By Jason McKeown

Far from proving to be a bright new beginning, this turned out to be an uncomfortable continuation of the dark mood that has swirled over Bradford City all season. A reminder that the many problems afflicting the Bantams will take more than quick fixes.

Graham Alexander will go on and have much better days than this in the Valley Parade dugout. The players have already proved they can perform to a higher level, and will do so again. And ultimately, as the dust settles, the disappointment of this defeat will be tempered by reasonable evidence that City were unlucky to lose. They delivered a performance that merited more.

But still, whether it’s hard luck tales or some of previous bad days at the office, the feeling of frustration walking out of the ground is becoming jadedly familiar. It’s now just five wins from 17 league matches. An average of 1.18 points per game, and an 18th place position in the league. When Mark Hughes was sacked a month ago, City were also averaging 1.18 points per game and stood 18th. So far, the decision to sack the Welshman has not improved the trajectory of the club.

It’s way too early to attribute any of the blame for this ongoing disappointing situation on Alexander. He only met the players last Tuesday. And when midway through the first half substitute Daniel Oyegoke went down injured, having only come onto the field for the injured Liam Ridehalgh 17 minutes earlier, Alexander had to rely on substitute goalkeeper Colin Doyle to inform him that Alex Gilliead was capable of filling in at left back. There’s a lot of learning for Alexander about the strengths and weaknesses of his squad that can only be gained through time. The longer he spends with them on the training ground, the more he will be able to make a telling impact.

As new managerial tenures go though, conceding after barely 30 seconds is far from the greatest of starts. Barrow kicked off and worked the ball around nicely, with Kian Spence finding room in behind Ridehalgh. The summer arrival from Halifax did well to pull the ball back to Dom Telford, who finished low past Harry Lewis. Not a single home player had touched the ball at this point. Welcome to Bradford City, Graham.

Barrow’s fast start quickly punctured the air of positivity that had greeted the first sight of Alexander walking down the Valley Parade touchline, and the mood wasn’t helped by Tyler Smith missing a sitter five minutes in. The visitors initially looked sprightly, with Pete Wild – who rumour has it applied for the City vacancy, but was overlooked in favour of Alexander – showcasing an ability to turn a bunch of largely ordinary players into a high functioning side. Former City captain Niall Canavan could and probably should have made it 2-0 after sending a free header wide. Fans in the North West corner began chanting “sack the board”, as the tension grew.

But then, just after the half hour mark, Smith made up for his earlier gaffe by tapping home City’s equaliser. It followed excellent approach play from Gilliead and Bobby Pointon that resulted in Jamie Walker being sent through to send a low cross over, and this time Smith couldn’t miss. (Who was that at the back who just whispered he nearly did?!)

Alexander had deployed a different strategy. Going with a 4-4-2 formation will win him supporter favour, but the jury is out over whether it will win him football matches – at least in the long run. 4-4-2 is just too easy of a set up to counter, and Barrow’s 3-5-2 approach allowed them to suffocate City’s central midfield, whilst leaving the Bantams’ two strikers completely isolated.

And they really were left feeding on scraps. Cook had just 28 touches of the ball over the contest. Smith a mere 13. No outfield player who completed the full 90 minutes had fewer touches than the pair. There are two big questions to ask on this – firstly, are either of them contributing enough? And secondly, do they make a good partnership?

On the first point, the answer right now has to be no. Cook is having a difficult season. Just one goal in his last seven starts, and only six goals all campaign. It seems cruel to make the comparison – but at this stage last season, Cook had already scored 15 goals. After a spectacular 2022/23 campaign, Cook seems to be reverting to his 2021/22 form. And just like then, there’s too much reliance on him. All of which makes his struggles more significant.

As for Smith, he scored but his overall involvement in the game is just so minimal. He is there to lead the line and arguably run the channels, but just doesn’t make enough runs or take up positions that others can find. His miss aside, you can see he is decent in front of goal. But at this level, he needs to make a bigger overall contribution. Especially at home, where opposition deny him space to run in behind by sitting deep. Right now, the City striker from the past he most reminds me of is Ross Hannah. Ross was a poacher, but not someone who did anything to support the overall build up play. It was why he ultimately failed to make the mark.

As for the question of whether Cook and Smith can be a good partnership, it remains to be seen – but they will only succeed with better service into feet. Initially at first, City were more direct than usual and sent several high balls up towards the pair. Smith was only ever going to have a low success ratio in winning headers against his marker. Canavan easily dominated Cook for the second season in a row.

