Written by Jason McKeown (images by John Dewhirst)

Perhaps, this will be ultimately be looked back on as the draw that thwarted Bradford City’s top three ambitions. Where a confident Carlisle team, with a healthy advantage in the table, crucially kept them at arm’s length. But right now, in this moment, this shouldn’t feel too disappointing. For this was a performance to offer fresh confidence in the Bantams’ promotion capabilities.

City matched and narrowly shaded this game against well-drilled, street-wise and quality opponents. The players could not turn second half dominance into three points, but should take great heart from the way they battled so hard and pinned their higher-place visitors back for spells.

Carlisle looked every inch a side who will be playing League One football next season. They had quality from front to back. The Carlisle manager Paul Simpson, who as a player is famous in these parts for once hitting the width of a post, will have left Valley Parade ruing the fact one of his players – the former Bantam Jordan Gibson – matched him in smacking a long rage shot against the woodwork, this time with the last kick of the game. But given the way the contest was going, Carlisle will ultimately judge this as a better result than their hosts.

The reality for City is they remain five points off third-place Carlisle with nine games left to play. It’s not an impossible gap to make up, but there is a sense they could have really narrowed it and put United under real pressure going into the final lap of the season – given the flurry of second half chances they created. They had Carlisle on the ropes for a time, but couldn’t deliver a knock out blow.

That will frustrate Mark Hughes, but he can be rightly proud of the performance of his players.

What will also encourage the City manager is that this was another example of the team improving over the course of the 90 minutes. The players responded well to tactical reshuffles, and grew stronger with each passing minute.

After the 1-1 draw with Mansfield in early February, there was rightly a lot of attention on the fact City were starting games well but struggling to carry it through over the 90 minutes. But since that day, there’s been several examples of the players displaying spirit and heart to overcome early difficulties. And they’ve notably got better during matches. This is definitely a good sign – and it’s why we shouldn’t be quite writing off their top three hopes just yet.

Of course, the glass half empty way of looking at that is to question whether City are starting games as strongly as they had been before. At least Hughes finally shook up a starting line-up that was growing stale after being unchanged for six games in a row. Harry Chapman came in for the injured Jamie Walker, with Scott Banks replacing Dara Costelloe. City began 4-3-3. It was different. And though it would be abandoned in the second half, the reset was good for Alex Gilliead and Richie Smallwood especially.

The two midfielders have spent much of recent weeks carrying the brunt of supporter frustration. Neither have been hitting the heights their ability and track record suggests they can offer, but have remained constant fixtures in the team regardless. Tonight the pair began flanking Adam Clayton – making his 500th career appearance – in the middle of the park and were much improved. It was a battle that required high energy levels, strong tackles and running with the ball. Both Gilliead and Smallwood did it very well. For each, this was their best games in weeks.

Still there was a question, once more, of whether what’s good for Gilliead and Smallwood is entirely right for the rest of the team. For example, selecting Banks and Chapman as wide strikers in the 4-3-3 did not work at all. Both players really struggled to get any change from a streetwise Carlisle backline, and that left Andy Cook spending much of the opening 45 minutes looking far too isolated and easy to defend against.

The first 30 minutes were even, with Carlisle 5-3-2 solid, slightly dour, but clever in giving the middle three space to attack. As half time approached, Carlisle began to press much more effectively than City, and take control. The home players really need to take inspiration from how good Carlisle are when the opposition is in possession. Ascending into the top three of League Two is not just about playing effectively when you have the ball, it’s about doing the out of possession things well. Stopping the opposition from playing. Ugly things that City are not great at.

For the Bantams, going 4-3-3 meant they lost some of their customary controlled possession style. All season long they’ve averaged a 73% passing success rate – the third-best in League Two. During the first half, it dropped to 61%.

