Chris Long blasted a 99th-minute penalty to secure Crewe their fifth consecutive home win in an end-to-end season finale for the Mornflake Stadium.

That late, late strike ended Bradford's automatic promotion hopes and ignited the fury of boss Mark Hughes who clashed with goalscorer Long on the pitch after the final whistle.

Crewe had taken a deserved 2-0 interval lead with Dan Agyei moving his tally for the season on to 16 with both goals, one after a super surging run.

But Hughes' men roared back and drew level with two quick goals inside 10 minutes after the break with Andy Cook netting his 28th in League Two this season and Jamie Walker also on target.

The game ebbed and flowed both ways with teenage keeper Tom Booth keeping out a blast from Scott Banks from hitting the top corner.

Then Alex sub Courtney Baker-Richardson chipped an effort over Bantams keeper Harry Lewis, but the wrong side of the post before the late drama.

Richie Smallwood's trip on sub David Amoo was punished by Long who fired in from the spot to spark wild celebrations among the Alex faithful.

Promotion hopefuls Bradford were on the backfoot when Agyei tore at them to conjure a super solo goal to put Crewe ahead in the 16th-minute. The attacker drove away from his marker down the left before cutting in to fire an angled shot past Harry Lewis.

Agyei then tapped in his second at the far post after some good work by Long, who got behind his man to slide the ball across the face of goal (43).

Yet Bradford started the second-half with renewed purpose and Cook powered a header home from a corner (46). They outmuscled Crewe again at a free kick which Booth fumbled under pressure from Cook and Walker was presented with an empty net to slide the ball home for the equaliser (54).

Banks was thwarted by Booth and Baker-Richardson botched his late chance before Smallwood's rash challenge offered Long the chance to win it for the Railwaymen.

Boss Lee Bell said: "We gave a really good account of ourselves and it was important to do that for the other teams in the league. The boys played some really good football and it was good for us to finish on a high at home like that with a really good performance.

"The players have become more adept at dealing with that sort of situation and I thought we would be the better football team too.

"We're up to 13th and it is a good achievement to have got on this run at home. We want to make this a difficult place for teams to come."

Bantams manager Hughes had calmed down by the time he emerged for media interviews afterwards. He claimed Long had confronted him and "got into his face", while he backed his players to react to the setback by securing the point they may need from their final game - Champions Leyton Orient's visit to Valley Parade.

"You're always at risk of a ball dropping into certain areas when it becomes an end-to-end game like it did," said Hughes. "Anything can happen and we need to get our foot on the ball and take control of it which we didn't do.

"We have to pick ourselves up for Leyton Orient next Monday and we'll have a huge following. Ideally we'd have liked to have settle it tonight, but I expect that I will get a reaction from the players as it's what they are capable of."