Predicting another clean sheet for the second home game in a row was always a bold ask - especially when you decide to leave the centre forward unmarked at a free-kick.

Scott McGleish, hardly the tallest fella on the field, went completely unnoticed at Sam Stockley's cross and gleefully accepted the gift to nod what turned out to be a very early winner.

Stuart McCall went spare at his dozing defence for switching off like that. As blunders go, it hardly registered on the Edgar Street richter scale but proved just as costly as another three points went begging.

Because, for 45 minutes at least, City treated the fans to the best half of football they have played at Valley Parade this season.

Operating with a crisp tempo and real edge in possession, City pinned Wycombe back from the opening whistle and the visitors could have been two down in the six minutes leading up to their goal.

Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu should have finished off a marvellous flowing move by burying a header from Tom Harban's cross; then rookie goalkeeper Frank Fielding plunged bravely at the feet of the in-rushing Omar Daley.

So far so good - until Daley's defensive shortcomings were exposed with a stupid trip on Sergio Torres. Wycombe were given their first chance to attack - and didn't need another.

City's frustrating afternoon was encapsulated by Daley on the right wing. Dazzling for spells; disappointing in front of goal; disjointed after the break.

When Daley is good, he's very, very good. The accelerator goes down and defenders struggle to hang on to his heels but it all breaks down when he reaches the penalty area.

The Jamaican could have had half a dozen goals by now. The fact he is still not off the mark highlights the problem.

McCall admitted: "His finishing is his big weakness, it has been from day one when he had the chance against Macclesfield and hit the outside of the post, but if he keeps putting himself in that position then it's got to turn for him.

"We do a lot of finishing practice in training. With the asset of the pace he's got then it's something you can work on and hopefully he can start scoring with the ratio of chances he's getting."

Daley's decisive moment arrived ten minutes before half-time. Slipping into overdrive, he cut inside Stockley and found himself bearing down one-on-one with Fielding.

The equaliser beckoned until Daley chose to shoot with his left foot instead of right. Fielding got a hand to it, though the ball was probably missing anyway.

The fact that referee Rob Shoebridge amazingly awarded a goal kick - one of several decisions the official got totally wrong - just added to City's sense of "here we go again".

There were other chances that went begging. Paul Evans whizzed a free-kick across the goal which only required the slightest of touches; David Wetherall's flicked header just beat Peter Thorne as well as the far post.

But City still went in behind at half-time and, like the three previous losses, when they are down at the interval they haven't come back and they were not the same force in the second half.

Kyle Nix, who got the left-wing nod over Alex Rhodes, set up Paul Heckingbottom early on but the defender wanted too much time in the box and wrongly went for the near post instead of across the keeper.

Daley had two shots charged down in a frantic scramble but Wycombe's back four stood firm in the face of increasingly frenzied home pressure.

Harban had a fine game at right back and just prevented Gary Holt from stealing a second from a Wycombe counter-attack, before Fielding justified his debut clean sheet with an outstanding save from Eddie Johnson.

The 19-year-old, borrowed from Blackburn on Friday, plunged to his left to claw away a free-kick that had goal written all over it.

City kept coming and Rhodes, on as a substitute, was not too far away. Then Thorne's hunt for a first City goal seemed over.

The striker looked to be held back as he burst on to a loose ball but he stayed on his feet to fire past the diving Fielding, only to watch in agony as his shot rolled the wrong side of the post.

Maybe City would have got a penalty if Thorne had gone down but, with the way the referee was behaving, that's a big maybe.

Shoebridge was unmoved by a late shout for handball from a Rhodes corner and Mark Bower needed too many touches as the resulting loose ball pinged around the penalty area.

Wycombe boss Paul Lambert could afford to be generous afterwards when he heaped praise on the "vibrant and vocal" home support.

"They shouldn't be stuck in this league," he said - but they will be if City don't stick their chances away.

Accrington on Tuesday night offers an immediate opportunity for atonement. It must be seized.

Telegraph & Argus

BRADFORD CITY	WYCOMBE WANDERERS
1 Donovan Ricketts	34 Frank Fielding
3 Paul Heckingbottom	4 Russell Martin
4 Paul Evans	7 David McCracken
5 David Wetherall	8 Stefan Oakes
6 Mark Bower	11 Martin Bullock
7 Omar Daley	15 Gary Holt
8 Eddie Johnson	16 John Sutton
10 Peter Thorne	17 Scott McGeish
17 Thomas Harban	20 Leon Johnson
22 Kyle Nix	22 Sergio Torres
24 Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu	25 Sam Stockley
SUBSTITUTES	SUBSTITUTES
2 Darren Williams	33 Przemyslaw Kazimierczak
9 Barry Conlon for 10 (87)	10 Matt Bloomfield for 8 (87)
11 Alex Rhodes for 4 (74)	12 Tom Williams for 4 (73)
15 Joe Colbeck	31 Andre Boucard
20 Scott Phelan for 22 (82)	32 Reuben Reid for 16 (69)

MATCH OFFICIALS:
Referee:	R L Shoebridge
Assistant Referee:	K J Mattocks
Assistant Referee:	R J Wigglesworth
4th Official:	D Unsworth

GOALSCORERS:
BRADFORD CITY	WYCOMBE WANDERERS
	McGleish (7)

DISCIPLINARY:
BRADFORD CITY	WYCOMBE WANDERERS
Daley (6)
	.