Written by Jason McKeown (images John Dewhirst)

I’m not sure I’m ready to talk about this. That was such a devastating experience. To watch a season’s work ripped up over 120 tortuous minutes. To be so close to going to Wembley, only to trip over at the final hurdle. It really hurt. Draw the curtains. Turn off the phone. Don’t leave the house. This one is going to take some getting over.

There will be no Bradford City promotion. Again. League Two purgatory continues. In the words of Mr Burns from the Simpsons – “don’t forget, you’re here forever”.

As the final minutes of this contest ticked by, and as we faced up to a crushing defeat, I turned and noticed a young boy stood two rows behind me in the away section – probably not even 10-years-old – who was clinging onto his dad’s arm as a tear began to roll down his cheek. And it choked me up.

Because as much as we long-standing supporters know only too well this crushing feeling of disappointment, here was a young lad probably going through Bradford City devastation for the first time, surely too young to have seen the likes of Rory McArdle, Gary Jones and Stephen Darby in a City shirt, or other glory days that make going through this type of gut-wrenching occasion somehow worthwhile.

All of the emotions are magnified at moments like this. The play offs are a wonderful invention, full of riveting occasions where one set of supporters are celebrating ecstatically and the other are left utterly heartbroken. We were on the wrong side of those margins, watching on in despair at full time as Carlisle United fans ran onto the pitch in triumph. Many City fans chanted defiantly. Some were shouting angrily. Others slumped dejectedly. That young kid I saw was still trying to hold back the tears, but failing.

I hope that he gets to see the other side of football supporting – the glory moments – very soon. I hope we all do.

Ultimately, what made this defeat so agonising was knowing that City didn’t turn up. This was probably their worst performance of the entire season, right at the moment they needed to be at their best. They surrendered their slender first leg advantage with little resistance, and spent more than two hours with the Sword of Damocles hanging over their head, racking up mistake after mistake in their flawed attempts to crawl over the line.

I mean, which City player comes out of this one with any credit? Scott Banks is probably the only one who can hold his head up high, for his endeavour and impact on the contest. You couldn’t fault the effort of everyone else. But both individually and as a collective, they were just not at the races. They buckled.

Mark Hughes spent much of the pre-match build up urging his players to use their experience to keep a clear head – “make sure you do the right things under pressure”. He suggested that Carlisle United would find it hard to cope with playing in front of an inflated Brunton Park crowd, whilst boasting about how his players are comfortable dealing with big atmospheres. “It is what we are used to week in week out. So it won’t faze us.”

Words that precede unfortunate events.

The reality is the occasion got to City. I hate to use the phrase ‘bottled it’. But if you want to throw that accusation at the players, I’m struggling to argue against you. Sadly, we had seen this coming. In recent weeks the players have struggled to handle the rising pressures of a promotion run-in. We saw them lose their heads in the second half at Swindon, for large spells at home to Gillingham, and certainly for the majority of their last away game at Crewe. Any street-wise composure within this squad has been lacking when it really counts.

Especially here. They started edgily, struggled to get any footing in the game, and soon began to face a heavy onslaught from a Carlisle side set up to attack from the off. They hit the post in the 15th minute through the lively John-Kymani Gordon, who was back from suspension and straight into the United starting line up alongside Joe Garner, giving the home side an effective mixture of pace and brawn up front. Gordon and Garner were ably supported by a middle three of Callum Guy, Owen Moxon and the more advanced Alfie McCalmont.

Carlisle went in front midway through the first half, with a goal that was bewilderingly bad for the Bantams. Joel Senior was given too much space to run with the ball into the box. Senior played it to Garner to set up Moxon, who hit a shot that took a small deflection. Harry Lewis was slightly caught out but did palm the effort away. As Gordon charged in for the rebound Brad Halliday just got there first, yet somehow knocked the ball into his own net.

Was the City right back off balance? Was he just under too much pressure from Gordon? He was unlucky to some degree, but it just didn’t look great from Halliday, and put Carlisle level on aggregate.

With a Carlisle set piece smacking the woodwork soon after – Lewis brilliantly keeping out Moxon’s rebound effort – City were on the ropes and simply not responding. The Bantams did hit the post themselves through a combination of Banks and Jamie Walker, but it was a rare moment of pushing back against the Carlisle tide.

The back four was harried into so many sloppy errors – Sam Stubbs, Romoney Crichlow and Halliday badly struggled all afternoon. Richie Smallwood and Alex Gilliead were hounded off the ball too easily. Adam Clayton had a really poor game that almost seemed to get worse every time he touched the ball. His return to the starting line up over the last three games has not given City the midfield dominance they were looking for and has made them too limited attacking-wise. Clayton had a good spell when initially signing mid-season, but you’re starting to see why Doncaster were happy to let him go.

The lack of balance was a big issue. Especially as Walker was completely anonymous – just not able to get into the game at all – and Andy Cook was well marshalled. League Two’s top scorer just hasn’t had an impact in either play off semi final leg, and it’s a further illustration of the over-reliance on his goals that make it clear to the opposition that if you stop Cook, you stop City.

Carlisle were happy for the Bantams to have possession in their own half but were very successful in isolating any City player with the ball in the final third. The lack of support from midfield meant attacks quickly broke down. When you’re main hope is to launch crosses into the box towards an outnumbered Cook, your approach is flawed.

A poor first half performance from City is not an unusual occurrence this season – but, pleasingly, in such moments they have generally responded better in the second half. So it wasn’t unreasonable to expect a stronger showing after the half time break. The players did deliver that to an extent, but not by enough to take any real control of proceedings.

