| Grimsby Town 2 |
| Rose 28, Svanþórsson 47 |
| Bradford City 1 |
| Sanderson 78 |
By Nikhil Vekaria
Bradford City fell to a first League Two defeat since March as they were deservedly beaten 2-1 by Grimsby Town at Blundell Park.
The Bantams made one change from last week’s home win against Bromley, as Bobby Pointon replaced Antoni Sarcevic who had picked up a knock in training. Deadline Day signing Cheick Diabate was on the bench.
In an attritional opening, City endured an early blow as Aden Baldwin suffered an injury and was replaced by Barnsley loanee Jack Shepherd. Graham Alexander rearranged his back three in response, with Ciaran Kelly moving into the centre and Neill Byrne moving across to the right.
The game got off to a relatively slow start and the referee was keen to blow his whistle at what felt like any opportunity, as both teams struggled to get into any real rhythm.
However, the home side did begin to grow into the game and opened the scoring just before the half hour mark. A free kick from the right was floated into the box and City keeper Sam Walker came off his line and failed to gather the cross, before Danny Rose finished after some pinball in the box. The Mariners should have doubled their lead shortly after, as Evan Khouri somehow blazed over from inside the area.
City seemed to have a clear tactic to get the ball out to Tyreik Wright at any given opportunity, but despite some promising moments from the Irishman, they struggled to gain any sort of foothold in the game. Calum Kavanagh was below par and was lucky to avoid a card after a string of silly fouls, whilst Brad Halliday didn’t look as effective as his opposite wing-back going forward.
Alexander – who later admitted that City deserved nothing from the game – will have been relieved to get his players into the dressing room at half-time. Grimsby keeper Jordan Wright is unlikely to have an easier opening 45 all season.
The City manager did react at the break, and it was no surprise to see Kavanagh hooked for Fulham loanee Olly Sanderson. The 20-year-old seems to be struggling and looks a shadow of the player who scored five league goals in 15 appearances in the second half of last season after arriving last January. It’ll be interesting to see if Alexander continues to stick with Kavanagh from the start over the next few weeks.
Shortly after half-time, the sucker punch came, as Jason Svanthorsson scored his first goal for Grimsby since arriving from Iceland in the summer, turning in from a Kieran Green cross.
The home side began to look threatening every time they got the ball forward and it looked like City were at risk of capitulating and turning a disappointing afternoon into a disastrous one.
However, the introduction of Clarke Odour and Jamie Walker on 65 minutes, in place of Alex Pattinson and Pointon, seemed to give the Bantams more control in the middle and stem the flow of home attacks.
City then found hope in the 78th minute, as Sanderson followed in an Odour shot to score his first goal for the club. Home keeper Wright should’ve done much better with the initial attempt, which will only add to the frustration that City gave him such an easy afternoon between the sticks.
Walker and Odour continued to threaten and did force Wright into a simple save, but the Bantams never really looked like equalising on an afternoon where they got what they deserved – nothing.
An away defeat after an unbeaten start certainly shouldn’t start panic amongst the fanbase, but Alexander and his management team do have some questions to deal with before the visit of Carlisle United next week.
They will hope that Sarcevic is able to return to the side and offer more control in midfield, but the manager will likely be concerned by the form of a couple of his key men, namely Kavanagh and last season’s Player of the Year Halliday, who doesn’t look as sharp or effective going forward as he previously has. Alexander will also likely be concerned by the lack of service for Andy Cook, a highly effective goalscorer if given the chances at this level.
The Bantams last fixture with Carlisle was arguably the beginning of the end for Mark Hughes, and the Cumbrians will arrive in West Yorkshire looking for a bounce after parting ways with Paul Simpson after a 2-1 defeat to Tranmere Rovers on Saturday afternoon. They are likely to bring a big following for what is probably one of City’s biggest fixtures of the season at this level.
City will hope that the end of their unbeaten run was a one-off poor afternoon at the office. It is far too soon for panic, but the Bantams have had a patchy home record since relegation back to League Two and a win next weekend will go a long way towards backing up what has still been a reasonable start to the campaign.
Categories: Match Reviews
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widthofapost.com 
I think today showed how fragile the squad is when injuries begin to impact the squad.
I’ve held off from judging Alexander but after 5 games of the season i fail to see how this squad has improved from last season.
We were promised improved investment within the squad and i do not see where that investment has gone. We have no back up to Walker in goal. We have no natural wingers. Defensively i don’t feel Bryne is the commanding centre half we need and we have no significant back up to Andy Cook.
Apart from Sarcevic who we know brings a wealth of experience which will assist the team i don’t feel we’re anh better off than last season and today that showed.
This isn’t a case of one defeat and lets all jump on Alexander, it’s viewing the previous games, MK dons away who if they had been more clinical would have likely finished us off after 60mins and Salford at home where we created very little and Bromley where we only really played for the first 45mins.
I’m yet to see any performance from these players that makes me think we can challenge for promotion this season.
Based on everything i’ve seen we’ll be lucky to be mid-table come May. I hope i’m wrong but i think it’s another Summer of false hope and let downs from the board
This was a very worrying performance. Grimsby showed much more intensity than City, which was surprising given our respective starts to the season. I’m not convinced Alexander knows his best starting eleven, particularly in midfield. It seems we always improve with the midfield substitutions and Walker was excellent when he came on today. Should he have started? Pointon had earned his start but perhaps he felt pressure to perform given his limited opportunities under Alexander. Kavanagh has under performed all season but has continued to be picked. His half time substitution was inevitable and Sanderson should be given a run to prove his worth. Defensively we looked shaky to say the least after Baldwin went off. I found it strange that Kelly was moved to the Centre of the defence and Byrne to the right. We became very unbalanced.
