More About Nicky Law Jnr
Milton Keynes 1 Bradford City 2 - FA Cup First Round 2008/2009
Who wants to go to Stadium:MK? Who even knows where it is? Or what it is? “Is it a hockey stadium” Ian asks and then we have a debate over if hockey is a big enough game to have stadiums anyway. “It is something you do down the park” says Dawn, “or at school. It isn’t a grown ups game.”
This argument rages over the team news which sees City without a load of players and without Peter Thorne. “Perhaps we can lend his stick to Barry” says Noel breaking from shouting at us for not being able to stop arguing about having a colon in the middle of a phrase and find this stadium:mk thing. We are going to be late and we are. We get into the ground to see footballer:od (Omar Daley) messing around in the box and hitting a shot that sneaks in past Lewis Price in the home goal. “F*ck Barrack Obama! We’ve got Barrack O. Daley” is both idiotic and hilarious and as we look over the pitch to see how isn’t playing rather than who is. Michael Boulding and Barry Conlon in front of a midfield with Daley, and Leon Osbourn on the wings and Paul McLaren and Nicky Law in the middle. Law got off to a good start setting up the goal.
And City had a good start. Away games have long since been better than home for atmosphere and sure enough the Bantams fans buoyed by an early goal were in good voice. WimbleMKDons most dangerous man Dean Lewington started to warm up and I remember how he smacked Joe Colbeck over the back of the head in the second to last game of the season which resulted in Colbeck being sent off for a horrible tackle back. Colbeck, like Conlon, has come out of the other side of the tunnel of booing and Barry running about this afternoon is proof that while it is pretty stupid the players that come out of the other side tend to do so as better players.
Not that that is a good reason or anything.
Matt Clarke and Graeme Lee had the throats warming up but stuck back together today they were impressing in the first half blocking MK Dons as they tried to drive through the middle of City. If Roberto Di Matteo had had City watched they came back with the wrong info because City looked stronger in the middle today. Away from home and leading we could park a bus in front of the goal but we need to be careful on the flanks were TJ Moncur and Luke O’Brien still amazingly keep out the Paul Arnison and Paul Heckingbottom combination.
Able to sit deep City enjoyed a good share of possession against the Champions of League Two who look less of a team than they were last term. Lewington still looks like the best player in the Galaxy when he faces City and manages to get above Graeme Lee as it looks like the City skipper could put in number two. Some Bantams make a decent shout for a penalty but of course it is given the other way. I wonder if I’ll live long enough that City ever get one of those games where we are the underdogs and everyone loves us and we get let off with two footed tackles and the News of the World want to talk to us but then I remember how much I hate clubs like that and the managers who play up to it like last week’s Barnet manager Paul Fairclough when he was manager of Stevenage when they played Newcastle ages ago. As I’m thinking about this I start to worry about how often Ali Gerba is getting caught offside cause at some point the linesman will let him go and he will equalise. He doesn’t but Jemal Johnson does hitting the ball in from miles away from the goal.
“That was a great goal” Ian offered at half time, “You couldn’t do that in hockey. The ball never leaves the ground.” Sometimes you wonder especially when it is really clear that you are nowhere near the National Hockey Stadium but it does turn out that stadium:mk is next to arena:mk where the Milton Keynes BasketBall team who they might have nicked off Chicago but probably didn’t play. “Rory Delap would be great at that, he should play for them” says Noel.
Half time is a different mood. What can Stuart McCall do? He is without a load of quality players in the midfield and almost every option that is suggested seems to be taking a punt on a player in the hope that while he might not do much most of the time he will be stunning today. Oddly enough this is not just applied to Billy Topp but Luke Sharry and Rory Boulding who as far as I can tell have done nothing to say they are the guys you play when you want to beat a team in the league above you.
Then again they have done nothing to say they are not. Sharry is a big lad and fills a midfield hole but we seem solid enough and have a good chance of taking these back to Valley Parade if we don’t throw Rory, Toppy and Sharry up front and take off everyone who is ever in our half.
