More About 2007/2008
Bradford City 2 Grimsby Town 1 - League Two 2007/2008
This week Bradford City released details of next season’s friendlies, though for the past month it’s felt as though pre-season for the 2008-09 campaign has already begun.
With little to play for but pride, recent games have lacked intensity and significance, tempo has slowed and goals haven’t been cheered quite as feverishly. The management’s focus is more on which areas of the team require strengthening and players are campaigning to be part of those plans. The ambition when we line up against Guiseley and Burnley in July will be similar to Saturday, it’s now all about the big kick off in August.
That the season petered into little more is down to the failings of the current crop of players, many of whom are still battling to convince manager Stuart McCall they shouldn’t be shown the door in two weeks time. Since the Mansfield debacle in March there’s been a notable improvement in effort and attitude, but it’s the consistency question mark which remains. Seven of the 14 players involved in Saturday’s come back win over Grimsby, the third home success in four, are still waiting to hear about their immediate future and a further five will feel they still have to convince that they should be regulars next year.
The first half performance will have done them few favours. A bright start soon turned into a poor one as the visitors, also lacking in promotion or relegation concerns, took an early lead. There was little on when the recalled Omar Daley knocked the ball back to Darren Williams, but the right back was quickly closed down by Nathan Jarman and lost possession. Ciran Toner was then able to charge towards the area and cross low for Peter Till to tap home.
In reaching the ball first, the Grimsby midfielder injured himself by colliding with Luke O’Brien and departed on a stretcher as Daley and Williams argued over who was to blame for conceding the soft goal. Daley’s pass hadn’t been the wisest choice, but Williams had time to clear and will be hoping Stuart doesn’t decide his future on this performance.
The goal knocked City’s confidence and Grimsby began passing the ball around confidently. Very little happened though, in truth, and City’s disjointed efforts were just as threatening as the more cohesive Mariners. Midfield was the area where City struggled with Tom Penford particularly disappointing. Penford is arguably the best passer at the club but was too often guilty of looking for the killer pass which would often be too optimistic and be cut out by blue shirts. This was typical of the whole team who seemed desperate to get a shot on goal after a few passes, when patiently playing simple passes and waiting for openings would have been more effective.
Eddie Johnson was back up front and showed some nice touches, but lacks the physical presence Peter Thorne needs in a strike partner. Daley and Joe Colbeck both had their moments while Kyle Nix was heavily involved in play, with things not always going right. The visible frustration the young midfielder displayed in front of the Kop after a Daley shot flew wide showed just how desperate to remain at City he appears to be.
There could and should have been more goals in the first half. A Grimsby defender handled the ball just inside the area from one attack, which triggered the linesman to raise his flag for a penalty then quickly change his mind. Nick Hegarty looked to have added a second when his low shot creeped towards the bottom corner, but Ryan Bennett’s decision to make sure it did meant the goal was ruled out for offside. Daley also charged through on goal, only for the flag to go up late. City improved in the final 10 minutes but couldn’t find the breakthrough, the half time boos felt a little harsh.
The second half saw progressive improvement as City laboured and finally drew level. Thorne had headed a chance just wide but soon grabbed his 15th goal of the season after latching onto a weak backpass and taking the ball round keeper Phil Barnes, before firing home the equaliser past the defender on the line. Stuart, who after the game praised Colbeck for pressurising the defender into making the poor backpass, should be keeping Thorne in bubble wrap during the close season so the 35-year-old is fit and firing from day one.
Stuart had been about to introduce Conlon for the struggling Penford, but delayed the change a few minutes as the initiative became firmly with City. Conlon made a big difference when he did come on, as did moving Johnson back into midfield. Stuart’s decision to try Johnson up front during the last few games has prompted much debate over his best position but he continues to look far more effective in the centre than battling up front. Meanwhile Conlon became much more involved than Johnson had been and his presence triggered more regular attacks.
The real star of the show was Nix though. It seemed everything good about the second half involved the Australian-born midfielder, who showed great energy levels. For every corner and free kick he was straight to the ball to get City going and also set up plenty of attacking moves that he would later get involved in again as the ball was knocked around. Nix has his faults, notably lack of pace, but has looked very impressive since switching to the centre. Whether he would be a regular next season is still uncertain but his fantastic dribble from deep and delicate chip attempt at Barnes, which the Grimsby keeper just tipped over, was a convincing case. He will surely be rewarded with a new deal.
Something which looks less likely for the two other subs Alex Rhodes and Luke Medley. The latter made a bigger impact after coming on for Thorne with seven minutes to go and played a part in the defining moment of the game. Half way through injury time, his pass into the area was chested down by Johnson and left for the on rushing Colbeck, who unleashed a superb powerful drive that flew past Barnes. The young winger has enjoyed a strong second half to the season which has featured a handful of goals; finally he’s now scored one at Valley Parade.
