By Jason McKeown

Suddenly there are cracks. Cracks that are becoming more visible. Cracks that are getting wider. Cracks that are fuelling an escalation in worries about Bradford City’s prospects.

Defeat in Harrogate means the Bantams have now lost three away league games in a row. They’ve won only one of their last five League Two encounters. And overall, it’s just three victories from eight league matches so far this season. City are down to 13th, and are only one point better off than they were at this stage last season, where the pressure was very much ramping up over Mark Hughes’ future and he was getting booed by supporters.

Graham Alexander isn’t facing that kind of reaction just yet, but this was an unimpressive afternoon from the City manager. He hasn’t got the strongest hand to play right now, with a-still-considerable injury list denying him the chance to set the team up how he truly wants, but there was no excuse for the depths of awfulness that the Bantams sunk to at times here.

For a while, it looked like City were heading for a humiliatingly bad afternoon, as Harrogate quickly rampaged their way to a 2-0 lead. In the end it wasn’t that bad. But the bottom line is that City still lost the game. Crumbs of comfort were still only mere crumbs.

It was the worst afternoon for City since, well, the last time they were in these parts. That March 3-0 humbling was the line in the sand after which things began to get better, with a convincing end to last season. In the opening five minutes of this campaign, at MK Dons, it seemed the Bantams were carrying on where they left off. But the sad truth is they’ve not kicked on this year. They’ve yet to find those higher gears. Yet to reach their potential. And when they’re below par, they’re very below par. This was the starkest warning yet that those cracks cannot be ignored.

It was a worrying watch, even after City improved. They didn’t register a single shot on target apart from Andy Cook’s first half goal. Lots of possession, but a struggle to mount any serious pressure as they chased the game. Harrogate defended resolutely but were not impenetrable. City huffed and puffed, without laying a serious glove. Defeat was self-inflicted and utterly deserved.

Right from the start, Harrogate Town looked at it and City seemed well off the pace. Jack Muldoon pick-pocketed a dozing Cheick Diabete and ran through on goal, only to be denied by Sam Walker. From the resultant corner, slack defending allowed Liam Gibson to strike a powerful effort at goal that Walker tipped over. There wasn’t even four minutes on the clock at this point.

The troubling signs continued. City won a throw in level with the Harrogate penalty area, and put bodies into the box. Lewis Richards attempted to launch a long throw, only to be pulled up for committing a foul throw. Basics. Cook attempted to control a Diabete long ball in a decent position, but collided with Jamie Walker, leaving to the pair exchanging words. With the exception of Sam Walker, every City player seemed to be struggling.

Soon enough, Harrogate took the lead. A cross field pass allowed Ellis Taylor to scamper down the wing. Richards went out to meet him and forced the summer signing from Sunderland to check back. But Bobby Pointon drifted over to try and help Richards, criminally leaving a big space behind him. Taylor spotted the opportunity, and found an unmarked Toby Simms scampering into Pointon’s blind spot, with Alex Pattison slow to react. The Town left back struck a half shot, half cross that landed in the path of Stephen Doolley, who finished well.

The pattern continued after. Town defended deep and showed a clear sense of purpose whenever they had the ball. A purpose City completely lacked in the first 25 minutes. Taylor shot over from distance and there were other promising moves into the box that invoked unnecessary panic from a backline that at times seemed unrecognisable from last week’s solid clean sheet display against Wimbledon.

A second goal deservedly arrived before a quarter of the game had been completed. James Daley had the ball out wide and was up against Brad Halliday. He charged through City’s reigning player of the year as though he wasn’t there, and played the ball to Taylor, who Richie Smallwood hadn’t tracked. Taylor struck a powerful low effort from an angle that nestled in the bottom corner.

It was utterly shambolic from City. A reminder of the past horror shows that they’ve produced on this ground over the last five years. Harrogate Town fans triumphantly thought so, alternating between chants of “Bradford City, it’s happening again” and channelling their inner Joy Division to brag “Town, tearing Bradford apart again”.

But just as the sky was absolutely falling in on City, the game took an unexpected twist. The former Bantams defender Anthony O’Connor was caught by the press, as Cook robbed him of possession, ran through and finished smartly for his sixth goal of the season. Completely his own work. Completely out of the blue. It knocked some of Harrogate’s self-assurance out of them. The pattern began to change.