The second half started in our half with Omar Daley’s long runs and Barry Conlon’s head being the only way that City could find to get out from the cosh. The home team won corners that were cleaned out by Graeme Lee and Matt Clarke who were both having great games. “The second corner should be a short corner” Dawn said and we all agreed that was a good idea really and that football could learn a lot from Hockey. “You could get two goals for shots from outside the box” which was a Basketball thing and could have had City losing at this point so probably wasn’t a good idea. “Imagine what Deano would have done with the stick, heads would have rolled.”
The Milky Dons started to use the flanks more with former Town flop Kevin Gallen running the channels for them and Michael Boulding starting to do the same for City. The defence which is never lauded of late did not buckle and Stuart McCall seemed to have settled for whatever this stiff rear guard and occasional counter-attack football would produce be it replay at Valley Parade or narrow defeat. We were all surprised when what was produced turned out to be a goal from Graeme Lee.
Boulding was fouled on one of his enterprising runs and while had Lee not blasted the free kick in then we would probably be asking why the fouler was not sent off but the free kick saw Lee step up like Marco Flaming Sas and belt the ball in hard and low to the back of the Dons goal. Like Marco Flaming Sas. I mean, who was expecting that? “He slam dunked that with his chuffing stick!”
Then it was attack and defence with Lewington wandering around the field trying to do everything and Matt Clarke looking as strong as he ever has. The Referee blew his whistle and we were through to the second round six fielders out and no Peter Thorne and everything.
Which says something about Stuart. Belief was thin on the ground today for us all and most of us who had come expected very little and chattered through the game about nothing much like the management team enjoying a trip with no expectation to win. Following City this year is about getting three points every week and the two cup games have been local derbies. We came here with hardly any midfielders against a team that beat us twice last year. This is the least pressure of the season and probably the most fun.
Stuart always clenches is fists and punches the air after a win but today he did so without that feeling that he had stuck it to his doubters but with a smile that he might have not expected it either.
The second round awaits. I doubt it will be as much fun.
Stuart McCall must long for a pair of boots and a way to peel back five years to allow him to bolster his midfield ranks so depleted as he takes his City side in the weekend with injuries to what one could argue is his first choice four.
Joe Colbeck is on the sidelines until January after the kick at Grimsby Town but such an absence is nothing compared to summer signing Chris Brandon - everyone’s choice to dump Omar Daley out of the side this season - who has yet to kick a ball in anger for the Bantams.
Brandon is an unknown in many ways but his absence - almost forgotten - is one of the reasons why the middle of the park is so stretched for the Bantams. Had he been in the squad on Saturday then City would not have the situation where - after five games in two weeks - Paul McLaren, Kyle Nix and Dean Furman were all playing with injuries.
McLaren will most likely be pressed into service as walking wounded again on Saturday - one might suggest with the away tie at Milton Keynes looking like one of the harder draws and City so depleted that McCall would be better resting his number four for the league games a week later - but Furman will miss the game as he starts an estimate three weeks on the treatment table.
Furman’s place in the side came because of injury to Lee Bullock who is estimate back to fitness before the Christmas period and has been missed by the Bantams more than one might give credit for. As with Paul Arnison Bullock’s exit from the side at Shrewsbury coincided with the start of the “slump” which has left City third dropping from the summit of League Two.
The quartet: Bullock, McLaren, Colbeck and Brandon were in many people’s minds the starting four for City this year. The form of Omar Daley and Dean Furman gives City six to select from but - now the Jamaican winger is back from suspension - injury has those six depleted to Omar and a semi-fit Paul McLaren.
Nicky Law Jnr’s arrival has not replaced Colbeck’s thrusting runs on the right - although a switch of Daley from one side to the other may do that - but the Sheffield United youngster is a versatile thing and can plug a gap in the middle two where Furman would be and could be pressed into that role on Saturday should The Blades allow him to be cup tied. Assuming they will then he and McLaren will take the middle, if not then Luke Sharry - star of pre-season - may find himself thrust into the action.
Sharry did enough in pre-season to suggest himself to McCall and like Luke O’Brien he may find the step into League Two football from juniors/reserves play to be less steep than youngsters who were thrown into action in the divisions above. Looking forward to league games then City need bodies to allow other bodies to recover and at some point pushing Sharry in to allow recuperation for a senior professional like McLaren becomes a good idea.
