Saturday 25th April, 2009last year, at the end of April
Why can’t you do that every week?
Bradford City 3 Rotherham United 0 At Valley Parade in League Two, 2008/2009
“Why can’t you do that every week?”
Is that what would supporters ask of the the players, the manager, the club after the season at Valley Parade ended without promotion but with a fine win.
Bradford City’s problem – and the problem that has driven Stuart McCall to distraction and seen the 45th game of the League Two season finally rule City out of promotion or the play-offs following Dag & Red’s win over Notts County – is that the team team has been incapable of withstanding setbacks within games.
Goals ruled out, mistakes made, goals conceded all seeing the squad’s brittle morale crack. Think the collapses at Rochdale or Barnet, the reversals at Notts County or Morecambe. Defeats that came after when the team was incapable of withstanding the slings and arrows of fortune. In the swirling atmosphere of this day no such upset occurred and the Bantams powered to an impressive 3-0 win over an credible Rotherham United side who made a good fist of a game where ultimately they were lucky not to lose by more.
That the atmosphere was good was owing to the swell of opinion that Stuart McCall remain as City manager becoming vocalised and realised in a demonstration in favour of the gaffer. Save Our Stuart messages were held up, chants were made and the players responded with an intelligent and effective performance.
McCall sent out what – should he be true to his threat to resign – is his last team at Valley Parade with Kyle Nix recalled to create a four man midfield alongside Lee Bullock, Nicky Law Jnr and Dean Furman. Matthew Clarke was dropped in favour of Zesh Rehman and Steve Jones partnered Peter Thorne in the forward line. In the week – while paying tribute to Wayne Jacobs – McCall said he wished that his other signings had worked out as well as as his number two. Matthew Clarke, Michael Boulding, Paul McLaren, Chris Brandon and a few others are thus charged and as a result they cool their heels on the sidelines.
Those who did play did McCall proud with a display of tight passing at pace that could rank as the home performance of the season. After ten minutes pressure brought a corner which was cleared and returned goalwards by Dean Furman beating all on its way to goal except Peter Thorne who’s slight deflection continued the ball’s progress into the net. Rotherham’s defence were incandescent suggesting that Thorne was offside – visitors number four Danny Harrison could have been playing the City striker onside although confusion was king in the stands and on the field. The goal stood perhaps because Furman’s shot was going in and the Referee decided that a goal would have been without Thorne (entirely against the rules) or perhaps Harrison was playing Thorne on side or perhaps the Referee got it wrong.
Rotherham felt angry at the first and flattened by the second where Nicky Law Jnr got down the right – McCall’s diamond shaped midfield saw Law on the right hand side but not the right wing and he and Nix on the left hand side were able to keep in contact with the strikers which has proved a problem this term – and crossed low and firmly to Thorne who hit a close range finish after cutting in front of defender Nick Fenton. Thorne’s crisp finish left keeper Andy Warrington flat on his back, seemingly resigned to defeat.
Flat footed Fenton became flattening Fenton when – rather unprovoked – he lunged into Law as the City man shielded the ball out for a throw-in. That the visitors defender was yellow carded showed – perhaps – the end of season nature of the game rather than reflected the seriousness of the foul which was out of character of a well natured game.
The Bradford City team this season has not struggled when on top of a game exchanging blows with the South Yorkshire side but not being breached. A third almost came after half time when on a break – lovely to see a team come attack at VP – when Thorne crossed to Jones who saw his finish clawed away by Warrington. A second counter ten minutes later saw sub Joe Colbeck find Jones with an impressive pass and Jones sprint in on goal to finish the game.
Good performances were all over the field for the Bantams. Rhys Evans looked solid, Paul Arnison and player of the season Luke O’Brien got up and down the flanks and Rehman and Lee were solid against a lively attack which – when he came on – were dangerous especially in the form of Drewe Broughton. Also telling was the fact that Dean Furman took the all from the back four and used it well rather than allowing the back four to pump the ball long.
All of which came under a blanket of positivity from the assembled Valley Parade audience who got behind the team – really got behind the team – and the effects were seen on the field. Rotherham – who have enough points to have finished in the top three this season – were no soft touch but the Bantams bested them and while Thorne could have hat a hat-trick testing Warrington twice more The Millers were enterprising and could have got one back and – as we have seen – caused the wobble that has seen this promotion bid fail.
If they keep it up they will be challenging for the top three next season. The same is true of the Bantams on all levels. It seems to be that today and two weeks ago the represented a consideration on how the level of support and the level of performance are not just yoked together but that the one (not can but) will inspire the other.
The players took a lap of the field to applause – nothing compared to what everyone was expecting with the promotion which was expected – and Stuart McCall followed to a clear statement – “Stuart must stay” – from the supporters who had lifted the team to a fine win.
What would the players, the manager, the club say to the supporters who had created an atmosphere of inexorable victory:
“Why can’t you do that every week?”
What was so heartening about yesterday’s performance, for me, was the speed, imagination and accuracy of the passing and movement. This was particularly so on the right flank where Furman, Law and Arnison cut Rotherham to ribbons at times.
This is what I and many other fans have been waiting to see all season. It was definitely helped by having Rehman at centre back – Matt Clarke has many qualities but distributing the ball quickly and accurately is certainly not one of them.
What a joy to see the ball skillfully maneuvered into dangerous positions, playing to the strengths of our lightweight but skillful strikers instead of being lumped up the middle, bypassing the midfield, straight onto the heads of the opposition centre backs. Surely the latter is not what Stuart and Jakes have them practicing all week, is it? It was telling that when we briefly lapsed into route one yesterday we looked half the team than when we shifted it around at pace.