Up until then, Harrogate had enjoyed 58% possession. From that moment until the full time whistle, City had 65% of the ball. Lots and lots of opportunities to pass and prob, but two walls of yellow and black shirts proved too difficult for City’s limited wiliness to master. They needed to be quicker. They needed to be smarter. They failed to do either in all but fleeting moments.

Harrogate in fact lined up in a 4-1-4-1 formation with Josh Falkingham sitting in front of the back four, doing the role that Richie Smallwood had been doing so well for City up until recently. Smallwood himself was initially lining up alongside Pattison in a rigid 4-4-2 that was all too easy for Harrogate to play around.

With the central defender injury crisis leaving just two fit centre halfs, going four at the back is really the only option for Alexander. But it didn’t work at all in midfield. Playing two numbers 8s – Jamie Walker and Pointon – as wide players was completely ineffective, whilst Pattison did little but hinder Smallwood and stop the City skipper operating in the way he has done so well. Not one of City’s midfield four did themselves justice, but they were set up to fail by an approach that played to no one’s strengths.

Even though City were the better side in the period after Cook’s goal and in the run up to the break, Alexander wasn’t fooled. He made a triple switch at half time, with Pattison, the anonymous Olly Sanderson and a struggling Halliday withdrawn. Clarke Oduor, Calum Kavanagh and Jay Benn came on. City appeared to go more 4-1-3-2, with Smallwood deep and Jamie Walker and Pointon playing more central alongside Oduor. There was slightly more balance to City and they looked better for the changes. Especially as they stop going so direct. But still, they weren’t doing enough to hurt Harrogate and rescue the situation.

The game became stop-start. Scrappy. Bitty. Without any clear direction. Fine if you’re Harrogate Town, with one eye on the clock. Not so good for City. They just couldn’t get behind Harrogate often enough, though Benn had a few eye-catching moments that suggest he could genuinely overtake Halliday as first choice right back. From one Benn burst forward and low cross, Kavanagh had a shot at goal blocked by a defender. It was probably the closest they came.

Tyreik Wright and Vadaine Oliver joined the fray over the second half. But for all the possession and territorial advantage, it would be stretching the truth to argue City dominated. It’s long been a problem that City struggle in games when the opposition defend deep and the Bantams have more of the ball. This sadly became the latest example of how easy they can be to stop. The lack of quality and poor decision making was especially galling. Did they really look like scoring?

And so Harrogate do it again. Since their arrival into the EFL during Covid lockdown, they’ve continued to be a pain in the backside to Bradford City, in the derby that we don’t like to call a derby. 10 competitive meetings, just two City wins, seven (SEVEN!) defeats. This was the fourth time in five years the Bantams have been embarrassed at Wetherby Road. An aggregate score of 10-4 to the Sulphurites. In this post-Covid world, Bradford City humblings to Harrogate Town have become as normalised as working from home.

This defeat was not as dark as some of the chastening occasions we’ve endured in this part of the world. To paraphrase Marge Simpson angrily shouting at Homer, “Of all the terrible days you’ve had at Harrogate, this one ranks somewhere in the middle.” But where it leaves City could ultimately be just as troubling as some of their previous Spa Town horror shows.

We can make allowances for injuries, but there is no excuse for just how badly the players who were available performed here. It’s hard to look at the quality Alexander can still call upon and argue he’s making the most of what he has. And whilst it is still really early days, we all know the warning signs about what sort of path we might be heading down.

They’ve got to get their act together. Pure and simple. The 4-4-2 is not working without genuine wide players. We all went into this season worrying that the defence would undermine us, but not in this way – where injuries caused such a change of tact that our forward play badly suffers. Alexander has to regain that balance. He can’t wait for a third central defender to be fit enough to play to fix the problems. The answer lies in a better set-up or utilising the free agent market. Maybe both.

City go to second bottom and still winless Morecambe on Tuesday urgently needing to stop this away day rot. Last season, a defeat to the Shrimpers and ex-City boss Derek Adams seemed like the beginning of the end for Hughes. A repeat result this time, and alarm bells truly will go off. Alexander has to use the trip to the Lancashire coast as the restart to a season that is already in danger of cracking up.

Categories: Match Reviews

Tags: 2024/25, BCAFC, Harrogate Town, League Two