By Jason McKeown

Just as the unrest was threatening to boil over, the apathy growing contagious, Bradford City have pulled off their best week of the season. Two wins in a row became three here with a functional victory over a beleaguered Sutton United. Another three points that eases supporter tensions and further lightens the mood music.

Incredibly, the Bantams end this most fruitful of weeks lying just two points short of the play offs. Considering how deep the malaise had become, such a swift turnaround in promotion hopes doesn’t really make any sense. The fact the congested traffic ahead of City in the table all have at least one game in hand distorts the picture. But no matter. A league season that was supposed to be as good as over has renewed levels of intrigue. City have pulled themselves out of their nosedive and potentially bought the club’s under-fire leadership some breathing space.

Not that anyone should be cracking open any bottles of champagne. Whilst the Wrexham and MK Dons victories earlier this week will be looked back on amongst the highlights of the season, this win isn’t going to live long in the memory. It was a scrappy success that the Bantams can hardly argue they fully deserved. A real slog, where the outcome was in some doubt right to the end.

Let’s bring in a large dollop of perspective of what City were up against here. Before today, bottom-placed Sutton had not won a single game of football since Boxing Day. That came at AFC Wimbledon and is their only away win all season. It’s also Sutton’s only victory in the league since they defeated the Bantams at home all the way back in October.

Sutton travelled to Valley Parade with the worst away record in League Two – just seven points picked up on the road, with a whopping 37 goals conceded in their 15 away trips, an average of 2.46 goals shipped a game. Overall, they have the worst defensive record in the league with 62 goals conceded in 32 games (averaging 1.94 a game). They’re not much better at the other end – Sutton are the third lowest scorers in the division. Finally, they came to West Yorkshire bottom of the form table with only eight points from their last 12 games.

Terrible, terrible statistics which offer overwhelming evidence they are terrible, terrible football team. So yeah, City squeezed past them. But on paper Sutton offered one of the weakest tests of the season. Calum Kavanagh’s goal ensured Sutton suffered their 19th defeat of the season – showing that an awful lot of City’s League Two rivals have got similarly maximum points out of games against this opponent.

Of course, working heavily against City is their appalling record against clubs who are bottom of the league – that weighty big book of infamy, where a new chapter was waiting to be written. City didn’t exactly confound any League Two odds in winning this, but went against their own history by avoiding the usual banana skin. And so for us supporters, any feelings of disappointment about this performance should be tempered by the mental scars of knowing that it could have been a lot, lot worse.

And City were fine, really. We were never going to get the same type of game as midweek, where the MK Dons played gung ho short passing that City could sit back and unpick. Sutton were industrious, long ball in their intent – with everything go through the focal point of their 6 foot 5 inch forward, Harry Smith. There was more pressure on the home team. The crowd wasn’t going to be as understanding as it had been on Tuesday. The expectation was that City would have more of the ball. The onus on them to set the tempo and break down guarded opponents.

Although as it turns out, in some ways it was a similar type of game as midweek. Sutton’s hopeless league position meant that coming here for a draw was not going to do much to rescue their desperate situation, and to manager Steve Morison’s credit, he set up his team to attack. With former City striker Lee Angol partnering Smith, there was plenty of good forward intent from Sutton. They made it an open game by launching it long and getting forward in numbers to support Smith and Angol. And that gave City the chance to once again deploy some of the weapons that had worked so well against MK Dons. Namely, the high press and the quick counter attack.

On the increasingly dreadful Valley Parade quagmire that did not cope well with the bursts of February rain, the game was timid, slow and muddling – punctuated by some glorious chances for both teams. City took a while to get going, but then Andy Cook missed two sitters in the space of a few minutes. At the other end, Ben Goodcliffe should have scored from a free header at a corner, and Angol sent a free kick narrowly past the post. Sutton edged possession – never a bad thing with City’s season-long struggles when they have more of the ball than their opponent – and in the first half registered twice the number of shots on goal. The Bantams had their moments on top, but struggled to assert any clear authority.

For the third time this week Graham Alexander raised pre-match eyebrows with his team selection – and for the third time this week the manager was justified in the big calls he made. Here, he brought in Sam Stubbs to central midfield – ahead of Kevin McDonald – to cover for the suspended Richie Smallwood. It meant City had six defenders on the pitch. And had they lost this encounter, the post-match supporter inquest would naturally have focused on this matter. But it actually proved a really good call.

