Written by Jason McKeown (images by John Dewhirst)

As the sky drew darker above Valley Parade, the nerves swelled amongst the masses and anxiety became contagious. This was both the utter beauty and the sheer terror of the play offs, amplified all the way up to 11.

Bradford City won, Carlisle United lost. But nothing is even close to being settled. Everything remains right on a knife edge. The tension is immense, and will only grow over the coming days. Good luck trying to sleep this week.

That the Bantams will travel up to Brunton Park on Saturday with a slender advantage could well prove decisive, but may yet be their downfall. They were victorious but not convincing here, and the fact they crawled over the line protecting what they had, rather than being able to widen their aggregate lead, will give Carlisle plenty of encouragement.

This is not over. Far from it.

Carlisle will feel to an extent they’ve survived the cauldron that is Valley Parade, where a Bradford City club record play off crowd delivered a stunning atmosphere that will leave many supporters going into work and school on Monday morning sounding hoarse.

Mark Hughes said in the build up that this game was bigger than anything in the Premier League this weekend, and it’s hard to imagine there would have been a better level of noise, fervour and passion anywhere else in the country. It was certainly the best atmosphere Valley Parade has produced in a long, long time. An absolute treat just to be here.

And we got to see a really good game. Not, it must be said, an encounter of quality. The national TV audience watching on Sky Sports did not need their TVs to be HD Ready to witness a showcase of aesthetically beautiful football. But for blood and thunder, and two teams going full tilt, this was a lot of fun. Mistakes were plentiful – from the players and certainly from the officials. But the honest endeavour displayed by everyone was heartening.

All signs suggested this was never going to be a goal fest, and it certainly wasn’t. But City did get on the scoresheet, when Andy Cook flicked on to Scott Banks, who nudged the ball through to Jamie Walker. The Scot finished low and true past an initially nervous Tom Holy. 18 minutes were on the clock at the time, and the goal was fitting reward for a really positive start from the home side.

That they did start so well – only the second time in their last six games they’ve opened the scoring – was both encouraging and ultimately frustrating. The first 25 minutes saw Hughes and City make hay with a surprise tactical approach, where rather than line up in a 4-3-3 or diamond, the Bantams went 4-3-1-2 and found a really good balance. Richie Smallwood, Alex Gilliead and Adam Clayton played alongside each other and were able to press Carlisle high up the park and set up attacks, whilst protecting their back four.

This was much better than a diamond pushing Smallwood and Gilliead away from their best position, or going 4-3-3 and asking Walker to operate up top in a three, which doesn’t play to his strengths. Carlisle initially struggled to pick up Walker in the number 10 role and found it difficult to pass through City’s middle trio.

This is despite Paul Simpson springing his own tactical surprise by moving away from his trusted 5-3-2 to play 3-4-1-2. He clearly expected a City diamond and reckoned an extra body in midfield, coupled with attacking wing backs, would see the visitors find space in City’s wide areas.

The excellence of Smallwood, Gilliead and Clayton as a three set City up to disrupt Carlisle and get on the front foot. Walker exploited the space he had, and Banks did a really good job up front alongside Cook. In those first 25 minutes, the Bantams had 64% of the ball and produced almost double the amount of passes Carlisle attempted. Carlisle’s pass success rate was a dismal 42% initially – they just couldn’t get going.

The likes of Joe Garner – who hit the bar with a spectacular volley at 0-0 – could not hide his frustration, and Corey Whelan was already playing on the edge after earning an early yellow card. Alfie McCalmont was playing the Walker number 10 role for Carlisle and barely touched the ball for the first half hour.

The problem for City – and oh boy, does this feel familiar writing this – is that they failed to keep up their high standards. They dropped off. Retreated. Made silly mistakes. Gave away their ascendancy. The truth is that over the remainder of the first half, and for the entire second 45 minutes, Carlisle got very much on top and made the evening uncomfortable for the Bantams.

It is curious as to why this happens with City. Do they get bored? Are they incapable of sticking to a plan? Is it a lack of confidence? Hughes talked after the game about how he will address with the players this week their sloppiness in possession. But it’s been a feature so often that’s it’s hard to imagine it suddenly getting fixed ahead of Saturday. It is their Achilles Heel, and they do it to themselves.    

