Bradford continued with their resurgence with a fourth straight victory in League Two as they came from behind to win 3-1 at Doncaster.

A brace from Andy Cook and a Tyler Smith strike saw Graham Alexander’s side turn the game on its head after Joe Ironside had given the hosts an early lead.

Ironside blocked an attempted clearance from Bradford goalkeeper Harry Lewis and curled in from close to the byline to give Doncaster the advantage after seven minutes.

Bradford responded well to falling behind and went close through Matthew Platt and Cook before finding the equaliser after 27 minutes.

Cook shrugged off his marker and planted a header home from a Jamie Walker corner.

And the Bantams went ahead after 43 minutes when Cook slid the ball into the box for strike partner Smith, who curled a fine effort into the far corner from 15 yards.

Chances were few and far between in the second half, but Cook wrapped up the win in the 85th minute when he swept home an Alex Gilliead centre from 12 yards.

Barrow extended their record winning run to seven games as Ben Whitfield’s brace helped earn them a 3-1 victory at rivals Crewe.

Whitfield opened the scoring in the 28th minute and his second, which restored Barrow’s two-goal advantage late on, was the striker’s seventh goal of the campaign.

Ged Garner had doubled the visitors’ lead with a penalty just after the break, only for Elliott Nevitt to hit back for Crewe.

When David Worrall lofted a high ball into the box, Whitfield offered a deft touch, turning and clipping the ball past rookie goalkeeper Tom Booth, who had been drafted into Crewe’s starting XI in place of on-loan Liverpool keeper Harvey Davies.

At the other end, Barrow keeper Paul Farman used his feet to keep out Aaron Rowe’s inswinging corner at the near post.

Garner sent a header from Elliot Newby’s cross a yard wide of the far post.

Peter Wild’s side started the second half on the front foot and Booth turned away Kian Spence’s 20-yard effort.

And the home side were stretched again when Newby sent in a cross from the left, with Crewe skipper Mickey Demetriou adjudged to have held former Alex man George Ray as he attempted to apply a headed finish at the far post.

Garner stepped up and drove the resulting penalty into the bottom corner off a post.

Crewe halved the deficit soon after, with Nevitt rising highest to thump a header home from Rio Adebisi’s corner.

Substitute Robbie Gotts went close with a far-post volley and he set up Whitfield to restore Barrow two-goal advantage, with the striker’s powerful header leaving Booth helpless as it dropped into the bottom corner in the 76th minute.

Colchester ended a run of five successive league defeats with a 2-1 home win over fellow strugglers Salford.

Salford goalkeeper Alex Cairns denied Cameron McGeehan in the third minute, while at the other end Ryan Watson’s first-time effort as straight at Owen Goodman.

Cairns then foiled Colchester midfielder Arthur Read at his near post before Goodman did well to deny Salford’s Conor McAleny after he had exchanged passes with Kelly N’Mai and raced through on goal.

Colchester’s top-scorer Joe Taylor broke the deadlock in the 42nd minute when his scuffed shot from close range beat Cairns after McGeehan had helped on Mandela Egbo’s delivery into his path.

Cairns denied McGeehan and Jayden Fevrier before substitute Chay Cooper doubled Colchester’s lead in the 89th minute when he latched on to John Akinde’s pass and slotted past Cairns.

McAleny gave Salford hope with a superb strike from the edge of the area in the first minute of stoppage time, but Colchester held on for a vital victory.

Troy Deeney’s first game in management yielded a point as his Forest Green side drew 0-0 with Gillingham

Rovers goalkeeper Luke Daniels had to be in top form to keep out the visitors.

A draw left struggling Forest Green five points from safety, while the Gills lost ground on the play-off places.

Ryan Inniss headed over the crossbar from a deep corner in the first couple of minutes as Deeney’s side started at a frantic pace.

Charlie McCann found Forest Green forward Callum Morton inside the area, but his side-foot finish was parried by visiting goalkeeper Jake Turner.

Macauley Bonne headed straight at Rovers keeper Daniels following Timothee Dieng’s cross in Gillingham’s best effort before the break.

Jonny Williams delivered an inch-perfect corner for Dieng, but his free header was smartly saved by Daniels.