If Stuart stays, and I certainly hope he does, lets hope he takes yesterdays performance as the model for how his team should play, whoever the personnel are (and sadly they are unlikely to include the excellent Furman, who ran the show superbly yesterday).
But why did it take all of this season to finally get there?
I’ve read Law 11 (Offside) from top to bottom and watched the replay of Thorne’s first goal which (and it is not clear) does look like the City man is behind the last two defenders but in front of the keeper and there is no way that having touched the ball he can be regarded as onside.
Provided the positioning is Keeper, Thorne, Defenders then it should have been flagged offside and Rotherham should be annoyed.
Stuart McCall – on the other hand – will think that his luck with Referees might have changed.
An another excellent article Michael! Well done for keeping everyone well informed during the 2008/2009 season. You do a fantastic job and people shouldn’t under estimate the time that you put into BfB.
It’s easy with hindsight to say why did it take McCall until the final home game of the season to get the team playing fast flowing passing football. However, I think that many supporters have short memories. Up until the beginning of March, on the whole we’d played some good football, passing and moving the ball effectively. A game that sticks out in my mind is when we defeated Exeter City 4-1 in the autumn. Joe Colbeck scored on that day and had an excellent game. I was pleased that Joe came on yesterday and played a superb pass to Jones which led to our third goal. The abuse that Joe received on Bank Holiday Monday against Lincoln was awful. Many people forget that Joe was our player of the season last year.
I, like many others, don’t like us playing long ball for the sake of it and whilst Matt Clarke’s distribution isn’t the best, I believe that for the most part of this season he has linked up well with Graeme Lee.
During our winless run in March and April, we did receive some bad refereeing decisions and it’s easy to point the finger at McCall and individual players. I don’t think that Stuart knew (knows) what his best starting 11 was (is). He chopped and changed the midfield and strikers to try and find that winning formula. If we had been sitting in a play off position now, many supporters wouldn’t be moaning or questioning Stuart’s decisions. As Stuart said to Derm Tanner on BBC Radio Leeds yesterday after the match, it’s a thin line between success and failure. That’s another attribute that I like about McCall; his honesty.
I hope that McCall announces his decision in the next few days to stay with us as a minimum in to next season. I for one was chanting his name for virtually all of the game and now my voice is rough today. Ask my brother and friends who were stood with me at the back of the Kop yesterday.
Whilst i am pleased with the result and winning our last home game of the season. Neither team really had no league play-off position to play for, therefore was it not one those end season ‘fake’ results that you get in football year in year out?
In short Ian, no it wasn’t.
Well, i guess i will have to take your word for it. Lets hope it can carry through the summer and into next season.
I was really amazed by how well we played yesterday. I particularly agree with what Steve says above about the Law/Furman/Arnison combination down the right side.
Generally I thought we passed the ball really well, looked very dangerous going forward (I can remember several good saves from the Rotherham keeper) and looked solid at the back.
Rotherham were definitely ‘up for it’ – their reaction to the disputed Thorne goal shows that they were not coming for an end of season kick about.
I still can’t get my head around what happened between 5-0 vs. Aldershot and yesterday…
Richard, I agree that we played some good football, albeit sporadically, prior to March, but not of the type we saw yesterday. When Daley and Colbeck were in full flight early in the season we were mainly hitting teams on the break, using the sheer pace of our wingers to get behind defences. But I don’t remember many quick 6 or 7 pass moves slicing defences open like we saw against Rotherham.
Gone was the awkward crab-like shuffling across the back line until someone launches it forward under pressure; instead we had accurate early balls to Furman or Law, giving them time to build through the middle or spray it to the wings as they saw fit. Michael Boulding must have been sitting on the bench in anguish watching the kind of build up play, including balls threaded into forward channels, that he would thrive on.
Clarke is quick for a centre back at this level, sure in the tackle and good in the air but he is criminally one-footed and forwards soon realise that all they have to do is force him onto his useless right peg to produce panic and distribution errors. Against some opponents he would be my choice but Rehman is two-footed, sees a pass much quicker and distributes far more accurately and that was crucial to the way we played yesterday.
I totally agree with your comments about Joe Colbeck; I too was disgusted at the abuse towards him on Easter Monday and was very pleased to see him lay on the third with a peach of a pass.
It will be interesting to see who stays and who goes. It would be great to have Furman and Law back next year but that seems like a pipe dream given the wage constraints we have heard about. McLaren has been a massive disappointment, strolling around doing very little, playing lazy backpasses to centre backs with half his ball skills; where was the great creator we thought we’d bought? The sooner he goes the better for me. Hopefully Chris Brandon can get up to full match fitness and show us what he can do. Thorne, if he stays and stays fit, will always score goals but he needs either a decent target man to take the pressure off him or, even better, some genuine pace alongside him, particularly if we carry on the constructive approach we showed yesterday.
Great result on Saturday and great for Stuart personally that the performance and the support for him were so encouraging.
It would be great if the likes of Law, Furman and Jones could form a key part of our team for next season, and hopefully now with Stuart still at the helm – we will have to cross fingers.
I just hope that Saturday doesn’t mask the fact that some big decisions on the playing staff need to be made – we were found wanting for spirit and inspiration when the pressure was really on and when things did not go our way. No team with promotion aspirations can experience the losing streak with have had away from VP.
I really hope we can take Saturdays form into our last match at Chesterfield, the team owe the fans a ‘big’ performance away from home and this would at least ensure we enter the summer with renewed optimism for next season.