Bradford City have much in common with Sunderland, Portsmouth, Ipswich, Wednesday and Derby. They see themselves as a big fish in a little pond who does not deserve to be so confined. They, like all the rest of their type, spend money relentlessly, yet underachieve.
They change managers frequently and their fans remain loyal. Each year they promise to turn their form around and deliver a dividend on the investment and the expectation of this being their year sustains the hopes of their fans much longer than is probably justified. Rarely do they fulfil expectations and the weight of them probably overloads the ability to produce good performances.
So, the pattern repeats itself for Bradford and there is a strong belief again that they will be “up there". Yet, based on history, it ought not to take great courage to bet against it, but despite that, we over-rate them to the extent that many Rovers fans will imagine that even a loss in next Saturday’s match with a good performance will be OK.
Bradford’s preseason included a 2-0 win against a Sunderland team which was way below full strength and they have also beaten York City and Carlisle, but have lost to Derby and most recently 3-0 at Chesterfield. There are 6 minutes of iFollow highlights of that match on YouTube and Chesterfield had the ball in the net 5 times to Bradford’s single off-side effort. The Spirites are a good side, but City were particularly inept in dealing with crosses. They looked a bit like us last season.
Needless to say there have been numerous summer signings including most recently Oliver, a 30 year old striker from Gillingham (10 goals last season) on a seemingly generous 3 year deal and they have taken Brad Halliday on a two year contract notwithstanding his rather disturbing injury record. These two add to half a dozen close season incomings, where they have been prepared to award generous contracts to players, some experienced and others youthful. Having actually researched most of them, albeit relatively superficially, none stand out as being obviously exceptionally talented even at this level.
Mark Hughes is seen by several of them as the motivating factor to join the club and perhaps that has persuaded observers to believe that they might otherwise have been snapped up at a higher level. Halliday’s defensive qualities are singled out which some of us might query and apart for Oliver the bias is very much to midfield players at a time when the current forwards (on last year’s evidence) do not seem to score their share of goals.
As I have not seen anything but brief highlights of Rovers I have no real ability to make informed comments beyond my general impression of this looking nothing like the team we suffered in watching last season.
I think that we will be too quick and imaginative for them and win reasonably comfortably, so I stake my shambolic reputation on a 2 nil win with, obviously, Miller scoring the first. What is more I do not think this will be our toughest away match by quite a distance.
DPL v Bradford City
posted on 31/7/22
It's too early to make predictions about how Rovers will fare this season on that performance. However My initial take on yesterday is that we will be more competitive but we haven't yet got what it takes to challenge for promotion. Depth of squad still too thin. The most pleasing aspect of yesterday was the performance of the defence. Though Olowu is still too slow on the turn. We did however deal with all their crosses which is a vast improvement on last year. Knoyle and Williams far better than last year. We'll see more of our likely potential next Saturday I'm sure. Set up yesterday was pure defend and break away when paying away. Let's see what it is on Saturday.
posted on 31/7/22
I agree, Nookie. What we can say following yesterday's match is that we're mentally tougher than we were last season. To restrict Bradford to 2 shots on target whilst playing with 10 men for more than half the game would have taken real concentration and commitment. Good management from GMc and team too.
posted on 2/8/22
I have now watched the full match replay. With no background information you would categorise this match as despoiled by the worst displays of gamesmanship I have seen by Rovers against a side who (consistent with their inability to score against a National League side) were utterly incapable of even threatening to score a goal. No one in the Bradford side seemed to have the skill to take on and beat the Rovers defence. They could not get behind them to cross the ball; all they did was pass it around often inaccurately and shoot speculatively from distance. There was no plan. Playing like they did, they will not be challenging for promotion.
Rovers, who previously have occasionally played spoiling tactics crudely took it to an art form on Saturday. I could scarcely believe what I was seeing. It was a masterclass in using what could have been minor injuries as a means of slowing down or stopping play and time-wasting in every aspect of their game, even before the sending off. Ironically, we also saw a good deal of footballing skill from our side, possibly enough to have won the game if they had gone into it with an enterprising attitude. Man for man they were better than the opposition, and although GM says they were forced into being on the defensive it struck me that right from the start they chose to be negative. I did not like it.
Tomlin did nothing constructive, reminding me of Bostock - except for his touch back to Miller who should have done better - by shooting first time. It was shameful what Tomlin did in getting sent off. I can’t remember a Rovers player ever behaving like that. He claims to be enjoying his football… really?
Overall we looked far fitter, skilful and far more purposeful than last season. It was clear that GM played it very safe and perhaps that is not surprising. We might hope that we are really superior to most of the other teams in the League and that once the manager is convinced of this we will see better results and a more edifying spectacle.
posted on 2/8/22
I think GM got the calls right given the last minute withdrawal of Rowe. Signing Tomlin was always a big risk given his past. Hopefully he's learned from it but I doubt it. Brief look at Sutton v Newport gave me encouragement. Winning or drawing dirty away is a formula for success only if we can entertain and win at home.
posted on 2/8/22
We' criticised both our poor defending and attacking last season and looked to strengthen these areas. But perhaps the biggest emphasis should be on securing a talented midfield. Looks Like GM is trying to hard to do this as our main focus.
posted on 3/8/22
Hearing there's more bad injury news. Younger and Rowe. Nothing official yet.
posted on 4/8/22
I think I might be looking at the surface they're training on and their warm up and conditioning regimes very closely.
posted on 5/8/22
Crazy and Nookie got the draw, but there were only the 4 predictions
Bradford City 0 : Rovers 0
>>>>>>> Scorer > Score > Result Bonus > Total > Pts B/F > O/all
Donaldo>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>>> 0
PDXMickey> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>>> 0
BVZ>>>>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>>> 0
Crazy>>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 3 >>>> 0 >>>>> 3 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 3
Mooligan>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>>> 0
Nookie>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 3 >>>> 0 >>>>> 3 >>>>> 0 >>>>>> 3
Selby>>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>>> 0
LixmKing> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>>>>> 0
>>>>>>>>> 0 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 6 >>>> 0 >>>>>>> 6 >>>>> 0 >>>>> 6
posted on 5/8/22
I have just realised that I put his up under "Premier League"! So I've corrected it and checked to make sure the Sutton preview which I put up yesterday is under "League 2"!
posted on 6/8/22
Hi Donaldo
I predicted a draw too 😊
Cheers
Mooli