Jayden Clarke’s curling effort just minutes later few just past the far post, but both sides settled for a point.

Troy Deeney has been appointed Forest Green head coach following the departure of David Horseman.

Deeney joined the Sky Bet League Two club as player-coach in August after playing over 600 games for Walsall, Watford – where he spent 11 years from 2010 to 2021 – and Birmingham.

“I am very pleased and honoured to be appointed as the new head coach,” Deeney told the official Forest Green website.

“I know the fans will have many questions, which will be answered as soon as possible.

“We will not hide from the task at hand and will be open and honest along the way.

“One thing I can assure everyone is that we will work our very hardest to bring this wonderful club back to success.

“This is an exciting new role with many challenges that I’ll embrace and there’s a lot of work for us to do, which has already started.”

Horseman was appointed in July after Forest Green made headlines by putting academy manager Hannah Dingley in caretaker charge to become the first woman at the helm of an English Football League club on a brief interim basis.

Assistant coach Louis Carey has also left the club with Forest Green one place off the foot of League Two in 23rd position.

Forest Green chairman Dale Vince said: “I’d like to thank David and Louis for all they have done here and wish them the best for the future.

“I wish we had more time, but we’re at the halfway mark of the season and need to act decisively to improve our performances and league position.

“Troy came to us to begin his career in coaching and take the next step of his career – this is happening sooner than expected but he’s built strong relationships already with our staff, squad and fans – and is well placed for the challenge.

“We’ll strengthen our squad in the coming transfer window as well, to give ourselves the best chance of first securing our place in League Two before looking upward once more, toward League One and beyond.”

Deeney will take charge for the first time at home to Gillingham on Friday.

Troy Deeney has been appointed Forest Green head coach following the departure of David Horseman.

Deeney joined the Sky Bet League Two club as player-coach in August after playing over 600 games for Walsall, Watford – where he spent 11 years from 2010 to 2021 – and Birmingham.

“I am very pleased and honoured to be appointed as the new head coach,” Deeney told the official Forest Green website.

“I know the fans will have many questions, which will be answered as soon as possible.

“We will not hide from the task at hand and will be open and honest along the way.

“One thing I can assure everyone is that we will work our very hardest to bring this wonderful club back to success.

“This is an exciting new role with many challenges that I’ll embrace and there’s a lot of work for us to do, which has already started.”

Horseman was appointed in July after Forest Green made headlines by putting academy manager Hannah Dingley in caretaker charge to become the first woman at the helm of an English Football League club on a brief interim basis.

Assistant coach Louis Carey has also left the club with Forest Green one place off the foot of League Two in 23rd position.

Forest Green chairman Dale Vince said: “I’d like to thank David and Louis for all they have done here and wish them the best for the future.

“I wish we had more time, but we’re at the halfway mark of the season and need to act decisively to improve our performances and league position.

“Troy came to us to begin his career in coaching and take the next step of his career – this is happening sooner than expected but he’s built strong relationships already with our staff, squad and fans – and is well placed for the challenge.

“We’ll strengthen our squad in the coming transfer window as well, to give ourselves the best chance of first securing our place in League Two before looking upward once more, toward League One and beyond.”

Deeney will take charge for the first time at home to Gillingham on Friday.

Former English Football League chief executive Shaun Harvey has been appointed as a director at Wrexham, the League Two club have announced.

Harvey, who has also held senior roles at Leeds and Bradford, had been an advisor at the Welsh club since their takeover by actors Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds in February 2021.

Executive director Humphrey Ker said: “Shaun has been at the heart of everything the club has achieved since the takeover, and his elevation to the board is both a recognition of his contributions and a formalisation of the role he has fulfilled for the last few years.”

Fuming manager Luke Williams questioned whether his players are too scared to play for “a big club like Notts County” following a 3-1 loss at Harrogate.

Goals from George Thomson, Abraham Odoh and Matty Daly saw Harrogate deservedly end their seven-game run without a home win, despite Jodi Jones replying with a spectacular free-kick for the visitors.

That proved the only highlight, though, for an off-form County team, who have now lost six of their last eight fixtures.

Such was Williams’ frustration that he could barely be heard during his post-match interview having shouted himself hoarse just quarter-of-an-hour into the contest.

