Sunday 24th August, 20082 years ago, at the end of August
Living up to the hype…
Bradford City 2 Rochdale 0 At Valley Parade in League Two, 2008/2009
City’s highly impressive start to the league season continued as they maintained their 100% record to cast aside last season’s playoff finalists Rochdale.
This was the sort of clinical win that really gives us justified hope that City are real contenders this season.
Rochdale proved to be very sticky opponents. In fact they dominated much of the play in terms of possession and threatening attacks. But they critically lacked the killer instinct in front of goal, with £60,000 ex Halifax striker Jon Shaw really disappointing, and justifying Stuart’s unwillingness to part with any funds to secure his signature.
A quick glance at the statistics from the game shows that Rochdale had plenty of shots at goal, but failed to get even one of them on target.
Omar Daley had a good early chance as he took possession of the ball with plenty of space on the left hand side of the penalty area, cut inside to the centre, skipped past a defensive challenge, but blasted straight at Dale keeper Russell. But if truth be told, Rochdale had much the better of the early exchanges.
Their build up play was excellent attacking the Kop , and forced City into one or two hairy moments the back. Too often did Arnison allow crosses to come in from the left hand side and threateningly cross across goal. But Dale failed to deliver the goal that their possession and build up play probably deserved.
City edged in front on 20 when Daley released Peter Thorne on the right hand side of the box. The veteran striker then whipped in a perfectly executed pinpoint cross right onto the head of Micheal Boulding, who headed firmly down to celebrate his first Bradford goal.
Unperturbed by conceding, Rochdale continued to press for the following 15 minutes, but again lacked cutting edge. And they were stunned when Paul McClaren whipped in a brilliant free kick from the left that was nodded in perfectly at the back post by an unmarked Peter Thorne who doubled City’s advantage with a header from close range. The irrepressible Thorne has had a stunning start to the season and is already establishing himself as a legend among the City faithful.
There was still much work to do in the second half, and City did it extremely well defensively. Clarke and Lee grew in stature in the second half, and both Heckingbottom and Arnison carrying out their defensive duties admirably. Heckingbottom in particular had an excellent game – and nearly scored a collectors item goal with a brilliant run in the first half!
Joe Colbeck and Omar Daley didn’t have their most productive games offensively, but in the second half, both showed a desire and willingness to track back defensively to help out their full backs. Their effort did not go unnoticed.
Lee Bullock didn’t really get involved enough for my liking – he had very much an “Eddie Johnson type” game. McClaren seemed to stroll through the game in a pedestrian like fashion without really impressing (apart from the excellent free kick) before going off with a knock.
In a rare second half counter attack, Micheal Boulding raced clear with intent. With Conlon lurking at the back post, Boulding ignored the big Irishman and struck a brilliant low left foot shot that beat the keeper, hit the inside of the post, and rolled across the goal line out for a goal kick. Desperately unlucky was the impressive Boulding , who was always willing to run beyond the defensive back four and produced numerous excellent flicks for Thorne to feed on. Their newly formed striking partnership is looking extremely promising.
With time ticking on , McCall basically extinguished any chance of City scoring again by leaving Barry Conlon on his own up front. TJ Moncur came on as part of a five man midfield that was the kill the game off as a contest. Not even the player that outdid City twice last season – Adam Le Fondre, could change the course of the game. He was unlucky late on with a strike that bounced off the cross bar.
But in truth, on reflection over the 90 minutes, City were comfortable and had quite convincingly cast aside the much fancied Rochdale.
They say the makings of a successful team is how they react to defeat. That hellish rainy night at Legoland has not impacted our team and what we are setting out to do in the league. We have followed up that crushing defeat with 2 wins, 4 goals and 2 clean sheets. And even in the game against Huddersfield, we more than held our own for 60 minutes.
The way the team have battled back at Macclesfield, and now against a very good Rochdale team proves that we really are worthy of the League Two hype this year. We have been excellent in every department, and if we can keep that up consistently this season, there is no doubt we will end up as Champions. Inside of sulking about losing to our local rivals we have put on two excellent displays.
