Written by Jason McKeown (images by John Dewhirst)

It was the way that it all crumbled apart so easily that came as the biggest shock. As Sam Sherring headed Northampton Town into a three-goal lead on the hour, the home despair became as heavy as the rain. Several Bradford City players forlornly argued with the referee about something, with the rest just looking utterly dejected. Thousands of home supporters got up from their seats and made for the exit, as the Bantams’ biggest crowd since the opening day of the season began thinning out.

This was not in the script. No one saw such a cold reality check coming. Everyone was relishing this game, and the chance to break into the automatic promotion spots. To lay down a marker on a rival. To make a statement to the rest of the division. To crown the Mark Hughes revival of the club. And to truly dare to dream. Sure, a City defeat was hardly out of the question. But not the utter humbling that this afternoon proved to be.  

And it really was a humbling. A brutal undermining of City’s top three ambitions. The Bantams were given a true footballing lesson here by opposition who are walking the walk as well as talking the talk. Northampton were weakened, supposedly, by the absence of the division’s top scorer. Goodness knows how much worse this might have proved had Sam Hoskins not had to sit this one out through suspension.

Northampton deserve every plaudit going and then some. After they were cruelly robbed (some would say cheated) of automatic promotion last season, followed by a play off semi final defeat, the mental strength they’re showing to recover so strongly is deeply admirable. And boy, can they play football. From front to back they were organised, methodical and displayed greater intelligence. They backed off City at times, pressed at others. Their 4-3-3 formation proved mightily effective in easily winning the midfield battle so they could counter attack with purpose.

It felt for long spells like a predator toying and torturing its prey. In dreadful weather conditions that left the pitch unpredictable, Northampton waited patiently for City mistakes before pouncing. The visitors controlled the tempo, adjusting the speed when it suited. When they took it up a high level, the home side just couldn’t live with them. They absolutely deserved the victory that in the end came rather easily.

You could make an argument that, up until the 29th minute, with the score still 0-0, City were giving as good as they got. They had a good chance early doors when Harry Chapman fired over from a good position. Whether due to the heavy rain or the fact an injury to Romoney Crichlow meant Yann Songo’o had to deputise, City were initially more direct. Faster than usual in getting it forward from the back, and up the pitch to the front four players of Chapman, Scott Banks, Abo Eisa and Andy Cook as soon as possible.     

But the threat of Northampton was obvious. Lightning quick counter attacks had already cut too easily through City’s midfield and defence, with some dangerous balls into the box only narrowly missing their target. And when City began reverting to type of passing it around at the back, the ball began to be needlessly given away that little bit too often. The predator lay in wait.

That’s when, on 29 minutes, everything changed. Richie Smallwood had possession inside his own half, in a slightly wide position. He turned, he passed the ball across goal, but he didn’t look. The erroneous pass was gift wrapped for Mitchell Pinnock, who seized onto the loose ball, held off the futile challenge of Songo’o, and curled the ball past the panicked Harry Lewis and into the goal.

As City kicked off in a daze, the Cobblers advanced and made it 2-0 straight away. It was a goal of Northampton brilliance with an inside ball from Shaun McWilliams to the onrushing Kieron Bowie ranking as one of the passes of the season. It took out two City players. Bowie pulled it back for McWilliams, who had kept running into the box, and he picked his spot clinically to score. There were City players rushing to close down their pink shirted opponents, but they were chasing shadows.

From even-stevens to blown away in two, devastating minutes of action, the falling apart began. The weaknesses in City’s 4-2-3-1 set-up – its overrun midfield, its isolated sole striker, its creaky backline – wasn’t exactly disguised at 0-0. But it all fell sharply under the spotlight as the Bantams struggled to find any composure. Northampton wasted two great chances to make it three before the interval.

With only three home wins in 10 now, and none in the last five, it’s becoming painfully clear that this set up is not working at Valley Parade. 4-2-3-1 and the overall tactics are clearly proving revelationary on the road, but with the greater expectation to attack and need to play at a higher tempo in home games, it’s too often thwarted by visitors to these parts. And this can no longer be ignored.

Hughes has got to change it.

He probably disagrees, because he didn’t even change it when there was still a chance to rescue the match. 2-0 down at half time in your biggest game of the season, and yet the subs all stayed out at the interval, warming up on the pitch. Hughes elected against changing formation or personnel going into the second half, and he maintained that view even when the game began to follow the same pattern and Northampton spurned another two good chances.

Cue Northampton’s third, the start of the exodus from the stands, and game over. Only then did Hughes act. He left it too late. Maybe the game was already up, but Hughes’ inaction made the outcome certain.  

The manager argued after the game that the players lacked discipline to play in the same 4-2-3-1 approach after half time. He said, “We were guilty of over-committing on occasions and we were leaving guys one v one at the back and that’s where your discipline comes in. You have got to have the right shape to mount attacks and build attacks and pressure and we did not get the part of our game right.”

