Saturday 21st February, 2009last year, mid-February
Don’t believe the hype
Barnet 4 Bradford City 1 At Underhill in League Two, 2008/2009
When the Bantams got beat by Bury a few weeks ago I thought the reaction from City fans was overblown and a bit silly. I guess that is cause I know a lot of people around Manchester and didn’t think Bury were the sort of team that you should beat yourself up about losing to. Barnet are.
Losing 4-1 to Barnet is a woeful result and the performance with it was inexcusably bad and you can expect a wild reaction to it from all parts of Bradford City.
Expect Stuart McCall to blow his top.
He took a risk on playing an injured Rhys Evans and while the keeper’s thigh did not help and while he probably would have got closer to the four goals if he had not be carrying the knock he should not have faced so many shots and even if he had been in full fitness City would still have been beat.
All over the pitch the players let Stuart McCall down. Of the game only Dean Furman and Graeme Lee can come out with head held high and to be honest both of them failed to link up properly with people around them. Far too many players seemed to have bought into the idea that Bradford City were incapable of conceding a goal, that we could automatically beat a team like Barnet. That we were special.
And no team is special, and every game needs to be won and to win a game you need to work. To be honest in this need you need to work your balls off and City had a team of players not doing that.
Nicky Law totally failed to stamp any authority on the game totally living up to the idea that loan players don’t really get stuck in enough. Steve Jones was worse and went back to his old ways of playing on his own. He was a passenger.
Joe Colbeck, Peter Thorne, Michael Boulding, Zesh Rehman and Matt Clarke all looked like they were waiting for someone else to bring the performance. Like they were standing around watching and not like they were international captains, senior players and players of the season who are part of a promotion campaign. They sat down and watched when they needed to stand up and be counted.
Luke O’Brien was no worse than anyone else but best shows up the believing your own hype that has got into the City team. O’Brien is only a great player when he plays really well and all this talk about him being a player in the season in waiting seems to have got into his head and today he was skinned time and time again by Albert Adomah. Either Adomah is on his way to something wonderful or O’Brien needs to get his head back into the game and stop thinking of himself as the bright young thing.
Bad displays all over the pitch and players not taking responsibility for the performance Stuart McCall should have read the riot act to them and he should make changes. Paul McLaren and Lee Bullock will spend all week in training trying to get in for the Notts County game cause Law will find it hard to stay in the side. Omar Daley was missed massively. One thing no one would say Daley failed to do is take responsibility (he would keep the ball all day long) and if Chris Brandon is ready then the team badly needs a City fan in it. Barry Conlon gives his all and both strikers need to get back into gear. Thorne is improving and Boulding scored but they did not look dangerous or enterprising enough. The words “Billy” and “Topp” were used on the way out of the ground. Sometimes you can go too far.
But you have to go far to get a game like this out of the head. No one on the pitch today should consider themselves as secure in the side cause thinking that caused this appalling result.
This is a fairly damning (and yet accurate) verdict of how the game progressed. Defenders like Lee, Clarke, O’Brien and Rehman do not become poor players overnight. However, today the midfield particularly was found wanting. Barnet were direct and physical. City did not want the win enough and did not compete for second balls. Barnet were more hungry and as a result, the back four was left well exposed time and again. Jones’ failure to even attempt to tackle their right winger for Barnet’s third was criminal, especially as it came at a time when City looked like they might get something from the game.
As an aside, it was obvious that we missed Daley today. When Barnet were in possession, they pushed right up to halfway and city struggled to get out of their own half. His ability to draw several defenders and hold up the ball is an important asset to us, especially away from home. I just hope that Colbeck can find some fitness and form soon or else I struggle to see how this side will even come close to making automatic promotion.
Commitment, passion and desire. None of those things were present today.
I’m gutted, not about the £100 today cost me to watch the game but because my team appear to be a spineless bunch of Prima Donas who think they are going to walk into League 1.
I feel really embarrassed that we got beat like that. I said to my family that after the string of wins Stuart had to really bring his man management skills in to play to get the team in the correct frame of mind to build on this and push forward. Then the Barnett game happens. I feel let down but also understand that there are going to be blips and bad days at the office. Lets hope this is a wake up call to all. I think good motivation is the key here and I pray Stuart and Jakes have got what it takes.
I totally agree with this article and all these comments.
It was a dire performance all round. I’m a faithful BfB follower and living in London I make all the games round here, and whilst we keep losing them (Aldershot, Brentford), it is this one that hurts the most because of the manner in which it came. This game had the smell of poor performance from the off – any game where the team clearly believ they are there just to pick up the inevitable three points and not have to work for them ends up exactly like this.
Rhys Evans was the only player to leave the pitch with any sort of dignity intact – I don’t think you could fault him for any of the goals, and he stopped it being a 6 or 7 goal rout.
Another of the saddest things was that it took Stuart to drag the players over to applaud the travelling fans. Admittedly there was very little love returned in their direction, but it summed up the performance – players hiding from their responsibilities.
That said, I am an optimist and I think this was a blip. I think we will beat Notts County next week, and I am still confident of automatic promotion, because the reality is we ARE a better team than any other I have seen us play against. On the plus side, I was with a neutral (well, a Chester fan), and he says we weren’t that bad in comparison to a lot of teams he has seen this season! We will miss Daly, but this could be Brandon’s moment, as long as he comes through the reserves uninjured.
Let’s all hope so, and lets not lose faith. I won’t.