By Jason McKeown

After all the supporter criticisms that provoked an open letter apology from the chairman, all the simmering anger that fuelled pre-match protests, here on the boggy Valley Parade surface was beautiful validation of why we care about Bradford City. Why it matters so much.

It came from a moment that will live long in the memory. Calum Kavanagh had found Bobby Pointon outwide in space, just in front of the man stand. The 20-year old showed twinkle toes to wrong-foot his marker, Connor Jennings, and then he charged towards the box. Jennings got back and tried to block Pointon’s surge, but the Tranmere midfielder was beaten a second time, as the City youngster skipped past and worked the ball onto his left foot. Only just entering the penalty area, Pointon took aim from a tight angle. He unleashed a stunning, powerful shot that flew past the helpless Luke McGee, the ball whooshing into the far corner of the net and bringing the house down.

Take a bow, Bobby Pointon. Our Bobby. Bobby! The little lad who grew up amongst us, cheering on Bradford City from the Kop stand that he was now standing in front of in celebration, his arms outstretched as team-mates rushed over to mob him. One of our own, literally. The guy who more than any other person on the field gets what this football club is all about. Who lauds the same heroes as us. Was part of the same highs. Our history is his history. And here he is, living the dream we all share. His face beaming, especially as he turned to the Main Stand and waved to his family in the top tier.

This was such a special moment. The highlight of the season? It’s on the table for sure. Partly because we’re not exactly spoilt for choice with other options, but mainly because of the uplifting significance of watching a Bradford-born, die-in-the-wool City supporter lifting some of the persistent gloom and giving us a ray of hope for the future. Rewarding those of us who still turn up, despite all the rubbish we’ve been served up this season. At a time when it has been so difficult to like anything about this cursed football club, here was something to fall in love with.

This was Bobby’s moment, but it was one we all got to share in.

And it capped off a superb individual display from Pointon. It’s hard to write much about Bradford City this season without finding something to criticise about the club, and there’s plenty to go at here. This was only Pointon’s third league start since Graham Alexander hauled him off at Notts County in November – City 4-0 down – despite the fact he had been the Bantams’ best player. Since early February, Pointon has been restricted to just three substitute outings, adding up to a mere 32 minutes of action – and 27 of those minutes came last week at Harrogate. No matter how bad things have got, Pointon has been ignored as a possible answer.

“Bradford fans will be saying I told you so” quipped Alexander after this wonderful Pointon display. Yep, we absolutely will be, Graham. The goal aside, Pointon produced a masterful display of energetic running and skill. He demands the ball from others, he takes opponents on, he takes risks, and he takes responsibility. Mistakes are quickly shaken off. He has excellent vision and his confidence is deeply admirable. At 0-0, Pointon had already given Tranmere notice of his intentions, smacking the post with a shot from distance after a brilliant burst forward taking people on. They didn’t heed the warning.

Pointon was taken off to a standing ovation after a display that underlines his huge potential. So yes, Graham, it would be really interesting to know why on earth you’ve overlooked him for so long? Why others have been habitually picked ahead of Pointon, despite offering up patchy form at best? It’s a given that Pointon deserves a run in the team for the rest of the season.

Pointon gets the headlines, but the whole team were excellent here. With all the pre-match off-the-field goings on, and after four terrible defeats in a row, the players and manager came into this under some pressure. Alexander to his credit picked an accomplished, balanced team. A return to his much loved 3-5-2, but with the subtle tweak of pairing Jamie Walker and Pointon as attacking midfielders, and Richie Smallwood in a holding role on his own.

It was a set-up that left gaps at the back for sure. And early doors, Tranmere’s greater self-assurance saw them threaten to take advantage of hesitancy from Ciaran Kelly especially. But after surviving some uncomfortable first half moments, the whole back three grew in stature and ensured there was no repeat of calamitous recent defensive displays. It’s great to see Matty Platt back to fitness – we’ve missed his quiet authority. And fair play to Daniel Oyegoke, he hasn’t been scarred by a tough return to the team and looked the part here.

Brad Halliday and Lewis Richards – who had dipped in different ways in recent weeks – showed tremendous athleticism in running up and down the pitch to bolster City going forward and when having to defend. They don’t get everything right, but their attitude was superb.

Smallwood deserves credit too. He made mistakes at times, but playing as a ball winner rather than someone expected to be the team’s playmaker suited the City skipper much better. Get the ball back, give it to someone else. Smallwood was happy to do his job unassumingly, and he did it really well. This included almost netting his first goal of the season, after smacking the crossbar with a first half free kick.

