By Jason McKeown

Sand covered up the worst parts of the threadbare Valley Parade surface, but it proved more difficult for Bradford City to cover up their own deficiencies. Even though Tyler Smith’s thunderous late strike rescued a point that keeps the Bantams’ faint play off hopes alive, this was a largely abject display that lacked quality and offered up little reassurance about their promotion chances. The sort of result that suggests the club are going to finish the season stuck in the mud of mid-table mediocrity.

City should have lost here. A frustrated Doncaster Rovers manager Grant McCann simmered after, “I’m really gutted because of how we played and that we’ve only drawn.” The visitors registered twice as many shots on goal as City, totting up 10 corners to the Bantams’ one. Sam Walker was by far the busier goalkeeper, conceding in the league for the first time in five games but producing important saves at 1-0 that kept his team in it. “Ultimately our lack of killer instinct has meant we’ve not won tonight,” McCann admitted.

That the Bantams got something out of a game they were bested is something, but for the 11th time in 17 home league matches they’ve failed to win. And the gap to the top seven – which had narrowed and become plausible to bridge again, after such a good February – once again looks tough to claw back. The double postponement of the Barrow and Notts County games has stripped the Bantams of their momentum, and they spent too much of this encounter struggling to rediscover their swagger. All at a time in the season where City have very little margin for error.

Doncaster home is absolutely no dead cert. But in a fixture run-in that still features some tricky games, this was one that on paper City really needed to win. Rovers came to West Yorkshire slumped 20th in League Two, with only three away wins all season. Only Tranmere and Sutton had lost more games on the road, and yet here Rovers pitched their tent on the sand and spent large parts of the evening running the show. It took City too long to get going, and they never had a spell where they were truly on top. “Not playing for a couple of weeks could have been a potential problem but I don’t want us to take the easy option by blaming that,” declared Alexander.

Ultimately, the colour and vibrancy of February’s upturn – especially the outstanding performance in the unlucky EFL Trophy semi final defeat to Wycombe – was replaced here again with a greyness. They’ve been good to watch of late, with the 3-4-3 and high press giving them the platform to bloody the noses of sides above them in the table, all supported by a platform of a rock solid defence that was not giving anything away. But just as Alexander has struck the right balance, he’s now facing difficult choices in how he maintains it – leading to some questionable decisions.

Indeed, it was hard to make sense of Alexander’s tactical tweaks here. Clearly, he wants to keep Alex Gilliead as left wing back after the 28-year-old’s recent success in the role, and the way it’s helping City attack and defend. But too much else had to be sacrificed to continue it – to the detriment of other players’ confidence, and the overall set-up of the team.

That’s because with Richie Smallwood suspended, there isn’t an obvious option to take Gilliead’s place in the centre of midfield – especially with the injury to Matty Platt meaning Sam Stubbs has to play in defence. Alexander’s solution was to move Clarke Oduor from wide forward to central midfield alongside Kevin McDonald, with Tyreik Wright coming in to play wide forward.

And it just didn’t work. Oduor has had so much recent notable joy as wide forward, taking players on, creating opportunities and displaying moments of real flair. He is a player with evident confidence issues, finally playing to his potential. Deploying him in the middle was not in any way playing to his strengths, and alongside McDonald it meant City had no natural ball winner. The pair were easily outgunned by Rovers’ 4-2-3-1. Watching Oduor struggle to have any influence and to see his head begin to drop was worrying evidence of Alexander mismanaging his player.

The positive for Oduor is he got through the night and actually improved in the final 20 minutes. It’s no coincidence that his upturn came after McDonald – who had a bit of a shocker in truth – was taken off, and Gilliead pushed up into midfield. Finally there was someone in the centre to win possession and play it to Oduor in space, so he could be creative. You still never want to see Oduor as a deep-lying central midfielder again, but at least he can end the evening with his self-assurance levels not completely in tatters.

There’s clearly a problem here and it partly comes from clearing the decks in January. Whilst Ryan East and especially Emmanuel Osadebe are no one’s idea of a perfect solution, the lack of central midfield cover, and the struggle of McDonald to play two games a week, leaves City with a heavy reliance on Gilliead and Smallwood. There’s so many good reasons to want Gilliead to be your first choice left wing back, but they do not outweigh the need for Gilliead to play in midfield in games like this.

The other issue with the swap around was Wright. It’s just not happening for him on his return, and tonight was a performance that increases the worry-o-meter on the on-loan Plymouth man’s form. Maybe he’s still not fit after his injury. Maybe it’s the different set-up of Alexander compared to Mark Hughes last season. Or maybe it’s just the slow recovery in confidence after a tough year at Home Park. But this is not the Tyreik Wright of last season. There isn’t the same spark. The same level of excellent decision making. The same searing pace and directness when he receives the ball. And City suffered here because of it.