I think Alexander will have learned quite a bit today about the limitations of a few of the squad.
Interesting times ahead!
Luck was with us in our two wins and against us in the draw. It played no part in this match. We were just soundly beaten by a team that wanted it more. We can have no excuses and the scoreline certainly flattered us. We were very poor until the last ten or fifteen minutes. It’s far too early in the season to start writing us off. Nevertheless I am prepared to say this looks nothing like a team in the running for automatic promotion – and indeed the recruitment never suggested our intention was to really go for it.
I agree, which in a league with no stand out favourites like last season is very disappointing.
it just looks like a team of cheaper alternatives and with GA going all in on one system we look like we are stuck if it doesn’t work.
walker and Pointon should have been starting from the 1st game imo and the others introduced when deemed required. Our defence looks predictably dodgy and apart from Cook there is no other striker of note imo.
30 players in the squad yet recruitment has managed to be shambolic again. No goalie cover, no Smallwood cover, strikers with little goal history, players with recent injury issues signed again.
it’s very early but despite a poorer league this team is not automatic promotion material imo.
I reckon you’ve nailed it, Danny!
What puzzled me was Alexander’s comments regarding Cheick. Baldwin got injured but why did he not introduce Cheick? Alexander suggested that he has had no training with the squad! Begs the question – why was he on the bench?
We are three weeks into the season and we are struggling with injuries particularly at the back. Alexander must be thinking about his decision to offload Stubbs, Gilliard and Young. Yesterday we were poor defensively and up front. Let’s be honest, we won at home against a Bromley team with just 10 men and poor at home against lowly Salford and against MK Don’s we weren’t great. Regarding the current squad, the juries out.
for me the next game against Carlisle is a very interesting one , they were everyone’s rubbing rags last season and haven’t set the world on fire since dropping down , for me how we perform in this game will define our season sweep them to one side and we have a reason to be optimistic, a poor draw or defeat means more of the same season,
yes we may go on a run that gives us false hope but nothing but a convincing win next week will give me hope
What a bizarre decision by GA to shuffle round the entire back three to put left footed Shepherd in rather that right footed Chieke as a straight swap. Absolute basics whatever the level 😩
The negativity is deafening, most comments writing off the team after 4 games and 1 loss.
Clearly we were rocked by losing Sarc and Baldwin and I’m sure GA will admit his changes did not work. We also had some pretty poor performances from Kav, Bobby, Halliday, and a bizarre error from Walker that led to their opening goal.
A bad day at the office, it happens, I’m hoping they can learn from that and kick on after what was undoubtedly a disrupted transfer week.
It was nice to see Walker and Odour having a good impact from the bench, Odour’s run in particular, if teams are going to shut down our full backs maybe he’s the guy for the middle.
Actually, City have 1 win in their last 4 games and last April’s results have zero impact on this season. Just saying.
Unfortunately Bradford City are now a selling Club From the minute Jake Young came back from Swindon the writing was on the cards The Bradford board had no intention of keeping him He would of gone last season but for the injury Untill we get a Owner that will back the club I think we can only expect more of the same
On another note maybe WOP could investigate ….Alvin Ayman any idea of a fee we will get from his sale to Liverpool from Wolves said to be an £2million fee for the lad who we sold as a kid to Wolves. Maybe a chance to hear from the worryingly silent top brass at the club ? Hoping we haven’t done a deal without a sell on clause ….?
true there’s little mention of this so called “wonder kid”. He only left city approximately 12 months ago and has now been sold to Liverpool. I wonder what the sell on clause was.
Bitterly disappointed on two fronts over the weekend.
Firstly the sale of Jake Young, yes we’re all a bit relieved now that the long-running saga is now behind us, and much speculation regards the why’s of this issue can now be put to bed. However, it doesn’t detract from the fact that he’s got a lot of ability that attracted attention from high placed league clubs. I’m off the opinion that he’ll eventually establish himself as a championship player and bag plenty of goals in the process. Just such a pity those goals won’t be for us.
Secondly the abysmal performance at Grimsby was hard to stomach. The solid start to the season hasn’t particularly been backed-up with solid performances, and I felt Saturdays game could be one to build on that start with an all round execution over the 90mins, to help galvanise fans away from an apprehension that we’re in store for much of the same as last season.
Unfortunately early fears were brought to fruition and at times we looked like the side that was relegated to L2. Our back three was exposed for lack of pace and judgement with gaps down each channel giving Grimsby’s attack much space to play.
Of course this can’t be solely attributed to the back three, GA it seems has instructed Wright and Halliday to play higher up the pitch ( he did mention recently that he see’s them as more of a part of a 5man midfield) and this was exploited against us to good effect.
GA showed last season that abject displays like this can be followed by runs of good results, more ground out than by taking control of a game. One can only hope that he again can orchestrate this
For the second time at Grimsby in less than a month I felt the team finishing the game was performing much better than the one starting it. Hopefully GA now with the transfer window closed and distractions over, can address this to have the best team starting the game!