The half time boos were replaced by warm applause at the end, and while myself and the wife’s experience of a group of aggressive Grimsby supporters walking back to the car suggests they considered themselves unfortunate to have lost, the reality is that Scott Loach, rumoured to be staying at City on a season-long loan, had little to do in the second half.
If this run of one defeat from eight can be stretched a further two games it will have been an excellent end to the campaign. The Champions-elect, MK Dons, come to Valley Parade next Saturday and will offer a clear marker of how far the current squad are from the best at this level than the league table, distorted by that wretched autumn form, appears to show. In reality for City though, it’s just another warm up game for the next campaign.
They’re clearly not everyone’s cup of tea, but I do enjoy listening to football phone in shows on the radio. There’s usually an entertaining array of views which build a picture of the current moods of various clubs and, while often the caller will be talking a load of rubbish, there’s a sense of satisfaction that at least they’re not spouting nonsense views about your own club.
One such emerging viewpoint which I don’t understand though is from those who want to see their manager sacked so badly they admit to wanting their team to lose. While often having good reasons for demanding a managerial change, hoping your team loses just so there’s a better chance of your wish being granted is a blinkered view.
Chelsea supporters have been the worst offenders with many of their followers recently blighting the airwaves to tell the world they want their side to lose, to hasten the departure of Avram Grant. One can understand their frustration at seeing the popular and successful Jose Mourinho given the chop to make way for the Israeli, who has done little to improve the dour style of football which is said to have cost ‘The Special One’ his job, but this season could yet go down as their most successful ever and no desire to see Grant booted out of Stamford Bridge should come before that.
Closer to home, similar thoughts of wanting City to fail have been raised by some supporters. Following the pathetic 2-1 reverse to Mansfield a month ago it seemed as though there’d be a large queue of players exiting the club this summer. With play off hopes all but over, some fans aired the viewpoint that they didn’t want City to enjoy a decent finish to the campaign in case Stuart McCall was fooled into offering any of the out of contract and underperforming players fresh deals. Such fears maybe realised because, after a month where City’s performances have greatly improved, deal or no deal decisions will be tougher to make for Stuart.
Is this a bad thing? There’s no disputing this season has failed to live up to expectations, but the picture isn’t as straight forward as it would seem. The old saying “the league table never lies” remains true, but the dreadful run of form last autumn, where City collected two out of a possible 24 points, has partially masked the improvement from the team since. By my rough calculations, City would currently be sitting in seventh, ahead of Wycombe on goal difference, had the season begun on November 6th. 29 games on from beating Chester that evening, City have lost only eight games. It leaves the question for Stuart to chew over, is the present squad as bad as it seems?
In the wake of the Mansfield defeat Stuart said he couldn’t wait for the season to finish. Clearly he felt let down by the players but they have responded brilliantly. Three wins, three draws and one unfortunate defeat may not be spectacular form, but the performances have been largely good. Some players like Barry Conlon, Tom Penford, Kyle Nix and Eddie Johnson must have feared their days were numbered; now it’s less certain. No one would argue significant strengthening is required to mount a stronger promotion challenge next season, but the near-total revamp of the squad some were hoping and demanding does not appear necessary.
The end of a season is a time where individual mistakes are less likely to be hammered by supporters and ambitions are lowered, unless you’re in for an exciting or worrying finale. It can be argued that those players who have impressed lately are only doing so with nothing at stake and that, when it really mattered, they choked; a couple of good games now does not mean they can do it for a season. This is where Stuart’s judgement will be so important in the coming weeks.
The question posed to the players after Mansfield was did they want to continue playing for this club, and at the very least their response should be applauded. There may be no prizes at stake, but their livelihood is and that undoubtedly leaves pressure on their shoulders in each remaining game. Everyone released will find a new club, albeit for some it will be in division below, but whoever among them is searching for new employment this summer, there’s little chance they’ll end up playing in front of bigger crowds or for someone with higher ambitions than The Bantams next season.
I’m not one who likes booing and was disappointed with the reaction of some fans at the Mansfield game, but if those players on the receiving end still want to play for this club we can only hope they learnt a valuable lesson that day in terms of the standards we expect them to maintain at this club and the consequences of dipping below it. If any of the players desperate for a new deal this summer are playing a big part in a promotion push this time next year, such booing will have been justified.
Before then an intriguing summer of deal or no deal will commence and no doubt a range of views will be expressed after decisions are made. Thank goodness there won’t be a special radio phone-in show about it.