The questionable tactical changes, aligned with a general drop in performance standards that infected almost the entire group, led to a really below par display. Calum Kavanagh, who has looked so promising since joining, endured his worst showing in claret and amber – so many poor choices and so many weak touches. Ciaran Kelly has been outstanding at the back, but suffered a major dip here where he made several uncharacteristic errors. Brad Halliday, so consistent, was not able to get up and down the pitch as effectively.

With a central midfield losing the battle, and the wide players getting so much wrong, City sadly and predictably resorted to aimless long balls to the returning Andy Cook. There were many times where a City player tried to pass forward but was crowded out by blue and white shirts, and so they turned and played it back to the defence, who launched it high towards Cook. Inevitably, the ball was lost. Because even on the occasions when Cook won his aerial challenges, there was not enough support nearby to link up.

City played so well against Wycombe with Cook suspended, because they knew they had to keep the ball on the deck. They needed to do the same here but found the short-cut option of hit and hope too tempting. Cook deserves so much better service and City can make so much better use of their number nine. The big worry is that Cook’s presence undermines their intentions, leaving City one dimensional and easy to stop.

And they were easy to stop here. Doncaster were an odd team in that McCann’s commitment to playing attractive, patient passing football at times seemed beyond the ability of the very ordinary bunch of players at his disposal. Their limitations were easy to spot, but with City off the pace they struggled to exploit them. Throw in a highly questionable display from referee Leigh Doughty – who was at least equally terrible for both teams – and for long periods City suffered.

Right on half time, Doncaster found the breakthrough in a moment that summed up the haphazardness of Doughy’s decision-making. Kavanagh was wrongly pulled up for a foul when chasing a loose ball. The Doncaster goalkeeper Thimothée Lo-Tutala sent the free kick high up the pitch, and Harrison Briggs found space to play Luke Molyneux through on goal, who finished well. The replays suggest Molyneux was marginally offside, though Kelly had dropped slightly behind his fellow central defenders and was pretty level with the Rovers winger. Either way, Rovers deserved to be ahead.

But here, Alexander continued to offer concern. His tactical reshuffle had not worked, and surely needed to be addressed. Yet City emerged from the half time break unchanged, and continued to struggle. It was during this period that Doncaster should have put the game out of sight. Between the start of the second half and the 65th minute, they racked up five attempts on goal – City didn’t have any. But poor finishing and excellent Walker goalkeeping meant Rovers never finished the job. And as they began to retreat in the closing stages, the door was left partly open.

With belated tactical changes arriving from Alexander, City did begin to look stronger. Lewis Richards came on to play left wing back so Gilliead could move forwards, and the summer signing from Wolves gave a confident showing to push his first team claims after injury. No City outfield player had a better night than another sub, Adam Wilson, who replaced Wright and delivered a promising cameo of trickery and dribbling that Doncaster struggled to contain. Not everything went right for Wilson for sure, but he made a big statement to a manager who has spent months overlooking him.

Two other subs combined to get the equaliser, with Harry Chapman setting up Smith to smash home an effort that Lo-Tutala probably should have saved. And although there was a time for a late winner, neither team did enough in the closing stages to justify more than a point. By this stage, City had gone back to the 4-4-2 that Alexander began his Valley Parade tenure using. With the impact of the subs, and the fact Jamie Walker is nearing a return to fitness, it’s certainly a night to give him food for thought. Smallwood’s return on Saturday gives him another option.

One side note is the continued overlooking of Bobby Pointon that here threatened to reach farcical levels – at one point Smith was deployed outwide ahead of both Chapman and Pointon. Evidently Alexander does not fancy Pointon as a player. Given the way the local media stuck the boot into Mark Hughes for not selecting Pointon during his final two games in charge, it’s curious why Alexander is getting a free pass on this.

With nine players booked and both managers yellow carded, this was an ugly, grim spectacle of a game of football that will do little to entice back those City supporters who are still choosing to stay away on nights like this. “I thought the bar for yellow cards was set really low and the ref gave himself too tough a task,” raged Alexander. Indeed, Doughy deemed there to be 29 fouls over the 90 minutes, and allowed Doncaster to get away with slowing down the tempo throughout. It all contributed to an evening that will be quickly forgotten.

And it’s an evening that now leaves City realistically needing to win their next two games – a trip to a John Coleman-less Accrington on Saturday, before second bottom Forest Green journey to Valley Parade next Tuesday – if they’re to keep their season alive. With a very important season ticket campaign coming up and the supporter mood still very much on edge, the season cannot really be allowed to drift and for purpose to be lacking in their final few games.

However futile it looks, City have to keep some modicum of interest going in their season. Even if, ultimately, their promotion prospects look as patchy as the Valley Parade turf.

Categories: Match Reviews

Tags: 2023/24, BCAFC, Doncaster Rovers, League Two