Carlisle began to improve. For a team that have built a reputation for deploying direct football, they played it quite nicely on the deck, exploiting the fact City were no longer pressing, and instead giving them time to run with the ball. On every occasion United won a set piece, the balls into the box from Owen Moxon were like missiles.

Moxon – who joined Carlisle last summer from part time for Annan Athletic (a role he combined with being a van driver) – was their chief threat and has real quality. Almost a year ago to the day, Moxon was playing for Annan in the Scottish Division Two play offs, the home leg attracted 1,152 fans. Now here he is, excelling in front of a 20,000 crowd. Whoever wins the play offs, Moxon is one player at least destined to be operating at a higher level in the future.

City had several scares from Moxon set pieces, but just about got away with them. Romoney Chrichlow had a superb game at the back, whilst Sam Stubbs, Liam Ridehalgh and Brad Halliday were generally reliable. The former Bantam Omari Patrick caused problems but let himself down with poor decision making. Walker and Banks both went close to making it 2-0. Nevertheless, the half time whistle came as a relief to the flagging Bantams.  

Only the second half proved even more labouring from the home side. Simpson had worked out that his charges were not going to win the midfield battle, but spotted the fact City’s set-up left the full backs isolated. Moxon dropped deeper and began to spray diagonal passes. Halliday in particular seemed to be targeted as the weak link, with Ryan Edmundson brought on from the bench and operating slightly wider.

Edmundson is 6 foot 2. Halliday is 5 foot 11. It wasn’t subtle what Carlisle were trying to do, but that didn’t make it any easier to stop.

Whilst the long ball approach meant that Smallwood, Gilliead and Clayton had less opportunity to win it back in the middle, they still needed to offer more when they did have possession. They needed to curb the Carlisle pressure by just keeping the ball, slowing down the tempo and trying to engineer City attacks. They needed to press Carlisle and especially Moxon, instead of dropping so deep.

But Smallwood in particular was guilty of giving the ball away too often and too easily. And that set the tone for the team, who were too quick to boot up the park, giving it straight back to the visitors. It’s not a lack of effort or bravery – even when not playing well, Smallwood did plenty of things to admire in the second half – it’s about showing more intelligence and composure.

City’s wastefulness with the ball meant they never pushed on for a second goal. In the final 27 minutes, City had just one Cook shot. They were fortunate that mistakes at the back went unpunished, and that Carlisle were wasteful when offered presentable opportunities to equalise. Edmundson missed the best chance of the lot with a close range header than went over. Their top scorer Kristian Dennis – surprisingly left on the bench – came on and had a late chance where he rounded Harry Lewis but shot wide from a tight angle. You can see why Carlisle don’t score many goals, but you can also fear their ability to carve out chances.

City defended doggedly and were knocking it towards the corner flags long before the final whistle. But despite some late jitters, they held firm for a hard-earned first clean sheet in six games, and a winning margin to take to Cumbria.

So where does this all leave the two-legged tie? Carlisle will be disappointed to lose, but not down-hearted. Their tactical changes didn’t initially work, yet when they got into their stride they showed what they are about. Simpson will be really pleased with how well they marshalled Cook, including the supply line to the 31-goal forward. And the United boss will take comfort from the vulnerabilities in City that were exposed by Carlisle’s barrage of diagonal passes.

As for Hughes, he will be happy to have a lead to defend in the second leg, but will naturally worry about his charges’ ability to do just that. How do you approach this game, when your priority is not to get to beat, but knowing you can’t get away with repeating the manner in which City just about saw this second half out. In front of a packed out Brunton Park, they know they will have to deal with a whirlwind of Carlisle pressure. Be anxious about any set piece especially.  

Comparisons have been drawn with the outcome of this game and the last time City were in the play offs, six years ago, where they also won their first leg – at home – 1-0. That was against a Fleetwood Town side who the Bantams absolutely dominated on the night. And though they went to Highbury a few days later with plenty of tension to manage, they showed in the first leg they were a much better side than Fleetwood.

That wasn’t the case tonight. These two sides really are evenly managed. That City have won is down to small margins going their way, rather than any superiority. Of course, they can go to Carlisle and get the draw they need. But on this evidence, they could just as easily go down to defeat at Brunton Park – a ground where they have a terrible record.

This tie is absolutely in the balance, and remains too close to call. But for Bradford City, one thing at least is clear – to triumph over the two legs, they’re going to need to play a lot better than they did here for much of this evening.

Categories: Match Reviews

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