“The performance was terrible to be quite honest,” he seethed. “If you want to play for a big club like Notts County, you can’t be scared to play football.

“Nor can you play with such a lack of energy and be so soft defensively. For their first goal, we allowed them to run into space and have a shot no problem and I lost my voice after 15 minutes because I was screaming at the players to react to the turnovers. So, it was very hard for me to communicate after that, not that anyone was listening to me.

“We didn’t make enough forward passes and ended up with our goalkeeper having the ball too many times and Harrogate were very well-organised. But, then, when he had to play it long, nobody wanted to fight for it.

“I feel really hurt and so disappointed because, even when we got back in the game, we then immediately capitulated for their third goal.”

Harrogate boss Simon Weaver hailed his side’s on-field intelligence as they outwitted the one-time Sky Bet League Two leaders.

“It was a good day,” Weaver declared. “We started fast and tried to break and close them down, because we knew we had to stop their flow, as they are a talented team who can cause all sides at this level lots of problems.

“We then produced some good finishes from flowing counter-attacks. We rode the storm after they scored a fantastic free-kick, but it was a perfect response to score shortly afterwards.

“We have got some bright and intelligent footballers who pick up on things quickly during games and you need that when you’re up against a talented coach like Luke Williams who sees things on the pitch and makes changes.”

Daly, who had a hand in all three goals, earned particular praise from Weaver.

“He is growing in stature all the time, which is very pleasing,” the Harrogate chief enthused.

Weaver also hailed the performance of returning promotion-winning hero James Belshaw, who made his second debut for the club in goal after being recruited on an emergency loan from Bristol Rovers.

“He has added to the changing room with his enthusiasm, energy and passion for the club, which has been nice to see,” Weaver said.

“He also made a fantastic stop in the first half that helped change the course of the game.”

Stockport boss Dave Challinor got the response he wanted from his Stockport side after their midweek FA Cup exit but admitted he felt sorry for Sutton after the 8-0 League Two thrashing.

Ryan Croasdale’s brace plus Kyle Wootton and Paddy Madden’s efforts put County four ahead by half-time.

The rout was completed afterwards by Madden and substitutes Joel Cotterill and Isaac Olaofe, plus the former’s injury-time penalty which completed a hat-trick for the Irishman as County maintained their place as League Two leaders.

County were stunned after being dumped out of the FA Cup by non-league Aldershot in midweek, and Challinor was pleased by the response from his team against the League Two bottom side.

He said: “I’m much happier in one instance.

“I take great pleasure and great pride out of the result and on the flip side, not great pride in the fact that Matt (Gray) and his staff are probably the most honest group that we’ll mix with and I feel really sorry for them today because that’s not them.

“They’re probably the most hardworking and most honest group that have got success based on that and we’ve been really really clinical today and bounced back from Wednesday.

“I know he’ll be feeling exactly the same as I was feeling on Wednesday and hopefully he can get the same reaction from his players because they’ve been on a decent run. No one, me included, would expect them to be in the position they are in the table.

“I think regardless of the result – and I know that’s easy to say after you’ve just scored eight – the performance is much, much better.”

Sutton boss Matt Gray admitted he was left embarrassed by the worst performance and result in his managerial career, with the U’s now six points from safety.

He said: “This is my fifth season as a manager and I’ve never apologised to my supporters ever and I certainly would apologise to them for today.

“It’s the worst scoreline and performance of my managerial career so it’s a really hard one to take.

“The teams were worlds apart. They’re a wounded animal from Wednesday night with their performance and result.

“I warned the players about that as well, so the start of the game was horrendous from us and to concede the goals that we conceded in the opening 20 minutes of the game was just totally not acceptable – the game’s lost and out of our reach.

“I don’t know if I can answer what went wrong right now. I’ve said the start of the game and the goals we’ve conceded but they came out firing off the back of a result on Wednesday and we looked like a team that hadn’t played for two weeks.”

Beleaguered Forest Green boss David Horseman said “everyone has got to do better” as their poor run continued with a 2-0 defeat at MK Dons.

First-half goals from Max Dean and Jack Payne made the difference at Stadium MK to keep Rovers in the bottom two, five points from safety, following a fifth league match without a win.