Stubbs channelled his inner John Dreyer to deliver a commendable display out of position. In a battle of two long ball teams, it would have been easy for midfield to have been bypassed, but Stubbs’ physical presence coupled with Alex Gilliead’s tirelessly running enabled City to regularly win the ball higher up the pitch, setting up attacks for the front three of Cook, Kavanagh and Clarke Oduor.

What limited City was the fact Gilliead’s return to midfield meant Liam Ridehalgh came in as left wing back and struggled to offer much attacking support. Whereas on the right City had plenty of joy with the brilliant Brad Halliday, Oduor and Gilliead linking up, on the left there was little. Especially with Kavanagh initially quiet – he was the subject of strong half time words from Alexander.

So it was a plan to pick holes out of had it failed. But the ends justified the means, especially with a fifth clean sheet in a row. After the game Alexander explained he had been influenced by the busy Christmas period where he kept City’s line up unchanged for weeks and then suddenly the wheels fell off. In McDonald, Alexander has a brilliant accomplished midfielder – but someone who, after a tough few years on a personal level, does struggle to play two games a week. Stubbs’ unexpected role was a success, meaning City were solid and compact.

Early in the second half, they got their rewards. Sam Walker took a free kick quickly and found Halliday, who played it to Oduor. All eyes were on Cook who was making a forward run – but rather than pick out City’s leading scorer, Oduor spotted Kavanagh in space and delivered a superb through ball for the January signing to run onto. Kavanagh was left one on with plenty to do. His powerful effort flew into the top corner, giving City the all-important breakthrough.

Morison tried to change things around with the nippy Stephen Duke-McKenna introduced. The QPR loanee was full of skill and vision, but as the rain battered down and the pitch cut up further, his were gifts unsuited to the environment he was operating in. City might have made the game safer with Cook, Halliday and substitute Tyreik Wright all going close. But they were equally indebted to Sam Walker, who made two superb second half saves – including blocking a low effort deep in stoppage time.

A word on Walker and the January transfer business that saw him come in for Harry Lewis. It’s still relatively early days, but it’s starting to look like some shrewd work from City. Lewis had a terrific 2022/23 but was notably underperforming his numbers at Valley Parade this season – something that’s continued at Carlisle United, where he’s had a very bad start (he shipped in another four today). The reported £175k City received for his services still feels a bit low for his potential, but the Bantams are not missing Lewis.

That’s because Walker is getting better and better. No one’s had a more impressive week than the January arrival from Charlton, and that continued here. In theory City have swapped the best goalkeeper in the division for someone fairly median-average. But given Lewis’ struggles, in the short-term at least Walker is proving to be an upgrade. Walker may not be the long-term solution for a club with ambitions of climbing back up the leagues, but he’s doing a very good job right now.

As is the sponsor’s man of the match, Oduor. Alexander explained midweek that the Kenyan international had recently been dropped because the manager felt he was going through the motions. The kick up the backside has worked, and in the last two games Oduor has belatedly started to demonstrate his potential. Competition for the wide forward positions should be fierce, but no one has exactly nailed down a spot in recent weeks. End product is so important, and in the last two games Oduor has more than delivered on that.

At the full time whistle there was relief, and there were smiles. This isn’t riveting football. Flaws in the approach are still fairly easy to find. To be slightly harsh, City have been slightly lucky to edge this and had some good fortune winning at Wrexham (there was some fortune on Tuesday too, despite the scoreline). The margins remain thin, and could easily start going against City again. Ultimately, there is scope for improvement.

But after all the frustration of the last few weeks, enthusiasm is returning and the situation is no longer as grave as it appeared. In the league they go next to a Barrow side starting to fade, before welcoming a Notts County outfit firmly on the downturn and then hosting a Doncaster team they’ve already defeated twice this season. The opportunity is there to build on this momentum. The play offs still seem a tough ask, but it’s not as improbable as it appeared.

Before all that, the small matter of a cup semi final at Valley Parade this coming Wednesday. 90 minutes away from a trip to Wembley Stadium. This was a very good week for Bradford City, and yet the next seven days could be even better.   

Categories: Match Reviews

Tags: 2023/24, BCAFC, League Two, Sutton United