And it was especially an issue in the 15 minutes before half time, where Carlisle got on top. Up until the 30-minute mark, City had 68% passing accuracy. Between minutes 30-35, it dropped to 47%. Then between minutes 35-40, it fall further to 36%. And even worse, between the 40th minute and the interval, it collapsed to 19%.

City were in trouble, and relieved to hear the half time whistle.

This is where Hughes earned his crust. City emerged for the second half in a 4-2-3-1, and looked much more accomplished for it. Gilliead was pushed up to the number 10 role, with Banks and Chapman dropping back and finding space to operate. The difference in both players was considerable. As was the service and support into Cook.

What a battle we were treated to between Cook and the Carlisle centre halves Morgan Feeney, Ben Barclay and Jon Mellish. With the ball played more to his feet to run onto, Cook relished taking on the Carlisle backline whilst deploying a mixture of skill and brawn. At one point he barged past Feeney and dribbled around Barclay, only for Feeney to produce a strong last ditch block. On another occasion Cook caused havoc inside the box as he chased a loose ball, and he almost got his shot away. You could visibly see how tough the Carlisle defenders were finding Cook to deal with.

Cook inevitably had City’s best chances, hitting the bar with a shot that deflected off Feeney after Smallwood found the League Two top scorer in space. In the closing stages, Cook was fed by Banks in a slightly wide position, and did well to sniff out some space before firing a shot that was saved by Tomas Holy.

If you’re going to be critical of City, you’d point out that this was their only shot on target all night. But Carlisle too only forced one save out of Harry Lewis. The truth was that this was a game of nearly moments where both teams got into good positions, but were either denied by defensive brilliance or hampered by a bad final pass. The lack of genuine goalmouth action did not detract from what a watchable contest this proved.

By the time Cook did register that shot on target, Hughes had changed formation again. With 22 minutes to play he brought on Romoney Crichlow for Liam Ridehalgh, Ryan East for Clayton and Vadaine Oliver for Chapman. City went with three at the back, and Gilliead and Brad Halliday as wing backs. It proved to be a shrewd move, leading to a final quarter of the game that City undoubtedly shaded.

The three centre halves approach has been deployed in three of the last four games, each time as an attacking tactic. City maybe don’t quite have the right personnel to make it completely work, but they do look very good when they adopt it. Finding a way to get the ball-playing skills of Crichlow in the side is a huge benefit of going with this approach, and Hughes may spend some of the 10-day gap to the next fixture pondering the merits of beginning games with this set-up.

That said, Hughes found time for a fourth formation change when he brought on the forgotten Dion Pereira for Gilliead late on, going with a diamond. City huffed and puffed in search of the breakthrough, but even with six minutes of stoppage time they couldn’t use their growing momentum to find it. Perhaps if Oliver had been sharper to a few opportunities, they might have got the breakthrough. Oliver has just come back from injury, but you wanted to see him do more at times. The big striker was also slightly lucky that a robust challenge on Barclay only resulted in a yellow card.

The stalemate lifts Carlisle back into the top three and edges City back up a place to fifth. And given eighth-place Mansfield – just outside the play offs – have two games in hand on everyone, the fact City are now five points ahead of the Stags could be crucial.

There is still work to do to seal at least a play off spot. It’s now four draws in a row, and City need to get back to winning ways to keep their top seven cushion. But equally, the Bantams have lost only two of their last 16 games, since they were defeated at Carlisle on Boxing Day. They’re edging in the right direction.

Maybe tonight showed small flashes of why City aren’t in stronger automatic promotion contention, but these aren’t the games that will cost them if they fall short. It’s the draws against out of form Walsall, Newport and Hartlepool, and disappointing defeats at home to Barrow and Rochdale, that are ultimately more damaging.

City showed here they can raise their game when playing against the top teams in League Two. If they’d only have produced this level of high intensity performances in games against so-called lesser teams, they wouldn’t now be facing such a sizeable gap to make up on the top three.

Categories: Match Reviews

Tags: 2022/23, BCAFC, Carlisle United, League Two