They have not scored in the last three of those and Horseman knows the tide must turn if they are to avoid a second successive relegation.

“We’ll keep working with it and keep going,” he said. “That’s the only choice.

“But sometimes you have to look at winning and you have to say that me, them, everyone has got to do better.

“It hasn’t been good enough. We have got some good players in the dressing room and they do care, but it’s just not quite working at the moment.

“We’re still second from bottom and still five points cut adrift from the next team.

“For all these promising things that we see and that we work on, if you don’t execute it, it means absolutely nothing. That has been our problem since day one.”

Rovers nearly fell behind early on against their in-form hosts when Payne’s free-kick narrowly cleared the bar.

The hosts then opened the scoring as Dean controlled Joe Tomlinson’s cut-back, evaded a defender and fired a shot across Luke Daniels into the bottom corner.

Conor Grant fired wide when well-placed, but the lead was doubled when Tomlinson’s cross picked out Payne, who hit a firm strike into the back of the net.

Troy Deeney and substitute Matty Stevens missed the target with chances either side of the break and Deeney saw another late effort cleared off the line as Dons stretched their unbeaten run to six league matches.

“We had to show different sides of our character, especially in the second half,” said Dons boss Mike Williamson.

“We had to defend well and we showed we were tough to beat. The football we played was, in patches, really pleasing.

“You could see we were playing through what we were trying to achieve and you could see the patterns we’d worked on.

“First half, we got our two goals and second, maybe it was tiredness, but we got into the final third a handful of times and the quality let us down.

“Obviously, the dynamics changed in the second half where they had opportunities to take some more risks and to press us.

“It was a different puzzle and we had to find our way through. I think there were moments where another day, we could’ve got the third and that would have put it to bed.”

Phil Parkinson praised a “colossus effort” from Wrexham after they beat his former club Colchester 2-1 despite playing for more than an hour with only 10 men.

Wrexham had taken a fourth-minute lead through Elliot Lee, who fired home at the second attempt from eight yards, following Ben Tozer’s long throw.

But the hosts’ George Evans was sent off in the 26th minute following a bad challenge on Cameron McGeehan.

However, Wrexham got some breathing space when Zach Mitchell sliced James McClean’s delivery into his own net in the 70th minute.

And although Jayden Fevrier pulled a goal back for Colchester in the 89th minute after goalkeeper Mark Howard had denied McGeehan, Wrexham claimed victory.

Parkinson said: “That’s a colossus effort from the lads and I’m very proud of the performance today.

“We got the early goal and then the sending off. Colchester have got some good technical players and some dangerous players, in and around the box.

“In the first half, from the sending off to half-time, I thought we sat a bit deep and didn’t engage in our own final third or the middle third or get enough passes in.

“We said to the players at half-time that we don’t want to play survival football and just sit back and wait for them to score.

“We’re good enough to make passes in the game and I felt we did that really well in the second period. We pushed our wing-backs on to their full-backs and defended as we would normally defend.

“We showed a nice coolness in possession and it’s a real effort from the lads.”

Colchester have now lost five successive league games and their head coach Matty Etherington was disappointed they did not make more of their one-man advantage.

Etherington said: “I think it was an opportunity missed.

“They obviously went ahead early on but I thought we started the game really good. We didn’t threaten their goal enough in the second half.

“I thought we were the better team in the first half. When they went down to 10 men, we knew that they were going to sit off, 5-3-1, and plug up the gaps so it can be difficult.

“We spoke at half-time about what we need to do to try and affect them and I don’t think we did it well enough to be blatantly honest, and that was disappointing. We got the goal but it was too late.

“We could have carried more of a goal threat potentially but it was just disappointing the manner of the goals that we conceded.

“It’s really hampering us at the minute and making life a lot more difficult when we are playing well.”

Stephen Clemence admitted that his mentor Steve Bruce would not have been impressed at Gillingham’s defending after sloppy work at the back led to a 2-0 home defeat to Bradford.

Goals from Jamie Walker and Andy Cook were enough to clinch a fifth straight win for Graham Alexander’s side, handing Clemence his first home league defeat since he took over at the start of November.

