From February, 2008
I’ll admit it. When David Wetherall signed for Paul Jewell’s Bradford City in 1999 for £1.5m I was dead against it.
I wanted Darren Moore at the heart of my Bantams Premiership back four and thought that Wetherall was too slight a guy for the job of trying to keep Bradford City in the top flight. Not only that - I thought - but he was too slight a man and paled next to the leadership of Stuart McCall or the increasing feisty influence of Dean Windass.
Wetherall was not the man.
I was wrong - obviously - and on the day that David decides that at the end of the season he will hang up his boots it is worth reflecting on his time at City.
His first season - playing an unbeatable every minute of the 1999/2000 Premiership season - was famed for culminating in the headed goal against Liverpool that kept the Bantams up. The next day Julian Rhodes was holding court in a restaurant describing Wetherall as the reason that City stayed up and it was hard to argue that thought his honest endeavour and not unskilful defending he had move into the pantheon of players.
Wetherall was missing for much of the season we were relegated and struggled with injuries for years. He could have left the club for Southampton, Manchester City or Coventry but stayed loan to the club that showed little loyalty to him. He blasted the club after he was made redundant in 2001’s administration and took the players on strike rather than let them risk injury in a friendly over at Hull City which could have cost careers considering the precarious position we were in at the time.
As much as any incident in his career this was Wetherall’s steel showing through. No endless love for the Bantams gripped Wetherall’s heart but rather a calculation of the effort that went into saving the club - twice - which he would not turn his back on.
He then turned his hand - to management on two occasion’s caretaking after the sackings of Nicky Law and of Colin Todd the latter of which resulted in relegation showing the biggest problem for Wetherall the manager was replacing Wetherall the player. A problem not lost on Stuart McCall.
McCall invites Wetherall to join the coaching staff - Wetherall’s contract allows him the job until 2010 - and rightly so. His calm defending and his attitude to the game are perfect.
They would have been perfect for any club. Indeed was one recalls the great times and great performances of David Wetherall - and while both may wane of late they are more than just memories - one is forced to wonder how much the man himself regrets coming to Valley Parade back in June 1999.
In many ways after the first season it could not have gone much worse for the man who has been City skipper for years. He has suffered three relegations and two administrations - hardly the route he planned for his career following the ill advised exit from Elland Road.
Wetherall wears such pains well. Any plaudits that come his way are deserved.
Like 13,197 other City fans I left Valley Parade in a bad mood on Saturday. I spent the journey back to the car complaining with my friend Steve about certain aspects of City’s display and our mutterings were in unison over the tactical changes which appeared to work against the team. “That’s the play offs ruled out,” I hastily concluded, thinking back to only a couple of hours ago where, walking from the pub down Manningham Lane to the ground we half-joked about going to the Mexican restaurant we always pass to celebrate after we got back from Wembley in May, having witnessed City go up. How stupid did we now feel even to kid about it?
We listened to Stuart McCall’s interview on the radio as we drove back, faintly satisfied, at least, to hear that Billy Topp had been taken off due to flagging fitness. I wanted Stuart to be asked why he took off Peter Thorne, our best player, and replaced him with the lightweight and ineffective David Brown, who barely touched the ball. Or why, despite playing below standards and suffering some utterly abysmal abuse from so-called supporters, Omar Daley was hauled off when he at least looked as though he could do something, which couldn’t be said of Kyle Nix on the opposite side. The calm and honest words of Stuart at least made me feel better and, while I wasn’t impressed with his changes, I felt confident they were mistakes the manager will learn from going forward.
So gradually I calmed down, watched a bit of the Man U v Arsenal game with a beer at home. Seeing the own goal again on The Championship the following morning was difficult viewing but, sharing opinions with other City fans I bumped into that day calmed me down further and, while I was still in a bad mood back at work Monday morning, I began to look forward to the trip to Notts County on Saturday which I hope can only be better.
I appreciate it’s not the same for everyone and that anger over the two recent performances is still high, but I’ve found some of the opinions posted on various City-related websites difficult to read calmly. It appears we’re back to the blame game, where some folk seem determined to pick on players and declare everything the club is doing is wrong. Just over a week ago we were excitedly talking up the play offs with our chances looking increasingly better, now we’re back to describing the season as dreadful.
There are the usual targets for criticism when it all goes wrong. When Wayne Jacobs returned to the club during the summer I remember thinking he might be the easy target for some. 12 years service as a player, but he was never universally popular. Now a very slim minority have decided the last two defeats are entirely down to our assistant manager. When I read these views I struggle to find the reasons for why it’s Jacobs fault, probably because those making such comments don’t know either.
