By Jason McKeown

It’s 3.37pm, and on the row behind they’re having a conversation about recycling bins. A game of football is allegedly taking place in front of us, but it has drifted into such a moribund state that exchanges about household chores are proving more fascinating.

It all began with loud noise and good intentions. But at this stage of the afternoon, this quote unquote football match is being played out to a soundtrack of thousands of fragmented mini discussions. A fervent early atmosphere fading into distracted chatter. You can hear conversations about what the Labour government might do to pension tax relief in next month’s Budget. Conversations about what’s on at Saltaire Festival this weekend. Conversations about a brilliant new show on Netflix. Conversations about how your Fantasy Football team is getting on, and for god’s sake why hasn’t Salah scored yet?

Conversations about anything, really, to fill the void of talking points on the field. Nothing to say about the unfolding events, save for the occasional disdainful complaint that this match is “boring”.

It doesn’t get much better from here. Judging purely on entertainment, this was a disgrace of a football match. Two teams absolutely cancelling each other out. Too cautious. Too timid. You probably won’t remember this game come the end of the season. You probably won’t remember this game come the end of the weekend, for that matter. “One of the worst 0-0s I’ve ever seen” was one supporter’s verdict leaving the stadium. Even the most pedantic of pedants amongst us will struggle to muster the energy to argue.

For Graham Alexander and Bradford City, this feels like a case of back to the drawing board. The injury crisis that forced a reshuffle to 4-4-2 delivered so much promise in the EFL Trophy midweek. But as we wrote at the time, successfully deploying it against a team who are pushing bodies forward and leaving themselves exposed to the counter attack was one thing. How it would fare at home to defensive-minded opponents, playing a low block, remained a key question. We got the answer here – and, well, it wasn’t very encouraging. Not very encouraging at all.

Alexander kept Lewis Richards in the team from Tuesday, bringing in Tyreik Wright to play wide left with Bobby Pointon retained wide right. It was more 4-2-2-2 really, with Pointon and Wright pushing on, knowing Richie Smallwood and Alex Pattison would sit deep and hold. And for 15 minutes, there was promise that City could continue where they left off at Mansfield. Several decent attacking moves, a flurry of corners and free kicks won in dangerous positions. Half chances for Andy Cook and Wright. The press was pressing. The drum from the Kop’s atmosphere section boomed loudly. Here we go.

Only it all faded very quickly and very dispiritingly. Wimbledon had won the toss and forced City to attack the Kop in the first half. They slowed the game down whenever they could. Slowly sucking the wind out of the home side’s sails. Before long the atmosphere waned. The brakes were squeezed ever tighter on the pace of the game. Nothing was happening, which is why in-depth dialogue about the colours of wheelie bins began to hold more appeal.

The 4-2-2-2 was too obvious, too predictable, too easy to curb. Wright was crowded out and never given space to roam down the flank and stretch the game. His confidence this season continues to flit between his excellent 2022 loan spell at Valley Parade and his fruitless time at Plymouth Argyle over 2023. It’s all there for him, but he’s not grasping it. Pointon looked very much like a central midfielder playing out wide – some good touches and nice passes at times, but mainly in the wrong area. Jamie Walker was a big, big miss.

Richards and Brad Halliday did fine as full backs, but they needed greater off-the-ball running from the wide players in front of them. Andy Cook and Olly Sanderson spent long periods utterly starved of the ball.

It just wasn’t working. City looked excellent at the back – with Cheick Diabate further demonstrating what an astute piece of business it has been to bring the Exeter defender on loan to Valley Parade. The 22-year-old looks the pick of City’s defensive summer recruits so far, and he almost scored with the last kick of the first half, after the ball suddenly fell loose to him and he saw a shot well saved. Alongside Diabate, Jack Shepherd once again impressed. Little was getting past the central defensive pair. Sam Walker was a complete spectator. Although unlike the rest of us, he had no one to chat to pass the time away.

Alexander swapped Richards – who was injured – for Joe Adams at half time. This meant Wright dropped to left back, where he struggled even more. Wimbledon began to show more attacking threat, and Myles Hippolyte should have scored when played through on goal, only to take far too long to get his shot away. They also had a goal disallowed after a horrendous mistake from Wright. The stats would show the visitors had zero shots on target, but they had the better chances over the 90 minutes.

None more so than when Hippolyte struck an effort at goal that flew past Walker but smacked off the post. The ball bounced across goal and seemed to be heading in, only to hit the other post. The width of a post, of a post.

City still couldn’t get going at the other end. Smallwood did see a decent shot from distance well saved by Owen Goodman, and later Pattison – who had another good game in the centre – struck a decent effort from distance that was kept out. But meaningful attacks were all too rare. They never ran up a head of steam.

Adams went down injured in the box just 16 minutes into his league debut for City – the challenge was poor and looked a decent shout for a penalty – with Clarke Oduor eventually replacing him. At that point, the 64th minute, Alexander also sent on Vadaine Oliver for Sanderson to go Big Man Big Man up front. It was a curiously early rolling out of the kitchen sink option – and it didn’t work. Oliver touched the ball just seven times. City were caught between launching it long and trying to go down the flanks – and neither route was delivering success.

And so the game further drifted, with the dye seemingly long cast on the outcome. There was a late reawakening of things, when Smallwood produced a crude late tackle that looked very much worthy of a red card. A scuffle broke out between both teams, ultimately leading to four bookings. Smallwood was amongst those dished a yellow. He was lucky it wasn’t worse.

The incident came in stoppage time and led to a frantic final few minutes of City pushing to score, with the crowd brought back to life. But it was way too little, way too late. The full time whistle confirmed the stalest of stalemates.

Given Wimbledon’s flying form of late, a point isn’t a terrible result. It keeps City unbeaten at home, and they sit eighth in a League Two table that is beginning to take more meaningful shape. After a blank midweek, the Bantams have a 10-day period where they travel to 20th Harrogate Town, visit bottom club Morecambe and host a dwindling Newport County side who have lost four of their last five. Let’s call it Banana Skin Week. Or, more positively, a huge chance to rack up a flurry of points.

But they go into the next sequence of games having only won one of their last four league matches, with a mounting injury list, and with tricky dilemmas over the best approach to take. 4-2-2-2 is making City tougher to beat for sure, but this was stark evidence of its limitations going forwards. Alexander declared himself “proud” of the draw given the injury problems. That’s fair enough, even if it does carry a whiff of spin.

Ultimately they have to move on quickly, not least because no one wants to linger over this utterly forgettable affair. One without many positives. Other than some of us could at least leave knowing what colour bins to put out this week.

Categories: Match Reviews

Tags: 2024/25, AFC Wimbledon, BCAFC, League Two