More About Barry Conlan
Bradford City 1 Burnley 1 - Friendly Game 2007/2008
First things first. Bradford City took honours against Burnley in the one all draw at Valley Parade against a strong Burnley side in what was the best pre-season test at Valley Parade since Sam Allardyce stormed out of VP following Wayne Jacobs testimonial with a face on him that said “That mattered”.
Tonight Burnley tried, City tried and City edged it.
Burnley, however, had more class. The gap between the two divisions was there for all to see as Burnley pushed the ball around and controlled it with the kind of ease that City once did but what the Bantams lacked in class they made up in the kind of passionate play that manager Stuart McCall - in charge of his first City game at Valley Parade for seven and a half years - typified.
If not first to the ball then City snapped around the feet McCall is building a team in his own image and at the hub of that McCall seems to have found his number four in the shape of tank like midfielder Paul Evans.
At times Evans is McCall’s McCall to a tee. He harries at everything then tackles hard but fair - most of the time - and like McCall he can move the ball. More short ten yarders in future maybe but with City playing a 433 with Omar Daley and Joe Colbeck on a remit to get down the channels beyond the increasingly impressive Barry Conlon Evans played quarterback hitting balls that will rip apart League Two defences. Evans is not essential for City or for McCall - Craig Bentham can do his job - but with the Welshman having other offers but preferring City one gets the feeling that he could make much more of an impact on results in his second coming than he did in his first.
One hopes McCall gets his man.
Also worth getting would seem to be Australian born midfielder Kyle Nix who buzzed around the midfield of the field next to Evans and Eddie Johnson with a classy touch and an eagerness to impress his former Sheffield United reserve manager McCall. Nix almost won the game for City with a free kick late on that pyjamaed goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly saved impressively in an impressive midfield three which saw Eddie Johnson continue his transformation to a man of the middle with a long channel ball to Joe Colbeck which the winger took in stride and pulled back for Evans to slam in from the right hand side of the box. Two passes over sixty yards and more impressive play from Colbeck that will no doubt be ignored by his detractors.
Not to be ignored was the train sized gap which saw Burnley’s Michael Duff thread a ball behind Mark Bower and in front of Donovan Ricketts for Ade Akinbiyi to turn in for the opener. Defensive communication is the heart of all winning teams and should McCall’s men be celebrating on May this will have been either sorted out on the training ground or no one in League Two will be capable of playing that sort of pass.
The back two of David Wetherall and Mark Bower seemed at home with Paul Heckingbottom’s gradual return at left back and new signing Darren Williams slotting in to the right back role and showing ability to support the forward play coupled with strength at the back and seeming to be a very useful player.
From the bench Tom Harban impressed at right back and striker Luke Medley looked huge but lacked the experience to fill Conlon’s vital role in the set-up McCall is building but most vital in that seems to be a McCall of a player to fill the manager’s shoes. Contract for Paul Evans? Very much so.
And so the signings commence. After what seems like a age, Stuart has made his first pair of signings and the promise of more to follow, but what of the new boys and does it signal anything in terms of what we can expect from Stuart in terms of style?
Peter Thorne is relatively well known, a bit of an Ashley Ward lookalike, same town of birth and similar size! Barry Conlon, I’ve got to admit that I know diddly squat about other than he seems to be a deadringer for Jimmy Nesbit, and (if the message boards are to be believed) comes with the tag of being a bit “washed up”.
Both are six footers. Both have been around the block and, judging from the stats, should present us with something in the region of 30 goals between them. Thorne is the more prolific. His strike rate is around 1 in 3 over a career that has been primarilary at Championship level. He’s also commanded transfer fees that total around £2.5 million over his career. Compares well to the man he will be seen to replace, one Mr Windass, who has a career rate of 0.32 goals per game. However, Deano’s most prolific period was by far his second period with us at approaching 1 in 2. Take this out and he’s dropping down to nearly 1 in 4 elsewhere.
Thorne stacks up very well and is a good buy.
Conlon is a legend in Darlington! He’s had more clubs than Tony Jacklin, but still comes with a strike rate of better than 1 goal every 4 games, which whilst worse than the career average of Ashley Ward, is around the same as his strike rate with us. The difference is Cashley didn’t have a one in 3 man alongside him. If he had he would have created and ben a BCFC legend.
Conlon is washed up and Irish (allegedly) but remember our last washed up Irish striker and his mid 30’s strike partner - John Hawley. Nuff said.
So what of formation? This remains to be seen, but with an attacking pair in place, an aggressive midfielder ready and champing at the bit in the shape of Eddie Johnson, a flying winger in Omar Daley and the potential that Joe Colbeck has to realise this season, and we could be in for something akin to the 1985 team that Stuart flourished in. What we are short of now are two flying fullbacks and a playmaker in midfield and that’s the team sorted. All the rest will be squad players.
That 1985 team had followed an pretty good one that exited Division 4 in 1982, albeit with a bit of surgery, and if Stuart can deliver league one football by 2008, followed by Championship football 3 years later then he can be judged a success.
Bring it on.
Stuart McCall started his bounce back strategy for Bradford City bringing in two muscle forwards to lead the line for the Bantams next season.
Peter Thorne and Barry Conlon signed - tellingly on one-year deals - with both laying claim to being cut from the cloth of Dean Windass, of Lee Mills or Bobby Campbell.
Much travelled Thorne, 34, joins after his wasted two years at Norwich City in which he only scored twice and tells the usual hard luck injury stories. McCall brings a fresh start to Bradford City and there is no reason why Peter Thorne cannot be a part of that. He once menaced a Valley Parade defence for Stoke City and used to notch thirty a season. Cardiff City once paid £1.8m for him. League Two gives him a chance to be a somebody again.
History will record Conlon as McCall’s first signing. He is 28 and joins from Mansfield and got 12 goals in this year last season. McCall will want a greater return and to provide it he needs to find ammunition for his new strike force. Tom Penford and Craig Bentham should be his first reserves but as McCall pulled on tracksuit for training yesterday his thoughts no doubt turned to his need of midfield men to augment if not replace that pairing. The romantic has both Penford and Bentham rising McCall like in the side and the former number four says
“With the lads here now, I know there is definitely enough quality and spirit having been in with them and hopefully in the weeks leading up to the season there will be more people coming in.”
Scott Phelan, former Everton central midfielder, looks likely to be one of them. Ben Rix is lining up. John Spicer of Burnley is a long way up a shortlist.
Things are starting.