Then there’s our training which is prehistoric, dated and nothing like as good as Rochdale’s, a small insignificant club we should be thrashing. I’m not sure if the people criticising City’s training methods have actually witnessed them to know they are bad as they make out, and I’m even less certain they will have seen Rochdale’s to compare.
Of course it’s down to Stuart’s failure to pick certain players which is to blame. Have a quick scan through our reserves team, choose a couple of names who are been ‘disgracefully’ ignored, Alex Rhodes and, of course, Luke Medley on this occasion, and tell the world they should be playing. It doesn’t matter that the players keeping them out of the side have recently gone on a six match unbeaten run – that was two weeks ago, why haven’t they been sacked yet?!
Last but not least, after every player, member of management team and coaching method has been blamed; let’s have a go at the Chairmen for not backing the manager and hoarding all the cash. What a joke of a football club we really are, from top to bottom.
Among the message board comments and views added below T&A website stories, there is a lot of sense spoken. It’s just unfortunate that a lot of it is diluted by the strange and nonsense views of others. They who should loudest are usually heard, but that doesn’t mean their views make any sense.
The reality of the situation is that, after showing some real promise in recent weeks, we’ve suffered a set back. There are things that need to be improved about the team clearly; the first half against Rochdale was embarrassingly one-sided. Yet after grabbing an underserved equaliser the team improved considerably in the second. For all the feelings of disgust we all had about the performance Saturday night, we nearly won the game. When Peter Thorne cracked the outside of the post with that long range effort with five minutes to go it wasn’t only nearly a winner for us, with the beautiful way Barry Conlon back-heeled the ball into Joe Colbeck’s path and marvellous through ball to set up Thorne’s volley, we were agonisingly close to witnessing one of the best Valley Parade goals seen in years. Rochdale won it through our mistake, but for how bad that left us feeling we could easily have been celebrating a win.
And now, rather than carve the team up and start everything again, we face three presentable-looking games in a week where a decent points haul is achievable. Stuart will have seen a lot of things he didn’t like during the performance and certain players have some making up to do, but while changes will be made the progress from the team since the turn of the year should not be forgotten.
The players and management made mistakes on Saturday, but anyone among the 13,198 City fans that witnessed them who says they have never made mistakes in their career and life is lying. The key is to accept and learn from mistakes, so that you move on and develop. No football manager gets their tactics correct all the time. We, as fans, now need to forgive and hope Stuart never forgets.
As for our own contribution, well it was hardly great was it? 10 minutes to go, an enthralling end to end game that is clearly a battle; where are we making noise and backing the players? We’re sat glumly in our seats groaning everytime something goes wrong and hammering on individuals’ mistakes. We have the biggest crowds in the division, but where’s the advantage we give to the team from it?
But we move on, get over these defeats and back the players for the next three important games. We probably won’t win them all and we almost definitely won’t make a late play off surge now, but there has been some progress made this season which we all hope will be more visible next season.
Me and Steve might not get chance to enjoy that Mexican after Wembley, but we might just go for it anyway on the journey back from Wycombe May 3. If you can see the positives and don’t believe everything should be considered a failure just because we’re unlikely to bounce straight back up this season, I invite you to join us for a Corona or five. The rest may as well get off home and inflict their usual moaning all over our City cyber world.
Bradford City 1 Rochdale 2 - League Two
It was a nothing bit of play on the Rochdale left wing but probably it was relief for the visitors who has been under the cosh for the opening fifteen minutes of their visit to Valley Parade and as they wandered forward with the ball one doubts they expected much.
When Adam Le Fondre placed a long range shot past Scott Loach in the third minute of injury time to give Rochdale a 2-1 victory Stuart McCall must have looked at his Bradford City team and thought that rather than being beaten by a good display by the side from Spotland the Bantams had beaten themselves.
Give credit to Keith Hill’s side they put up a good away display at Valley Parade but even as Le Fondre wheeled away in celebration the visitors must have been pinching themselves that they had not so much robbed the points and been allowed to pick them up so unguarded were they.
For most things that should have been good about the Bantams was not. Most things that a team needs to do to take advantage of the typical home game the Bantams were off the mark on.
So when the ball came towards the right hand side it was a bit curious when Ben Starosta seemed panicky but in front of him he could probably see the bald figure of Lee Thorpe rushing forward and were Starosta the type who made a mental note of these things he might wonder why Rochdale players outnumbered Bradford City players in the crucial area of the field.