Can we keep it up? I think so. City are the real deal this time round and, given the evidence of our nearly fully fit team so far, you would be foolish to bet on them finishing outside the top three.
The important and exciting thing this season is that every position seems to be covered squad wise so that even if injuries become a factor, we have good players who can step in. If Thorne or Boulding are injured, Topp, Boulding (R) or Conlon (or maybe not?!) can step up. If Omar Daley is showing inconsistent form, Joe Colbeck can step in on the right. If Lee Bullock is out injured again, the hungry Luke Sharry wlll want to grab a first team opportunity with both hands. If Matt Clarke’s decision making is called into question at the back, Mark Bower will slot in bringing his experience at the club to the forefront.
These are the type of advantages and options that we have not had since 1999.
This is our season.
It has to be.
I thought that McLaren had a great game and the way that you could tell he had one was that when he went off we needed two men to replace him. Nixy and TJ both had to fill the gap that he left and that says a lot.
Totally agree with that point about us dominating. The stats on the game have us at 53% and them at 47% of possession and us at six shots on target and them on none.
Sure they had the ball but we had control and kept it away from places that could hurt us. Great performance and we just get better and better.
Surely the stats people have got it wrong. Just after we scored our first goal, Rochdale went on the attack and Evans made a great save tipping their goal bound shot over the crossbar. I remember saying to my mate that Evans’ save could prove to be the turning point in the game and so it proved. Instead of Rochdale drawing level immediately, we held on to our one goal advantage and then went on to score a second.
However, like alot of supporters, I’m very pleased with the start we have made to this season but we all know that there’s a long long way to go yet.
I’m not sure if they have got it wrong so much as they class shots on target as different to what we would call clear cut chances. Take the cross that flashed by Evans just before the first goal which was a much better chance than many a weakly hit free kick that could be scooped up by a keeper but one would count as a shot on target and one would not.
Likewise Rochdale had a chance than Arnison headed off the line which was dangerous but still technically not a shot on target. In the end one is reminded of the old maxim “lies, Damn lies and statistics.”
However peeling under the stats it is true to say that while Rochdale had a lot of the ball they did get the ball in dangerous positions. We kept the middle of the field strong – Lee and Clarke were outstanding and the midfield stopped Keltie from getting through – and they ended up with possession on the flanks putting in crosses and battering heads against the wall of the back four.
We can’t stop other teams having the ball but it we can minimise the posession of the opposition to force low percentage chances as Rochdale ended up with then we will go far.
One thing I really noticed on Saturday (& not pointed out above) was the improved contribution of Omar Daley. He continually defended when required and even won a couple of headers!
I think fans very quick to have a go at Omar Daley, but when such a dramatic improvement is shown I think he needs some credit.
I agree with the above about Paul Mclaren – there is no doubt he can pass a ball, but he is very slow & can easily be exposed by more mobile midfield players.
Generally delighted though – thought the atmosphere on saturday was the best at VP for ages.
I was watching nervously in the first half, as Rochdale looked very slick and my feeling when the first goal went in was one of relief. I was absolutely delighted to see City get three points and a clean sheet as that was one of the better performances I’d seen from another League Two side at Valley Parade – if we can beat that Rochdale team 2-0 then we should have nothing to fear from any side in our division. As long as we are as ruthless against the so-called lesser teams then I think we have reason to be optimistic. Our wingers looked dangerous on the counter and our strikers deadly in front of goal. Rhys Evans looked solid and the defenders got their bodies in the way when they needed to – I wonder if a few of those shots-off-target were blocks by Lee or Clarke. I’d be interested to know where you get your stats from, actually – are they available online? The only one I’ve seen that has Rochdale at zero shots-on-target is 365stats.com, and every set of stats I’ve looked at so far has a different figure.
I suppose the only stats that really count are wins, and goals scored. We’re doing quite well on those.
Cheers,
Fred.
Hi Fred
Yes it was from 365stats.com – they are normally quite accurate, but take your point that there was a couple of goal bound efforts that should have been classed as shots on target.
I was also looking at other peoples comments on the BBC 606 page that seemed to agree that Rochdale also did not officially have a shot on target
Cheers