The former Premier League midfielder, who spent time under Bruce at various clubs, explained how his former boss would have been disappointed by the showing at Priestfield Stadium.

He said: “They’ve had two shots on target and they’ve scored two goals. It’s about mentality. You’ve got to keep going and keep doing the right things. You can’t get a scrambled brain every time you go behind. You’ve got to get the basics right and compete properly.

“I can pick up the phone to a number of people to try and help me, but I am the one who has to make the decisions now. I have to choose who I speak to carefully and people I really trust and go forward with my decision.

“I speak to people like Steve Bruce all the time. We’ve just kept two clean sheets before this, but here we give two goals away. He wouldn’t like that very much – and I don’t like it very much either.”

Gillingham had the better of the early chances, Macauley Bonne’s flick-on from Connor Mahoney’s corner brilliantly palmed away by Harry Lewis.

Instead, it was Bradford who hit the front just after the half-hour as Scott Malone was pickpocketed deep in his own half by Alex Gilliead, who squared to Walker for the simple finish from 12 yards.

Gillingham pushed for an equaliser after the break, with Mahoney posing questions from set-pieces and Max Ehmer heading over when well placed.

But it was Bradford who doubled their lead on 74 minutes, Cook firing his free-kick under the wall from 25 yards out.

Alexander said: “That was the toughest game we’ve played, with everything coming to this venue brings and we stood up to it really well. I do feel the players are in a good place.

“We spoke at half-time that their crowd, the players, their team were going to put a lot of pressure on the officials to give free-kicks and maybe throw cards out there.

“We asked for discipline and then have three yellows in five minutes and give away free-kick after free-kick. It didn’t quite go according to plan on that side but when the ball did come into the box we were there to compete and put our bodies on the line.”

On Lewis’ save from Bonne, he added: “Harry’s not been tested that much in the last few games. But what he’s had to do, he’s done really competently.

“That’s probably the first one when you’ve gone, ‘that’s a fantastic save’. He was really sharp on his line and those are the little moments that we have to make sure go our way.”

Morecambe manager Ged Brannan admitted he had mixed feelings after on-loan Burnley striker Michael Mellon netted twice in the 5-0 demolition of Doncaster.

The 20-year-old moved to 13 goals in League Two for the season with his brace in Brannan’s first win in charge of the Shrimps.

While delighted with the overall performance, he fears Mellon’s hot streak in front of goal may count against Morecambe as they seek to keep the youngster until the end of the season.

“It’s tremendous – but it’s not!” he said. “The more goals he scores, the less chance there is of us keeping him in January.

“I want him to go on and do really well, I really do. It’d hurt us if we lost him but that’s football.

“He deserves everything he gets. He’s a top player and getting to 13 already is just fantastic. If you give him the ball around the area, it’s a goal.”

Alongside Mellon’s two strikes, goals from Eli King, captain Jacob Bedeau and David Tutonda saw Morecambe cruise to the win.

On the performance, which ended a five-game winless run for Morecambe, Brannan was delighted.

“I was just made up with the way the lads played and I’m just delighted we kept the clean sheet as well,” he said. “I just said to the lads, let’s pass the ball and the passing was unbelievable.

“Everyone looked comfortable on the ball, they all wanted it. It was just an all-round top performance.”

Grant McCann cancelled the usual Sunday off for his Doncaster side as he embarked on an inquest into the heavy defeat.

McCann had little to say to his players in the immediate aftermath of a loss he labelled ‘unacceptable’ and called them into training to analyse the issues behind the poor performance.

“It’s a difficult one to talk about straight after the game and I’d like to watch it back,” he said.
“The players will watch it back because they’re in on Sunday to do that.

“We need to go into this period and a busy week by getting that out of the way ASAP – by watching it back and looking at the areas where we can get better. That was just not acceptable. It might be the worst performance.

“Usually the boys would have a Sunday off but we need to address it as soon as possible.

“I said in the build-up that we can beat anyone in this division when we’re at it but we can also get absolutely battered by anyone when we’re not.

“I’m really disappointed with what I’ve seen and we need to get better at being more streetwise and savvy when we’re under the cosh.”