On the flanks - assuming McCall does not continue with an obviously unfit Nix - the management have the chance to switch Omar Daley to the right hand side and deploy Leon Osborne on the left continuing the theme of pace which is lacking when Colbeck is replaced by Law and once again Sharry provides an option of speed and strength on that right hand side. Willy Topp - not even featuring on the bench of late - is another options but McCall sees more of him than anyone and clearly does not think he is worth including at the moment.
Saturday’s use of Michael Boulding on the left wing should hopefully put pay to the idea that the fox in the box can be the thing on the wing. Sadly injury to Rory Boulding stops him from featuring wide. Rory Carson and Ryan Harrison are the bright things suggesting themselves from the youth set up with Harrison featuring on the left hand flank for the reserves of late.
On Saturday and for the next few weeks Stuart McCall needs to balance recuperation with maintaining an effective team - City are in fine scoring form at the moment - and in doing that he masses what he has in deep reserve. Now is the time for the likes of Sharry to be called upon.
That or McCall has to find his boots.
The ball would not drop.
It held in mid-air like the frost had clung to Bradford’s trees this first Winter morning and took time to come down to the crisp grass of Valley Parade.
Later it would fall to Barry Conlon - of course to Barry Conlon - who would stand straight and head past Wayne Brown. Allowing Conlon to head past him was the only one thing the man in the Bury goal did wrong all evening but a half hour before that moment it would be Michael Boulding trying to take down a looped cross from Peter Thorne and - when on his own in the middle of the penalty area - control and convert the chance.
The chance had come when Brown had sprinted back to his line to scoop away a back pass by David Buchanan which had seemed to be going into the visitors goal. Boulding’s pressure had forced the error but that would be no consolation as the ball steadfastly refused to sit up to be struck hanging in the air from Thorne’s cross.
Wins, promotions are made of such things.
This phrase seems to be commonly uttered at Valley Parade of late as the Bantams slump - the dire Bantams of Darlington eight days ago - nestle in to second place in the table with 14 games gone. If promotions are made of late goals and of the late goals that Conlon seems to have more of a hand in then they are also made of characterful performances where the Bantams ground out that rarest of things - a home win against an opposition who would have been happy with a point.
Happy and deserved. Bury were a desent side who came to Valley Parade with a game plan to anchor the midfield and hit on the break. After a half where City edged the game once the mismash of players had started to build an understanding of each other the Bantams began to convert possession into chances.
Nicky Law Jnr came in on the right wing for the injured Joe Colbeck and offered little going forward but his attitude and approach was typical of a City performance which ensured that despite some interesting probing by The Shakers the defensive line remained solid and from that came the win.
Bit by bit in a first half City took more and more control of possession in the game. Tom Clarke - in for Matt Clarke - looked to have a head beyond his years and put not a foot wrong. As the game wore on into the second half Luke O’Brien would become more and more important as a distribution outlet and as a capable defender. His current form would keep Paul Heckingbottom out of the side.
From Boulding’s chance onwards City mounted attack on attack save sporadic meanders forward by the visitors with Dean Furman’s deep role allowing him to control the passage of possession and Paul McLaren probing forward. Law’s right wing role did not offer the outlet of Colbeck and City struggled to breakdown Bury but with the lion’s share of the ball the game was the Bantams to win.
A free kick for an arm in Furman’s face dummied by McLaren and struck with hitherto unpredicted venom by Graeme Lee and the ball pinged up into the air looping down to the waiting head of Conlon who after scoring joined the rest of Valley Parade in expecting referee Mr Friend to be anything but but tellingly as his central defenders were booked for complaining Wayne Brown said nothing.
The goalkeeper twice watching how the pieces fell in front of him. Two similar situations, two different outcomes.
Colbeck’s injury could keep him out for months, Daley is suspended for Saturday and Peter Thorne took a whack and could join Mark Bower, Lee Bullock and Chris Brandon on the sidelines. Like all managers Stuart McCall’s test is to make the best of the pieces that fall to him and second after fourteen games he would seem to be making a good fist of that.