Lincoln City U18s were defeated 2-0 by visitors Bradford City in Saturday morning's final match of the Football League Youth Alliance season, reports Dan Mooney.

After a scoreless first-half, goals from Oliver Forsyth and Joseph Mitchell saw the young Bantams return to Yorkshire with the three points. Lincoln carved out numerous chances but were unable to get back into the game.

With Andrew Hutchinson in Aldershot on first-team duty, Rob Brewer was restored to the line-up alongside Nathan Adams up front. Karl Cunningham returned on the right of midfield and carried the game to Bradford in the early stages.

On the quarter hour his cross flew right across goal, with no takers. Wilson retrieved the ball on the other wing and played in Adams, only for the linesman's flag to deny the in-form striker.

Bradford came into the game and blasted a dangerous looking free kick into the Lincoln wall on 26 minutes. Two minutes later a short corner was pulled back to Bradford's left-winger who shot wildly over.

Lincoln goalie Nicholas dived to his left to pull off a great save on 35 minutes. As the game surged to the other end, Adams could not get the ball down for a clean strike at goal.

His deep, hooked cross was headed behind, then Kern Miller rose to meet Josh Barker's corner but was penalised for an infringement.

Three minutes into the second half Bradford scored an offside 'goal'.

Two minutes later Nathan Adams tore down the left touchline and sent in a low, near-post cross which the keeper just managed to scramble behind under the attentions of Cunningham.

Enstone nodded Barker's corner back across goal to Cunningham, but his header was tipped over by Bradford's goalie.

As Lincoln pressed, Rob Brewer wrong-footed the defender and saw his effort blocked - as did Cunningham on the follow up.

Miller got on the end of two Jake Gibson corners, heading one over and seeing the other cleared off the line.

When James Wilson cut in and fired a shot just wide on the hour mark, it seemed a matter of time until the young Imps took the lead.

But Bradford's free-scoring Oliver Forsyth had other ideas, and he beat the offside flag to nip in ahead of Nicholas and give his side the lead.

Substitute winger Sam Turner and attacking left-back Jake Gibson carried the game to Bradford, but the Yorkshire men held firm in defence.

On 69 minutes Joseph Mitchell lashed Bradford into a 2-0 lead from a clever cut-back.

With the match slipping away from Lincoln, Cunningham dug out a shot but it was saved. Wilson and Turner also fired wide, while substitute attacker Josh Sweetnam hit an instinctive snapshot which the goalkeeper caught.

Having watched his side succumb to the two second-half goals, Grant Brown felt his players had invited trouble upon themselves.

The youth coach explained that, collectively, the young Imps had been below par.

"It was disappointing all over really," he said. "We didn't adapt well enough to their formation. They played with a fluid 4-3-3 and we never got to grips with it.

"Bradford passed the ball well, but we needed to work harder to stop them playing. Also we were a little bit predictable when in possession ourselves.

"It's not a good combination when you've got those two things together."

Brown admitted to disappointment at the young Imps' inability to fight their way back into the game.

"Conceding a goal knocked us back but you expect the players to respond in a positive manner," he said.

"I thought, particularly after the second goal went in, that we started to look a bit ragged. That was the most disappointing thing for me: that we lost a little bit of discipline at 2-0 down.

"Having said that, we still created chances all through the game. Perhaps it would have been unfair on Bradford but we could easily have got something out of the game. But they took their chances and we didn't."

With the youths' campaign now at an end, Brown explained what lies in store for the Imps' young hopefuls.

While the rest of us contemplate barbeques and long, lazy evenings, there will be no summer let-up for Brown's charges.

He said: "They'll have a programme to stick to and be working hard over the summer even when they're not coming in.

"We'll bring them in a few times to assess them and then they'll be back in on June 28th."