ASTON VILLA 2 BRADFORD CITY 0
While the Bantams' home form has been inspired, taking four points from Arsenal and Chelsea, they have struggled away from home and are still to score on their travels.
Coming off a 6-0 hammering against Manchester United in their last match on the road, the last thing they needed was to fall behind after just five minutes.
Gareth Southgate, still desperate to leave Villa Park, ran onto a neat pass by Lee Hendrie and lashed the ball past Matt Clarke for his first goal since January.
It was Villa's first opportunity of the match after Bradford, for whom the returning Benito Carbone was booed by the home fans, had looked dangerous early on.
However, once Southgate had put John Gregory's side ahead, there was no doubt who would win and David Ginola, making only his second start of the season, should have opened his Villa account when he was through on goal, but Clarke saved superbly.
Carbone was doing his best to help the Bantams to their first Villa Park goal for 64 years, yet nothing he tried quite came off, David James saving easily from a long shot from the Italian and later, from a free-kick on the edge of the box, he fired woefully wide.
While Bradford's home form has been inspired, taking four points from Arsenal and Chelsea, they have struggled away from home and have still to score on their travels.
Villa simply couldn't put any passes together in the second half and were lucky to escape with a clean sheet.
Only Ashley Ward will know how he managed to miss from just a couple of yards out after good work from Carbone when he had the goal at his mercy, and screwed his shot well wide.
John Gregory hauled off David Ginola in the 70th minute and, just four minutes later, replacement Julian Joachim won a penalty when David Wetherall brought him down.
Dion Dublin waited patiently, while referee Rob Styles dealt with the protesting Bantams, and then slammed the spot kick high into the roof of the net to seal the three points.
Aston Villa: James, Wright, Southgate, Barry, Alpay, Merson, Ginola, Boateng, Stone, Hendrie, Dublin. Subs: Joachim, Taylor, Walker, Samuel, Enckelman.
Bradford: Clarke, Nolan, Atherton, Wetherall, Petrescu, McCall, Whalley, Hopkin, Ward, Carbone, Windass. Subs: Beagrie, Davison, Halle, Jacobs, Grant.
Referee: R Styles