This was a defeat of self inflicted wounds. The Bantams had enough of the ball in the first twenty minutes to have created the chance to win this game but rather than building those chances into the kind of opportunities that have been winning games in recent months the ball was rushed, hurried, snatched towards goal too soon.
Instead of assurance at the back the Bantams slipped into a habit of assumption. Instead of working at winning the ball back to often were players looking at team mates and waiting for possession to be returned to them.
No where was this more prevalent than in the midfield of Eddie Johnson and Lee Bullock who should have been the fulcrum but turned themselves into spectators.
Starosta probably wondered where Lee Bullock was and why he was not tracking Thorpe back and he is right to do so. Thorpe and Bullock are no threat at all. Thorpe on his own charging towards the penalty area is cause for concern as the ball is motivated in from the left.
Both are able players but as the Bantams enjoyed the best of the opening exchange Bullock took it as his role to be moving in between Peter Thorne and Willy Topp - both of whom performed well - and adding to an attack that in the end would need more ball and not more men. Eddie Johnson, on the other hand, works hard but played badly failing to take up positions, failing to use the ball well when he had it, failing to win the ball back. As a central midfielder he made a substandard drifting forward.
So once again Stuart McCall’s City were left lacking a Stuart McCall to put the foot in, to stay back, to protect the back four and to be able to use the ball. I’m told by many and would judge by body size that Tom Penford can not do this role yet watching him last week against Bury and comparing his willingness to hold and his ability to play the ball simply I’m amazed he was excluded for the honest endeavour but little else of Johnson.
I know too that Paul Evans can play this role. I know Craig Bentham can. I know Stuart McCall knows how important it is because he played the position for twenty years.
Scott Loach probably shouted something to Matthew Clarke as the not at all threatening ball came in low from the left hand side of the box but whatever it was Clarke didn’t hear it or he misunderstood it because as the keeper - impressive thus far in his stay at Valley Parade - too up a position to take the weakly moving ball Clarke made a sudden, jerking movement back towards his own goal and in the yards in front of the penalty spot his leg made a connection with the ball.
When Rochdale scored a fortuitous first via a Matthew Clarke own goal this became more of a problem as Bullock and Johnson abandoned all sense of getting goal side of the ball in search of a equaliser which eventually came through Peter Thorne following a deflection and while McCall tried to solve the problems at half time he failed and so did City.
Problems were compounded when - as City lacked attacking threats - a series of curious substitutions hamstrung the Bantams. Omar Daley and Willy Topp provided an attacking thrust to the side and while both could have mistakes pointed out to them City looked much less likely to score in their absence.
Should that be true of Topp and Daley then it is triply so for Thorne who was replaced at exactly the wrong time by David Brown who’s inability to hold the ball caused a pinging back and put the Bantams on the back foot. Thorne’s volley that faded wide of the post could have got the win but in the last ten minutes after the 34 year old strikers leaving the field.
Slowly the ball spun away from Loach who was left flat footed and to the disbelief of all it began to creep towards the goal. So slowly it moved. So slowly.
De-toothed in the last time minutes that would define City’s attempts at a promotion push the win became a defeat and now City look to getting points in an effort to make sure that the end of the season is not in any way troubling.
McCall on the other hand is left looking at his team and wondering how to maintain the kind of momentum that saw us unbeaten for so long this year. His team today resembles the one Chris Kamara left Paul Jewell. It is a mish-mash and not a unit. One wonders how the players still on salaries from higher divisions are viewed in the dressing room as the formation of the team changes. One wonders who the players look to on the field for inspiration.
The ball in the back of the goal a noise came from the visiting end of the ground as they reacted to seeing their players celebrating the goal or perhaps they noticed the looks between Clarke and Loach and the way David Wetherall tried to gee them up following the error. Loach had his say and Clarke accepted the blame as well he might because it seemed that ostensibly it was entirely his fault.
McCall needs a McCall. Every team needs a McCall but Stuart McCall’s Bradford City team needs one and one would expect the man himself to be able to see that. One hopes he can and certainly when he comments after this defeat about his players that “(Those players) already here have to show me they are good enough if they want to stay” then he throws down a gauntlet to the squad to get into the team and make positions their own.
Constancy of selection is important to Bradford City but more so the team needs players ready to take responsibly and on Saturday that was lacking in key areas.
Matthew Clarke, who’s inclusion the Bradford City team had done so much to turn the side from habitual losers into a team harbouring play off aspirations which had all but vanished with his lunge, put his hands on his knees and caught a breath knowing the scope and scale of his mistake. Out of mind of his contribution and hearing the low mumblings of discontent around him.