Win or Entertain

As the 332 City faithful were making their way into the Edgar Street ground, you could hear the grumbling voices. The turnstiles were decidedly narrow; the facilities were poor; one end of the ground hasn’t got a safety certificate; even on the front row of the seated area it was impossible to see the whole pitch. It was, by common agreement, like going back to the old days. And so it would turn out for the rest of the afternoon.

I should say at this early stage that Hereford United are in the bottom third of this league for a reason. Nothing I saw today persuaded me that they deserve to be much higher. And nothing I saw today persuaded me that they deserved to lose this game. City may well have had the worst of the elements in the second half, with the rain that stayed away until half-time suddenly driving into their faces, but there was nothing lucky about the two goals that the home team scored.

The first, a header from Manset, came after City had failed dismally to deal with a corner, despite leaving no one upfield. The second, a well hit shot from Hereford debutant Jake Jervis, came as a direct result of a woeful header from Luke Oliver, leaving Matt Glennon hoping only for another of the mishit shots that littered the game.

I write this without having seen any statistics from other sites. My guess is that, apart from the goals, Glennon made perhaps two saves and his defenders produced about the same number of blocks, so few real chances did Hereford create. Bartlett, in the Hereford goal was certainly the busier keeper in the first half. One save from a Gareth Evans header, firmly struck from a flick on from James Hanson, was quite brilliant.

In the early minutes a Robbie Threlfall corner was headed narrowly wide by James Hanson and Gavin Grant forced a save with a shot from a through ball from Michael Flynn. Grant also had another shot well saved before the game turned on the half hour mark. The visiting fans had an excellent view of the blatant shirt pulling that brought Gareth Evans to the ground on the penalty spot. Why the referee and his non-assistant did not have the same view will forever remain a mystery. Within two minutes Hereford scored, totally against the run of play, and the rest we all know.

This was Peter Taylor’s eighth game in the City dug out. From the other side of the ground it was impossible to tell why the fourth official and the referee objected to what he was doing there. It looked as though he was giving some of his players the sharp words they deserved, but somehow he was upsetting the officials. He was also upsetting some of the supporters, not least your reporter.

At the kick off it looked briefly as if City were playing a 4-4-2, with Flynn supporting Hanson. If that was Plan A, the infamous Plan B (Stuart McCall contrasts are inescapable) was a 4-2-3-1, with Hanson becoming increasingly isolated and City playing more and more on the break. We all know that being organised and solid is a prerequisite of not losing, but it’s less valuable once the opposition have scored. It took until the 77th minute debut of Ryan Kendall before the City fans could even risk the thought that you might as well lose 2-0 as 1-0.

Peter Taylor’s Bradford City either wins or loses. Stuart McCall’s teams drew too many games, especially at home. In the last few days this site has embarked on a new venture, the Barry Debate. The first question to be discussed was whether football was primarily a results based business. We may soon be asking whether there is, within that business, room for the stylish defeat. Are Arsenal the only team who can win friends without winning trophies? The blunt question that has to be answered is whether Bradford City can win-one-lose-one without any ‘style’ and still sell season tickets.

This was a City team full of functionality, organised almost to the point of rigidity, clearly with a plan (or perhaps two plans). But, not for the first time under their new manager, they came close to being dull. And the longer the game lasted, the closer to dullness they came, as the bright sparks of the first half were put out by the rain and the home keeper had just one decent second half save to make, tipping round a low shot from James Hanson.

We were too often back to the dark days of the high ball up the middle for Hanson to compete against two or three defenders and with no claret shirt within reach. In the first half those flicks had found a team mate. Omar Daley, an early second half arrival, had limited impact and the lumbering Mark McCammon must surely be near the end of his days in claret and amber. A half-fit Peter Thorne could not have contributed less.

Had McCall still been in charge, many of the familiar questions could have been asked. Why did the one big decision go against City yet again? Why do we always seem to have the referee whom Sir Alex would declare unfit, noting how many lectures he gave to win a breather or two? And why were even the elements against us? But it was Stuart McCall who was the unlucky manager, not Peter Taylor. Peter Taylor has to make his own luck. He has to win games – wasn’t there a comment on his first day about winning more than he lost? – or at least get the team to play well. ‘Play well’, even in the fourth division, must include some entertainment, the feeling (even if it is slightly biased) that we were the better side or, best of all, the question we were all asking after the Crewe game – how did we lose that one?

When organisation and the ability to keep the opposition to a minimal number of chances is the best you have to offer, you had better win a lot more than you lose. When the fans go away simply telling each other that we deserved exactly what we got – and two consecutive away games have brought exactly that response – you need hero status to keep selling tickets. Just in case the new manager doesn’t know, the City ‘faithful’ can be an unforgiving lot. Winning or losing with style are about the only options. It’s a good job the home record is 100% so far.