Clutching a bag filled with food and drink and a copy of a decent newspaper, I stood on the train platform waiting in anticipation for a train to take me to London. I’d been looking forward to our game at Brentford for a few months now, since we decided to visit Griffin Park and had booked our train tickets. The train duly arrived on time and I was greeted by my brother who had already travelled south from Saltaire. It had been a few years since I’d been to a City away game using public transport but the thought of a stress free train journey was appealing. Unfortunately another friend had to forfeit their train ticket as their girlfriend had arrived home that morning following an operation in BRI.
The train was busy but the journey was enjoyable. Time spent reading a decent newspaper (which doesn’t occur often due to time constraints) was interrupted by the munching of food and chat about how today’s game might pan out and how our season had been inconsistent in terms of results. As we approached Kings Cross my brother’s phone was buzzing with a text message from a work colleague who was at the Leeds-Carlisle game which was kicking off at 12.15pm.
We’d arrived safely in London and I was walking along the platform where I’d been only 48 hours earlier for a work meeting. My brother and I were greeted by John, one of my brother’s friends, who had given up their Spurs season ticket to come to see our game. (Incidentally, the Spurs-Middlesbrough game finished 1-1.) Armed with our 1-day travelcards we headed for the Piccadilly line and our destination of South Ealing tube station. Just as we were about to step on to the escalator we bumped into Paul, a southern based City supporter who sits with us at Valley Parade when he ventures north. We knew that Paul was flying out to Amsterdam that evening for a works do, but he’d decided to come to the game and leave slightly early in the hope of there been no goals in the last 15 minutes.
Arriving at South Ealing tube station, we were then met by Liam, another of my brother’s friends who lives down south. He’d driven across from Kent to meet up with us. The five of us walked towards Griffin Park and were greeted with plenty of pubs to obtain a pint from. We decided upon The New Inn where the atmosphere was friendly. Punters were watching history in the making as Queen of the South had beaten Aberdeen 4-3 to reach their first ever Scottish Cup Final. This is what makes football special when the underdog triumphs over the favourite. A decent pint of Directors Courage was sunk and not even a shower of rain could dampen our spirits as we walked to the away end. Griffin Park may not be the biggest ground in England but it has plenty of charm as it’s crammed in on all sides by housing.
We decided to enter the turnstile for standing as it’s not often that you can stand at football games these days. Considering our league position and the distance from West Yorkshire, there was a reasonable following of City supporters; several hundred in good voice. McCall and Jacobs had decided to play young Luke O’Brien at left back and overall he had a decent game with his most important contribution been a headed clearance off the line in the first half. City found themselves 1-0 down early on after we conceded possession in our half and Glenn Poole stroked a fine shot across Loach and into the bottom right hand corner of our goal. City seemed to be a bit sluggish but we equalised with our first effort on target as Thorne hit a half volley to score his 14th goal of the season. However, two minutes later and there were wild celebrations in the away end as Nix found a bit of space on the left hand side and unleashed an unstoppable shot past Brown to put City 2-1 up.
Eddie Johnson was playing up front again after his previous two games had yielded two goals. He found himself in the clear with glorious opportunity to make it 3-1 to City but unfortunately he seemed to scuff his shot and Brown saved with relative ease. City were made to pay for this miss as we failed to clear the ball on several occasions following a Brentford free kick from the right hand side and defender Bennett hit a super shot which beat Loach and went in off the underside of the cross bar. Half an hour had elapsed and already we’d seen four fine goals. Half time arrived with the teams locked at 2-2.
My eagle eyed brother had spotted a guy in the away end who he used to go to school with, Ben, and his elder brother Nigel was with him. I’d been in the same school year as Nigel and at one point we’d played in the same school football team. As the second half commenced a voice said to me “Hello Richard”. It was another guy, Graham, who was with Nigel who I also went to school with. I chatted with Nigel and Graham during the second half and discussed who we had stayed in touch with since leaving school nearly twenty years ago. One person who I mentioned was Andrew, who was meant to be with us at the game but due to his daughter being ill, he had been unable to make the trip south. As the clock ticked on, Craig Bentham replaced Tom Penford. Would this be the last time we would see Bentham in a City shirt following his recent three month loan spell at Farsley Celtic? Paul exited for his flight to Amsterdam but he was okay as there were no more goals. Although City did have a decent shout for a penalty as Wetherall was obviously fouled in the Brentford 18 yard box. However, referee Armstrong waved play on and left the City supporters bemused. Omar Daley had replaced the hard working Nix and should he have chosen to pass to the on rushing Thorne instead of deciding to shoot himself to loose possession, City could have snatched a late winner. But it wasn’t to be.
I said my goodbyes to Nigel and Graham then my brother waved Liam off to Kent. This left the three of us (my brother, John and me) to walk back to South Ealing tube station. We arrived at Kings Cross in time for a pint of good Yorkshire ale in the form of Black Sheep then my brother and I headed north on the train. A grand day out and not a sighting of Wallace or Gromit!