Good spells of City play were limited to a run of corners easily cleared, rather than turning the heat on the home side by creating clear cut chances. Perhaps City’s best moment came right at the end of the 90, when Smallwood was suddenly through on goal, slightly wide, and opted to punt a cross over when he could have taken the shot. In some ways, this not-quite-taking-full-responsibility moment sums up much of the City captain’s patchy season. He had a really bad afternoon here.

So extra time arrived. Often in football, those two 15-minute periods can be timid affairs where not a lot happens. But there was plenty of drama here. First, a Moxon corner wasn’t properly cleared, and Guy – the former Bantam – produced a wonderful powerful volley from distance that Lewis could not get near, the ball nestling into the back of the net after arrowing through a crowd of players.

It was some noise from the Carlisle fans, who roared in delight at their team taking an aggregate lead. Carlisle’s supporters were generally brilliant throughout – all through the tie they’ve come across as a proper football club that deserve greater success.

City kicked off the second period of extra time and pretty much immediately scored. Banks did really well to run with the ball into the box, and was able to produce a perfect cut back for sub Matty Derbyshire to slam home. The celebrations in the City away section were absolutely fantastic. At last, some reward for an afternoon of struggle.

What happened next defies belief.

For two minutes after the goal, and with their tails up, Hughes decided to withdraw a pumped-up Banks. To make it even worse, he replaced the on loan Palace man with Matty Platt.

A winger off. A centre back on. With the tie level. And with 12 minutes left to try and find another goal that would take City to Wembley. I do not understand what Hughes was thinking. I’m not sure anyone does. He made some post match comment to Jamie Raynor about trying to match up Carlisle’s formation. In the context of the fact this was the 108th minute, those comments made little sense.

It killed the growing spark of City momentum and deflated the away following. City moved to five at the back. It was as though Hughes was trying to hold on for a win, even though his team were not in front. Perhaps Banks was dead on his feet, but Hughes still had Thierry Nevers and Dion Pereira to call upon. Bolder moves he could have made.

And having three centre halves on the pitch looked completely pointless when four minutes later Moxon – who else? – sent over a brilliant high hanging cross. No one was near enough to centre half Ben Barclay, who sent a looping header that caught Lewis slightly out of position. The City goalkeeper would have expected to have done better. But where was the marking? And once again, no one had been picking up Moxon, who was given a criminal amount of time and space to send over the cross. City stood off and let Carlisle score the goal that sends them to Wembley.

We can and should be unhappy about the way players’ performance here. But Hughes cannot escape criticism. It’s obvious to everyone watching City this season that he can be too cautious, and doesn’t take enough risks – from tactics, team selection to his use of subs.

This was a moment where months of conservatism built up to Hughes making a cautious-minded decision that cost City – right where there was no longer any margin for error.

It all meant City went down without enough fight. Carlisle are certainly not world beaters, and you suspect Stockport will prove too strong for them in the final, but they played with real courage and character here. They stood up when it really counted and delivered. In contrast, City crumbled and will now spend the summer trying to pick themselves up to go again.

And it hurts. It really does. Here, the atmosphere in the City section was absolutely incredible. We gave the team such a fantastic backing, even during the long periods where they were struggling. It’s one of the best away atmospheres I’ve ever been a part of. We really are such an incredible fanbase. We put many other clubs to shame.

We have no divine right to be successful just because of our noise and our numbers, but we deserved better than this.

Yet for all the anger and disappointment we all justifiably feel right now, when the dust settles and the pain eases, we can look back on this season with some pride. This game was played exactly six years to the day that City lost the League One play off final to Millwall at Wembley. Since then, we’ve all had to endure so much misery and despair. The roughest of rides, when at times it felt like there was never going to be any light at the end of the tunnel.

The damage of Edin Rahic. The unjust 2018 sacking of Stuart McCall. Relegation to League Two. Awful hammerings at the hands of Blackpool, Gillingham, Mansfield, Oldham, Newport and Harrogate. Covid, and behind-closed-door football. Derek bloody Adams. Ben Richards-Everton. Dylan Mottley Henry. Kai Brünker.

We have had so many false dawns. So many broken promises. So many bottom half finishes.

Yet this season, it has been different. We’ve improved. We’ve competed all year long for promotion. We’ve played some decent football. And we’ve got a team that we’ve fallen in love with.

More than anything else, we’ve reconnected with the club. For the last few years, I’ve personally had periods of feeling really disengaged. You turn up still, and you’re happy when they win – but not at the levels you felt in the past. When they’ve lost, you’ve felt angry and critical. Not particularly sympathetic, and certainly not gutted.

It’s not been ‘we’. Bradford City had become ‘they’.

But over the last few weeks and months, as the possibility of promotion grew, and we experienced some great wins like Salford, Stevenage, Doncaster, Colchester, Grimsby, Sutton, Rochdale and Northampton, the old levels of passion and unity have returned. I’ve begun to feel really nervous before games again. Celebrated goals more gleefully. Felt more down about defeats. I’ve remembered what it’s like – really like – to be a Bradford City supporter.

I know that doesn’t count for a great deal in the grand scheme of missing out on promotion. You can reach out for that meme of the FIFA computer game – the one where a bunch of Ipswich players are holding up thin air like it’s a trophy. Or type social media messages with capital letters in the wrong places to illustrate your sarcasm – aT lEaSt wE’rE mOvInG iN tHe RiGhT dIrEcTiOn.

But I do think it is something. The club has its soul back. We’ve come together again. We’ve had incredible attendances, especially over the second half of the season. We’ve clearly got new fans coming in and loving the amazing atmosphere. We’ve got a team and manager who have flaws but who you can get behind. Going to Valley Parade on a matchday has recently felt more and more like the good old days. The club feels special again.

It hurts so much right now, because Bradford City have turned themselves back into something worth caring about.

Categories: Match Reviews

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