The other issue with the 4-4-2 here was the lack of balance, at least until injuries forced a reshuffle. Alexander initially deployed Pointon and Walker as wide players, with Richie Smallwood and Gilliead in the centre. But Walker is not a conventional winger, and his tendency to drift inside meant Ridehalgh would have plenty of the ball but no one to link up with. Given Ridehalgh’s huge limitations going forward, there was no fluidity to City’s attack.

Ridehalgh’s injury – followed by Oyegoke joining him on the sidelines – forced a reshuffle that provided better balance. As Gilliead filled in at left back, Walker went into the centre and Emmanuel Osadebe came on to play wide left. Even though Osadebe had a very mixed afternoon where more went wrong than it did right, the team looked better structured overall.

All of which was cue for a much improved second half that City largely dominated. For more than half an hour they bossed possession and held clear territorial advantage. Smallwood – who’s quiet resurgence in form continued – was adept at getting the ball forward quickly, with Walker, Pointon and Osadebe showing trickery.

There was a lot to like about City over this period. They routinely glided past Barrow players to get into promising positions. Some of the interchanging of passes, and skill on the ball, invited you to perch on the edge of your seat. But for all they began to control the tempo and knock on the door, chances on goal themselves remained sparse.

City would get the ball out wide and into promising positions, but lacked the aptitude to take the next step and create an opening on goal. For a time they crossed the ball in often, but couldn’t pick out Cook or Smith. As the second half progressed, it became clear they were less willing to send the ball over from wide. Instead, they kept passing their way around, hoping for space to open up. The fact a Gilliead shot from a very wide angle was their best chance during this spell said much about their impotence.

We’ve talked about this following stat in other match reports, but as the weeks pass it remains even more stark and worrying. So here we go again. City have managed to find the back of the net more than once in a game on just two (TWO!) league occasions all season (Colchester at home in August, and Newport away in September). Only Harrogate Town and Gillingham have scored fewer goals overall.

When you’re so limited at scoring, you put an awful lot of pressure on the defence to keep clean sheets in order to win games. And here, City’s record is also not great. They’ve kept just four clean sheets all season. Telford’s early, early strike meant there was never going to be clean sheet number five here. But having being so on top in the second half, the struggles to create meaningful chances left them highly susceptible to the sucker punch.

Sure enough, Barrow struck what proved to be the winner with 13 minutes to go. A ball was sent to the far post where Gilliead was missing, and worked to substitute and former City forward Jamie Proctor, who hit a low shot Walker blocked. The loose ball fell to George Ray, who was able to finish smartly and send the visiting supporters into raptures.

City huffed and puffed all the way to the end as they sought to come back, with Alexander going for broke by bringing on Adam Wilson and the forgotten Matty Derbyshire for Brad Halliday and Smallwood. There were some late flurries that suggested they might just snatch a point, but when deep in stoppage time bedlam in the box resulted in Osadebe blasting the ball well over the goal, the game was over.

Barrow were gradually less impressive over the game, with Wild’s charges early bright play giving way to cynical time-wasting and dogged defensiveness. But they had the street-wise knack that earns them a third straight victory over the Bantams. And they now sit sixth and in the in play offs. Whether Wild might one day be the man to lead Bradford City is still to be seen, but he certainly knows how to beat them.

For Alexander and his players, wounds will be licked and a full week on the training ground should bring more improvement ahead of a tricky Saturday lunchtime trip to Notts County. This is clearly a squad capable of more than languishing in the bottom quarter of the league table. But how high its ceiling is remains in serious doubt.

For all the talk of trimming the squad in January, it’s arguably not quantity that’s the problem – but a lack of quality. Alexander went with a starting XI that included just two summer signings, and the close season efforts to strengthen and build on last season’s play off finish appear to have been largely unsuccessful.

The heavy dependence on Lewis and Cook to perform heroics that lift the whole team is undermined by the pair’s failure to hit the same heights. There are plenty of central defenders, but replacing Romoney Crichlow with Ash Taylor represents a downgrade. City signed wing backs but have quickly moved to needing full backs – underlying the folly of only having Ridehalgh as a true left back – and the wide players are too raw (no one is yet at a Scott Banks or Tyreik Wright level). Cook doesn’t just lack competition, he doesn’t have support to ease his workload. Vadaine Oliver can’t return from long-term injury soon enough.

Alexander offers some pragmatic hallmarks that Mark Hughes arguably did not. And because of these qualities, you’d back him to find a way of developing a more effective Bradford City team with the current tools he has. But days like this show that there is an awful lot of work to do – and all evidence so far suggests that City are a long way short of promotion material.

Categories: Match Reviews

Tags: 2023/24, Barrow, BCAFC, League Two