Boss Nigel Clough hailed a “hugely important” win as Mansfield clinched a 3-1 victory at 10-man Crawley, their first success in three Sky Bet League Two outings.

Clough felt it was critical that his side achieved maximum points, with the top three also winning.

Second-half goals from Davis Keillor-Dunn and George Maris turned the match in fourth-placed Mansfield’s favour, after a Danilo Orsi penalty had cancelled out Baily Cargill’s opener.

The Stags had not played for 17 days and Clough said: “It was hugely important.

“We have five games over the Christmas period, including this one, and it’s lovely to start with a win.”

Clough admitted the long lay-off was far from ideal for his men and added: “At times we looked rusty physically and especially mentally.

“At 1-0 up we were in control of the game and the penalty was an unusual and strange decision.”

Referee Scott Simpson penalised Lucas Akins for fouling Adam Campbell and Clough said: “We’ve had it all season, players being held in the box. But this was given for a shirt pull when the ball is 20 or 30 yards away.”

The 57-year-old praised substitute Stephen Quinn for being involved in both second-half goals and also described Cargill’s opener as “a wonderful goal.”

“All three were great goals, and it was great old fashioned wing play with the brilliant cross for Cargill.”

Crawley boss Scott Lindsey felt defender Jay Williams was unlucky to be sent off as his side suffered only their fifth home league defeat since last Boxing Day.

Williams received two successive yellow cards, with a foul on Quinn followed by dissent, and Lindsey said: “He didn’t deserve it.”

The former Swindon boss felt his men were too slow in their possession at times and revealed: “I felt the big moments in the game Mansfield managed better than us. But we are a young team and we’re learning on the job.

“The second goal killed us and we didn’t defend that moment very well.”

The Red Devils are only two points away from a play-off place and Lindsey feels they are on target for where he thought they should be.

He added: “We want to keep in touch, keep chipping away and pick up points. Hopefully we will be in and around it for a push at the end of the season.”

Crewe boss Lee Bell slammed the fans who booed young goalkeeper Harvey Davies after his mistakes helped Accrington stage a late fightback in a 3-3 draw at Gresty Road.

Davies, 20, was caught out by Ben Woods’ ambitious long-range drive which found the corner of the net for Stanley’s equaliser in the 87th minute.

The keeper then failed to hold a cross-shot, which bounced in front of him, and Josh Woods forced the ball in to put the visitors ahead in the sixth minute of stoppage time.

Crewe had been down to 10 men after skipper Luke Offord’s sending off in the 80th minute but they still managed to salvage a point with a stunning finish from Elliott Nevitt, with the striker breaking away and finding the top corner with a blistering finish in the eighth minute of added-on time.

The home side had twice led through goals from Aaron Rowe and Mickey Demetriou, which sandwiched Jack Nolan’s equaliser, but are now without a win in their last three games.

Bell said: “Our keeper has had a tough afternoon but I was really disappointed with the reaction and what happened afterwards. He is working so hard to improve and he is a smashing fellow.

“It shouldn’t happen at any stadium that reaction to any of your own players.

“I would say the fans should back their players when they make mistakes and if they want to vent their feelings they can come to me afterwards – I thought the reaction was poor.

“But there was a lot of time added on by the referee and it gave us time to get an equaliser, which was an unbelievable finish from Elliott. He deserved a chance to start and he took it with a great goal.

“I am really relieved to get a point but looking back over the whole game we should have won.

“The goals we conceded were highly avoidable but the endeavour of the players showed through and we got a point out of it which shows the character we have got within the group.”

Stanley boss John Coleman was proud of his side’s second-half showing but was left seething about their failure to defend the long ball from which Nevitt went on to score.

“It feels like a defeat even though I thought we were outstanding in the second half with the way we pinned Crewe back,” said Coleman.

“The only shot on target they had then was the last kick of the game. But we only have ourselves to blame for that as we didn’t defend the long ball.

“However, considering the amount of injuries we’ve got – and we’ve now lost Joey Pritchard to injury – the young players have done very well.

“The average age of the team is around 22 but we took the game to Crewe. We can be proud of the way we played and the way we dragged ourselves back into the game.

“It is hard to be critical but I am seething with their goal and so disappointed we couldn’t defend that.”