From April, 2007
I’m still not really sure how this happened this relegation thing.
I remember having an argument with a few people about how City were going to grind away to mid-table mediocrity under Colin Todd and I was saying that we should give the guy time cause he was doing a good job just having us in League One and then I was told that sacking him we could get promoted.
It was like a promise that getting rid of Todd would make things better. Someone must have believed it. I which this was me being wise after the event but I said it at the time.
I remember that we had a guy up front called Dean Windass who could do some stupid stuff but was the best striker in the league and people were telling me we shouldn’t play him to teach him a lesson or punish him for getting sent off and then someone said he should not even play for us again and now it looks like he won’t.
I’m pretty sure that things were not perfect and that basically things have been wrong at City since Richmond’s summer of madness but it struck me on Saturday that this club has a load of problems caused by Richmond and a load of problems caused by the way that big football screws over little football and a lot of problems caused by rubbish refereeing but we also had a load of problems caused by us.
The booing, the insisting that the gaffer is sacked, the guys who pick on one player be it Deano or Ben Parker or Billy Paynter or anyone, the mood at VP that is so negative. All stopping people coming to Valley Parade. All real problems.
So I remembered that City had loads of problems outside the camp and then it struck me as I watched half a team playing out the end of League One football that we should sort out the problems inside the ground and inside us fans first.
The eyes clear on a Monday morning and the table at the foot of League One does not make good read as it suddenly becomes apparent that just as with a different set of result on Saturday city could be out of the drop zone wins for other clubs that afternoon could have cut the Bantams adrift permanently.
Next week the Bantams face Chesterfield and even a win could see us drop out of the divisions. This is the edge of the edge.
David Wetherall is trying to rally the troops with his call to not give up until the Maths says so - Professor Wetherall’s last act is scientific - but the body language after Leyton Orient’s two goals on Saturday said it all. Prepare for a trip to Rochdale, to Accrington, to Dagenham.
Yet before the last clarion call is made after a look at the table it is worth recalling how David Wetherall - seven years ago The reason we stayed up (In The Premiership)”
- approached and won the last day game with Liverpool that saw City retain a place in the top division.
On the way to Sunderland that year the talk was all of the inevitability of relegation, approaching the last game it was of how Wimbledon would win at Southampton. Neither happened and City that year approached every game, kicked every ball, knowing that it is the points missed and not those won which governed who would go down.
Chesterfield away is where The Bantams will probably fail but to paraphrase Thomas - The Bantams can rage, rage against relegation - and leave the division with the kind of pride lacking from displays too often this season.
As for restoring that pride the job would seem set to fall to Peter Beagrie with reports that McCall’s interest in City only streches as far as League One and not below. Passion, willingness, character. All characteristics that Beagrie shows, surprising that in what is a real hour of need these characteristics could be found wanting in our former number four. Say it ain’t so.
Bradford City 0 Leyton Orient - League One 2006/2007
And for a while everything seemed to be going to plan. Spencer Weir-Daley was putting the Leyton Orient defence under huge pressure, Omar Daley looked likely to waltz to glory should his running with the ball continue and the 10,000 strong support were going to be entertained and take City on to safety and victory.
It was all going to work. It was all going to plan. Bradford City could have had three or four in the first half when Weir-Daley made the home back four - defending high up the field - look flat footed. Just before half time he sprang forward with only the goalkeeper to beat with a chip and agonisingly the ball bounced wide.
Before Omar Daley had surged forward and - after beating enough men to justify not passing - hit a shot saved by Glyn Garner in the visitor’s goal. Garner had stopped Billy Paynter from giving the Bantams a lead earlier on and tonight is the man who won the game for the Londoners.
At half time - or so it seems - Leyton Orient won the game. The Bantams left the field having controlled the game but emerged to a visitors side with more of an eye on nullifying City and whatever it was that Martin Ling said to his charges it worked. Ling’s team got the ball and kept it away from the Bantams pressing down the right flank and troubling Ben Parker or the left where Daley could scarcely be troubled chasing the ball and slowly the game slipped from the Bantams.
And surely the game turned away from The Bantams and fittingly for the season it was more Refereeing nonsense that marked the moment. Ling must have fared the worst when Luke Guttridge - booked for a challenge on Steven Schumacher that was so later it was practically from next season - body checked Kelly Youga as the left back went past him. The Referee ignored Guttridge’s second yellow card offence, Youga went off on a stretcher probably never to return and a minute later Orient’s Gary Alexander had scored.
At this point it is worth thinking of how Joe Colbeck - not the most talented player but no shirkers for sure and someone who would cover every blade of grass for the Bantams every day of the week if asked - watched from the sidelines as Omar Daley ignored a ball running out. Colbeck might have been thinking about how he would - and he would - have surged the ball and he might not have thought he could have done much with it but as Daley’s indolence was punished with the ball in City’s net seconds later he must have wondered and grumbling about Daley’s play was verbalised he must have wondered what City fans want? Colbeck gives his all - gets booed. Daley gives very little effort but has skill and pace if he uses them and increasingly gets the same treatment.
Such thoughts was vanquished by a second Leyton Orient goal leaving City looking at two wins and crossed fingers to stay in League One. Even if we do then things need to change - many things - not least of which is the reliance on loan players and players with short term deals at the club.
Ben Parker, Spencer Weir-Daley, Billy Paynter, Kelly Young, Nathan Doyle, Carlos Logan, Moses Ashikodi, Lee Holmes, Bruce Dyer and many more have pulled on the City shirt as loan players and have put in some great, some not so great, performances but a team can not be built around players who have no future with the club. We cannot continue to ask for huge effort for our cause from players who will be at Charlton, at Watford, at Leeds next season. We have to put the future of this club in the hands of player who will be hear in the future of this club. We need to stop letting the tempo of the club be set by players who almost by definition have less passion for Bradford City than those they displace. Nathan Doyle did a great job, Richard Edghill has years of experience in the game as he sits with two haves left on his contract but the energy and effervescence of John Swift should have been rewarded with a place in the team a long time ago. That is a tone to set for this club. That and not the idea that your place will be taken by anyone who comes from a Premiership or Championship reserve side.
Leyton Orient enjoyed a two goal but the Bantams had twenty minutes plus six of injury time to strike back. A look around the field at bowed heads and shoulders slumped and eyes could find no one to drive the Bantams on. There is no Stuart McCall. There needs to be a Stuart McCall if one cares about the club because League Two is by no means as low as a club can go.
Steven Schumacher, Mark Bower, Donovan Ricketts, David Wetherall. The list of players on the field who one could build a team around was woefully short. We need senior players who can and will take responsibility for the team, the game and the ball when on the field and for sure those players can be augmented with a loan signing or two but those players pick up a tempo from the senior members of the squad. One cannot help but think that this season the converse has been true.
All of which is discussion for another time. This game was a must win - a must win - and we did not and we all know what means.