately above them in the standings.

The struggling hosts had early shouts for a penalty waved away by referee Trevor Kettle after Simeon Akinola went to ground in the box before Bradford hit back with Mark Oxley parrying away a low effort from Levi Sutton.

Moments later, Oxley did well to push Danny Rowe’s curling effort wide of the left post but Bradford were not to be denied for long and the Bantams broke the deadlock in the 23rd minute with Gareth Evans scoring his first League goal of the season.

The winger reacted sharply after Callum Cooke had been denied by Oxley and fired the rebound into the back of the South Stand net with a neat first time finish.

In reply, Akinola headed Shaun Hobson’s right wing cross straight at Bradford goalkeeper Sam Hornby from 18 yards before the Shrimpers drew back level in the 31st minute with Bwomono an unlikely goalscoring hero.

The defender did well to win the ball on the edge of Bradford’s box before striding forward and sending a well struck low effort into the back of the net via the inside of the left post.

The goal was Bwomono’s first since scoring against Lincoln City in February 2020 but, 12 minutes later, he came close to scoring again as he fired wide of the right post from close range after Reeco Hackett-Fairchild’s left wing cross had been parried out by Hornby.

After the break, Hackett-Fairchild fired wide of the left post from long range before the Bantams replied with Rowe twice going close to scoring from long range.

The striker saw his first effort superbly tipped onto the top of the crossbar by Oxley before also having another powerful shot pushed wide of the left post in fine fashion by the Shrimpers shot-stopper.

With play switching back to the other end of the field, Akinola then had a diving header gathered by Hornby at the second attempt.

But, with 57 minutes on the clock, Bradford regained the lead when Cooke charged forward and rolled a neat pass into the path of Rowe who stroked a low shot into the bottom right hand corner of the net from 12 yards.

The Shrimpers soon wasted a fine chance to equalise with Hackett-Fairchild blazing over from 12 yards and the visitors took full advantage by extending their lead in the 74th minute.

Cooke was again the provider with a fine through ball which Evans sprinted onto before firing an excellent left footed shot into the bottom right hand corner of the net.

Blues responded by bringing on both Richard Taylor and Emile Acquah but by then the damage had been done and Bradford comfortably held on to become the first team to do the double over Southend this season.