By Jason McKeown

On an afternoon soundtracked with boos, it was the day’s final outburst of jeering that could yet prove the most significant to Mark Hughes’ future.

The full time whistle had blown – to boos of course – and supporters began to head home. After going around to shake the hands of their opponents, the Bradford City players made their way over to the Kop to applaud those yet to leave. Fans clapped back. Then Hughes came over to join them.

And it turned again.

Boos rang out towards the City manager. There was no escaping who they were directed at. Hughes knew it too. He had nowhere to hide. He had to take the catcalls. Accept the heckles. And with it, Hughes’ relationship with Bradford City supporters is badly damaged. Possibly beyond repair.

What made it all even more stark was that the ending to the game had called for a very different mood. Last minute goals should be the source of unbridled joy. Moments to go absolutely crazy on the field and in the stands. Excitement. Pleasure. Relief. Yet in my 26 years supporting Bradford City, I’ve never seen a last minute goal trigger such a flat reaction as Jamie Walker’s 95th minute header here.

I’m not sure everyone in the stadium of a Bradford City persuasion was entirely happy about the goal. That sounds crazy to write – I mean, what football supporter doesn’t want their team to avoid defeat? But, as the knives sharpened towards Hughes and a parting of ways began to feel very plausible, Walker’s goal muddies the waters. It possibly saves Hughes from the sack. Or at the very least, makes it a harder decision. And after another 90 minutes of turgid football, there weren’t many people who at that particular moment relished the idea of this continuing any longer.

It’s become a really difficult situation. The City owner and chairman, Stefan Rupp, was a surprise attendee here. And rumours circulated before kick off that defeat for Hughes would result in the sack. It has been suggested that – after August’s pitiful defeat to Morecambe – strong words were expressed by Ryan Sparks to Hughes. Evidence of improvement was quickly needed, and still is.

Weirdly, City are unbeaten in five games since that Morecambe defeat. But that run includes four consecutive draws, each performance less than convincing than the one before it. At this point here – where Hughes needed his charges to put in a convincing display and beat opponents in even worse form – City once again stuttered.

It was just so painful to watch. Hughes had at least ditched the unpopular three at the back, with City back in their more comfortable 4-2-3-1. But with Andy Cook and Alex Pattison still injured – not to mention long-term absentees Vadaine Oliver and Harry Chapman – the team just didn’t click going forwards.

We saw lots of City possession. Lots and lots. Passes sideways, passes backwards, passes a little forwards, and then passes sideways again. They play some good stuff at times and knock it around just fine in two thirds of the pitch. But actually offering a reliable, potent goal threat looks beyond them. They’re stuck in slow motion, and just can’t up the tempo when they get near the opposition box.

Once again, City were relying on the perfect pass to get through. So many times, Walker, Richie Smallwood and Alex Gilliead would have the ball in the middle, and attempt to spray it into space for full backs Lewis Richards and Brad Halliday to run onto. So many times, the attempted pass was just slightly ahead of its target, or just behind, or cut out. Harrogate maintained a good off-the-ball shape ball and sat back. They waited for City to eventually make the mistake, before clearing their lines. And the visitors’ threat on the counter attack was occasionally hinted at.

It didn’t help, in the first half at least, that full debutant Chisom Afoka was leading the Bantams’ line on his own. The Aston Villa loanee shows promise taking people on, but he could not hold up the ball. Trying to get possession to Afoka usually resulted in the City attack breaking down. In the first half, not a single player on the pitch had a lower pass success rate than Afoka’s 63%.

So boos at half time, which would only be the warm up to what was to follow. City did at least improve after the break, with Hughes tweaking the formation to push Gilliead closer to Bobby Pointon and Walker higher up alongside Afoka. It was almost – almost – a 4-4-2, and the players looked better for it. Afoka proved more effective taking up slightly deeper positions and carrying the ball forward. Clarke Oduor – anonymous for much of the first half – become more involved. Just like the second half against Grimsby last week, all of City’s best play came through Pointon and Gilliead.

The door began to be knocked on that bit louder. And it felt like City were on the brink of finding the breakthrough. But two moments took away their slowly gathering momentum, and soon after they fell behind.

Firstly, after a spell of City pressure where they had finally upped the tempo, Harrogate’s George Thomson went down injured for a lengthy spell – he was ultimately taken off for former Bantams midfielder Levi Sutton. Then, after a further six minutes of game time that just didn’t get going again, Hughes made a triple change that invoked a mixed reaction.

There were sarcastic cheers to greet the withdrawal of Richie Smallwood, after yet another hugely underwhelming display from the City skipper. And then, the fact Pointon was taken off attracted faint boos. It was all getting more toxic.