As City got better and better out of possession, their attacking threat with the ball grew and grew. Alongside Pointon, Jamie Walker did an excellent job linking up with the front line – back to his best for sure, in a team set-up more suited to his strengths. Up front, Kavanagh made a triumphant return from international duty. He and Tyler Smith are not the most obvious front two pairing, but they both worked hard and compensated for the absence of the injured Andy Cook. (The less said about Smith’s shooting skills the better!)

Kavanagh – who is actually a couple of months younger than Pointon – still has a rawness but shows moments of real quality. He didn’t give the Tranmere defence a minute’s peace, and he fully deserved his own moment in the spotlight, after he stabbed home Richards’ low cross in the 64th minute, to open the scoring. When Pointon’s wonder goal followed five minutes later, Valley Parade roared into positive life for the first time in weeks.

Two 20-year-olds on the scoresheet. What’s not to like?

The two goals were a fitting team reward for a performance that was especially strong after half time. Whilst Tranmere are clearly not having a good season themselves, they came to Valley Parade fifth in the form table over the last eight games, with their late season resurgence including notable victories over League Two’s top three, Stockport, Wrexham and Mansfield. I’m sure every member of Tranmere’s packed away end will argue they fell short of their recent high standards here. But they did create moments and Sam Walker had to make a couple of important saves.

Given City’s woeful recent record when conceding first, it felt like the opening goal really mattered and the Bantams didn’t look back after grabbing it.

So smiles inside the Valley Parade home ends at full time, but of course the bigger picture of darkness and gloom shouldn’t be forgotten. An hour before kick off, a couple of hundred City supporters gathered outside the main stand to protest against Stefan Rupp and Ryan Sparks. It was 99% peaceful and respectful. The point was loudly made, and then the majority of those who led the chanting for change headed away from Valley Parade and into the city centre, rather than staying for the match. Their boycott was an important message that all is not forgiven, despite Stefan Rupp’s attempts to reconcile supporters with his open letter 24 hours earlier.

There’s plenty already said about the contents of Rupp’s statement and so nothing really new to add here. For what it’s worth, I thought it was a good message. The humility shown was welcome, after months of the club seemingly failing to acknowledge any mistakes or show signs of learning. If Rupp delivers on everything he promised in the statement, as supporters we will have reason to be more confident about the club’s prospects under his ownership. That things will get better.

That ‘if’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting though.

I think that’s why the protest still felt relevant and necessary. Rupp’s intervention probably did shave numbers off the overall amount of people who ultimately attended the protest. And to a small extent, it took away some of the overall purpose of the demonstration. But it’s so important to send a message to Rupp and Ryan Sparks that what’s happened this season – and the last few years – is simply unacceptable. That the situation should never have been allowed to get this bad. And that the promises belatedly made have got to be lived up to.

We will wait to see what happens next. Clearly a new football-related appointment is imminent, and an educated guess would be that Paul Jewell – who helped Sparks to recruit Alexander, and who has been a regular at recent City home games – will be announced as director of football. The future out of contract players needs sorting – the fact man-of-the-match Pointon could be a free agent in a matter of weeks looks negligent. The club must surely announce a U-turn on the ridiculous decision to only run the cheap season ticket offer until the day before the season ends. Give fans time to miss football and want to come back, before you push up the prices later in the close season. And in the meantime the club must ensure that, over the summer, they offer up compelling reasons to win back the supporters they’ve lost.

With rumours growing stronger by the day of serious interest in buying the club, perhaps we’ll see even bigger change than we might have expected. Either way, it’s clear that these are a really important few weeks and months in Bradford City’s modern history. And although the proof will be in the pudding, perhaps this week can be looked back on, in time, as the moment the sleepwalk into becoming the next Scunthorpe, Rochdale or Oldham Athletic was avoided. And that a different, more positive path was taken.

There is so much work to do. The sad part of Pointon’s stunning, morale-raising goal was that not all of us who should be there were present to witness it. And in these fractured, highly emotional times, we can only hope that the wounds can start to be healed, and that by August everyone connected with the club can be brought back onto the same page and share excitement about the start of a new season, cheering on a promising Bradford City team led by the young talents of Pointon and Kavanagh, with supporters young and old stood side by side, having played a part in standing up for the club in its hour of need.  

Categories: Match Reviews, Uncategorized

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