Clarke response pleases Parky

Phil Parkinson was pleased to see Billy Clarke make the most of a late call up to score the winner in Bradford's 2-1 win at MK Dons.

The visitors lost striker James Hanson minutes before kick-off with a thigh injury but they were to record their third successive away win. Aaron Mclean's opener was quickly followed by Clarke's effort and Bradford held on after Dean Lewington pulled one back for the Dons. Parkinson said: "Billy had a job to do when we were without possession - he only knew he was playing two minutes before the game kicked off. "For his goal he was in the right position to make the switch of play difficult and he's then controlled the ball, ran through and scored a great goal. I thought Billy was excellent. "James Hanson just tweaked his thigh a bit in the warm-up so it was a quick reorganisation, not in how we were going to play but in terms of set plays because we had worked on them on the training ground. "I'm absolutely thrilled because I thought we played really well and had some good periods where we kept the ball and took the sting out of the game. "It's important to do that when you come to a place like MK Dons and we started the game really well." Bradford went ahead when Mclean's header from Billy Knott's corner drifted into the net. The Bantams doubled their lead two minutes later after Clarke pounced on Dele Alli's errant pass. Lewington scored with a shot through a crowd of defenders four minutes before half-time to bring the Dons back into the game but they could not force an equaliser. Their manager Karl Robinson, who was sent from the dugout, said: "I've supposedly said something derogatory towards one of their players but I didn't see it as too bad. "I think the fourth official may have thought I've said something else but we'll just have to wait and see what the referee's report says. "I've been told that I've man-handled the assistant referee, although I was quite away from him. "In the second half, I got it wrong. I don't want anybody moaning at the players because it was my fault. "I made the change too soon and I've narrowed the game off and I shouldn't have done that because we needed more width in the game. "I felt that if we got two strikers on early we'd be able to battle them and I've got it massively wrong so I have to take responsibility for that. "Now we have to put on a performance on Saturday against Crewe."