Then, before two of the three new arrivals – Adam Wilson and Tyler Smith – had even touched the ball, Harrogate scored. Chaotic defending allowed Luke Armstrong to play Matty Daly through unmarked, and the former City loanee – a player at the club when Hughes took over, but who he started just once, finished well past Harry Lewis. Nail. In. Coffin.

The final 12 minutes were eerily strange. City huffed and puffed, but lacked quality. They offered up limited fight, as though they were being pulled down by their draining confidence. The crowd grew more and more restless, with some boos as the ball was played around at the back. Many headed for the exits. There was no Grimsby fans to start up a “sacked in the morning” chant, so several people in the Kop got one going instead.

Then came the unlikely redemption, where Walker was left free when a high ball was launched into the box by Halliday, and Mark Oxley made the ill-judged decision to race off his line, giving the Scot the chance to direct a header over the Town goalkeeper and into the unguarded net.

It was a clever goal from Walker. Only moments earlier City had pumped a ball into a box that former Bantam Anthony O’Connor had cleared. O’Connor turned around and yelled at Oxley that he should have come off his line to claim it. Walker was stood by O’Connor and took note. He guessed correctly that the next time a ball was pumped in, Oxley would race out, and positioned himself to benefit.

Cue the muted, stale celebrations. By this point, there was just too much anger in the crowd. Too much disappointment. We felt let down by what we had seen over the 94 minutes. Let down by the players. And most crucially of all, let down by Hughes. It was difficult at that moment to feel jubilant about watching someone cash in their get out of jail free card.

And of course, it runs deeper than that. On Rupp’s first visit to Valley Parade since the vibrant, exciting and passionate occasion of the play off semi final leg against Carlisle United last May, the German must have felt like he was sat in a completely different stadium. Where there was so much colour then, there is now greyness. Where there were such feverish levels of support for Hughes then, there is now rising anger.

The frustrations that spilled out today were not merely a product of failing to beat the most goal-shy team in League Two at home. They have been brewing for weeks. Months even, if you throw in the disappointment at the way the Carlisle United play off second leg was mismanaged. Since then, there’s been a less than inspiring transfer window, an unpopular persistence with a formation that wasn’t working, tepid performances, and just two wins from the first eight league matches.  

The biggest problem for Hughes is the growing dissidence between the way he is managing the club and what supporters want. It goes beyond just results. It’s the decline in the level of entertainment. The growing evidence of mistakes in the players signed, moved on and kept faith with. And yes, it could still all come good, but it feels that patience is all but exhausted. Getting Cook and Pattison back will clearly help this team do better, but it seems increasingly unlikely it will fix all the problems.

Hughes didn’t lose this game, but he did lose his public.

I do not envy the decisions facing Rupp and Sparks right now. Do you pull the trigger at this point, when it’s still so early in the season, when there are mitigating factors for the stuttering form, and when results might not be great, but aren’t terrible? Or do you stick with the plan knowing that, the longer you persist with Hughes and things don’t improve, the less chance there is for someone else to come in and have time to make City promotion contenders?

For what it’s worth, I would not sack Hughes right now. But I struggle to put up a compelling argument as to why he should stay. There are too many people with opinions I hugely respect who now want a change. The discontent cannot be written off as keyboard warriors, or boo-boys and girls, who have no sense of perspective. It is real and – here today – it was vocal.

All I can say is, I find this all really depressing and sad. When Hughes was booed as he came over to the Kop, it broke my heart. I believe Hughes’ arrival at the club in February 2022 was a huge boost to the club. It gave us back respectability when it felt like we’d become a basket case. And though last season wasn’t perfect, I really enjoyed what Hughes tried to do and how close we came to promotion. During that end of season run-in especially, I felt more engaged with the club than I have for years.

More than anything else, Hughes comes across as a really decent man. Happy, grateful and proud to be here. Giving his all to turn around the club. Not because he needs the money or anything, but because he just loves football management so much that he’d rather manage in League Two than not at all. He is a great ambassador for the club. A person you are proud to have represent Bradford City.

This is not like Derek Adams, who came across so cold and arrogant from day one. The Scot made no attempt to forge any sort of relationship with us supporters, and his post-match interview belligerence elicited little sympathy when the boos and taunts came his way at the end. Driving Adams away felt just and right. Driving Hughes away doesn’t feel nice.

If we’re about to see the end of Hughes as Bradford City manager, it will genuinely be sad that it has all unravelled like this. An era that promised so much does not deserve to end in a flurry of boos.

Maybe this is the low point before it all gets better. And that Hughes will ultimately triumph after all. But right now, in the aftermath of an afternoon of high emotions, it’s hard to see how this story is going to have a happy ending.  

Categories: Match Reviews

Tags: 2023/24, BCAFC, Harrogate Town, League Two