Fair enough, but can you blame the players for wanting to chase the game at 2-0 down? And is 4-2-3-1 the sort of formation to maintain when you need to score at least two goals in 45 minutes to rescue the match? Yes, the players needed to be more intelligent, but the shape retained by the manager to chase a game did not appear to be right.

Vadaine Oliver and Tyreik Wright came on for the fading Eisa and Chapman, with City going 4-4-2 at last. The ball was once again pumped into the box, and there were half chances that might have opened the door slightly for an unlikely Bantams comeback. In truth, any advocates for 4-4-2 probably won’t cite the final 30 minutes of this encounter as evidence of its powers. Cook and Oliver looked uncomfortable together. At times they both went for the same high balls, or failed to read the other’s flick on attempt. They seemed to be arguing with each other on the pitch. They were getting too little joy.

It summed up those final knockings. Over a third of the game to play, and yet City were clearly beaten. Those fans who headed home from the cold early did not miss much other than a consolation penalty from Cook in the first minute of stoppage time. Northampton could have scored more but in the end scaled back their ambition and ran down the clock. They are now five points ahead of the Bantams in the table. Yet the gulf in class between the two teams seems much bigger than that.

That sense of helplessness in City was the most striking factor of the closing stages. It’s been a while City last looked so defeated and out-played on their own turf. Maybe not since Hughes’ first game in charge of the club when Mansfield won here with ease. It became hard to believe the home side had genuinely kicked off the afternoon feeling confident of leap frogging Northampton into the automatic places.

And that is the harsh truth this defeat has exposed. This Bradford City team are good – the best we’ve had in years – but they’re not quite there yet. Play off contenders – absolutely. Beyond that, the jury is well and truly out. Players have performed well at times, but their limitations are evident too. And though we’d like to think the January window can come and go without too much of an urgency to sign lots of players, in order to reach the level of a Northampton side in this kind of form – that is, to be true automatic promotion contenders – Hughes will need to strengthen.

In the meantime, solutions have to be found. The Smallwood-Alex Gilliead partnership is not working well enough in home games. Are two deeply-lying midfielders necessary, especially when they can be so easily overrun? And when it’s clear that the opposition tactics are succeeding, what does Hughes need to do to change the narrative?

Debates continue to rage about Smallwood. On his day, a good player at this level for sure. But the expectation on the captain’s shoulders that he should be the side’s playmaker appears to overestimate his true strengths. At the very least, it’s struggling to work without a partner who can match his passing ability and work together cohesively.

If you wanted to get a true measure of the difference in City and Northampton, it was the way players linked up in possession. Northampton were brilliant at creating triangles to pass around City. When a Town player had the ball, he would invariably have two options close by. In contrast, City’s players are too spread out around the pitch. When Smallwood has possession in the opposition half, he has very few close options and is often expected to pick out someone from distance. He can do it at times, but it’s not his strength. And it certainly isn’t Gilliead’s. Losing Elliot Watt in the summer continues to be keenly felt. 

I get why Gilliead continues to be picked ahead of Ryan East in terms of the former’s greater athleticism and tackling ability, but it comes at the cost of not enough passing quality in the middle of the park. Smallwood would be better sharing playmaker responsibilities with someone like East, even if it means he can’t be the influential controller that Hughes wants him to be. I’m not convinced East is the long-term answer, but neither – it increasingly seems – is Gilliead.

That’s the biggest issue right now for sure, although Hughes won’t have been wholly happy with what he got from his front four. You assume Wright wasn’t quite fit enough to start after injury, as his pace and directness would have been a better option than Eisa in this game. The latter – finally making his full Valley Parade debut after his injury nightmares – did okay at times, but had too many quiet spells. It was the same with Banks who drifted out of the game after a decent start.

To play out from the back requires having technically gifted defenders. Matty Platt can just about pull it off. But he needs someone alongside him better on the ball who can accept they might not receive get the best pass from Platt, but possesses the composure to manage tight situations. Crichlow offers that, Songo’o does not. This is not a central defensive partnership that will win you a promotion.  

This was clearly a poor City performance. Players not doing themselves justice. A bad day at the office. It happens. But it’s happening too often at home. You can’t just shrug this off when you remember the Crawley, Stockport and Wimbledon performances.

It comes back to the point – something has to change. I absolutely love what Hughes is doing at this club and he’s getting the majority of the calls right. But performances, overall, remain short of the ambition to earn promotion. And there’s too many dropped points at home to give credence to the idea that the current strategy is working at Valley Parade.

Whether its through changing some of the players or adjusting the tactics, this harrowing defeat is a warning that City are not yet at the level we all want them to be. The ideals of playing football the right way are hugely commendable and should not be readily abandoned, but promotions are earned by winning lots of games of football. And Hughes has to find a way to do that more often at Valley Parade.  

Categories: Match Reviews

Tags: 2022/23, BCAFC, League Two, Northampton Town