By Jason McKeown

The worst part is that now we can’t avoid having to downgrade our expectations. Bubbles were burst as reality took a great big bite here. Growing excitement over Bradford City promotion prospects has taken on significant damage. Just as we could begin to dream, we experienced the painful thud of crashing back down to earth.

It was a Doncaster Rovers mauling of the Bantams, even if the final 15 minutes and final score masked some of the starkness in the gulf between the two sides. The crazy aspect was City almost got away with it. Almost snatched the most unlikely of draws. They had a real go in the closing stages, and had Doncaster on the ropes. Some pride was resorted. But even if the players had succeeded in coming back from 2-0 down to earn a point, the cracks would have been difficult to paper over.

The simple truth is that City were no match for a terrific Doncaster Rovers, who for 75 minutes completely outplayed the home side and should have run up a commanding lead. It was the best visiting performance at Valley Parade since Mansfield’s emphatic 5-1 victory last March. But on that occasion, the Stags’ dominance owed as much to City’s awfulness as it did opposition brilliance. Here, there wasn’t that tiny crumb of comfort to take. City’s failings were not because they didn’t turn up. They just couldn’t live with their vibrant opponents.

The Bantams were not awful by any stretch. They had good spells in the game, especially early doors. But when Doncaster stepped it up, they played at a level the home side could not live with.

It was a clinical and brutal assassination of Bradford City’s character. If before the game you’d have been asked to write a list of the Bantams’ weaknesses this season, you probably wouldn’t have been able to come up with anything that Rovers manager Grant McCann evidently hadn’t thought of. The over-reliance of Andy Cook. The struggle to find him an effective strike partner. Getting the balance right in midfield with the choice of number 8s. The fact Richie Smallwood can be left too exposed. The struggles of Cheick Diabete on the ball. The defensive gaps Tyreik Wright leaves at left wing back.

In most games City have completed so far this season, they’ve coped with these weaknesses because their list of strengths have tipped the balance in their favour against limited opposition. But Doncaster Rovers were no run-of-the-mill League Two outfit. They knew how to exploit City’s shortcomings, and crucially had the capability to carry it out.

And so, lining up in a 3-4-2-1 formation, Doncaster seized control and ultimately made it count. The Nigerian defender Joseph Olowu had a terrific game against Cook, ably supported by Jay McGrath and Jack Senior. Just in front of them, Owen Bailey and George Broadbent sat deep and set traps that Bobby Pointon and Jamie Walker fell for. Linking up with Kyle Hurst and Luke Molyenux, Bailey and Broadbent swarmed over Richie Smallwood, who was hopelessly outgunned. Hurst and Molyenux were the best two players on the pitch, with intelligent movement dragging Diabete and Jack Shepherd out of position and causing carnage.

It really did feel like a back to the drawing board moment for Graham Alexander. After the injury crisis struggles of 4-4-2 saw him return to a 3-5-2 that – since March’s midfield pivot to a pair of number 8s in front of Smallwood – has been so successful, here the proven gameplan was badly blunted.

There is an argument – and a good one for me – that City were too gung ho. Everyone has been pleading for Alexander to play Walker and Pointon together with good reason, but the ill and absent Clarke Oduor – who is technically nowhere near as able, but who is more defensive-minded and disciplined – was missed. Smallwood needed help, and there was none coming from Walker and Pointon, who not unreasonably were prioritising popping up in the final third. Both were guilty of losing the ball in bad areas in the first half that led to threatening counter attacks. And though Pointon at least was behind City’s best attacking moments, the warning signs were there from very early on.

City had lots of the ball – 60% over the 90 minutes in fact – but struggled to offer much. Some nice passing, movement and commitment of bodies in the box waiting for crosses from outwide. But as soon as they lost possession, Doncaster countered with menace and purpose. The visitors created – and wasted – some fantastic opportunities when they overloaded City defensive players. It was no small achievement the Bantams made it to half time still level. But the fact they had failed to muster a single shot on target in the first 45 minutes said much about the direction of travel.

Alexander tried to change it at the break, swapping Pointon to the right and Walker to the left. His reasoning is it would make City more dynamic in switching the play, and so get wing backs Jay Benn and Tyreik Wright in better attacking positions. But it wasn’t radical enough to stem the tide. Ultimately it made no difference.

Because 12 minutes into the second half, Doncaster deservedly went ahead. Again it was a counter attack, and again they had created an overload. This time the final pass from Hurst was spot on, playing Molyneux into space. The 26-year-old struck a low shot past Sam Walker to send a lively Doncaster away following into raptures.

Nine minutes later, Hurst picked up possession deep and went on a superb run. No one stopped him getting into the box and sending over a low cross, from which the wily 38-year-old Billy Sharp was free to tap home for his 278th career goal. Rovers could have made it much more. From the start of the second half to the 75th minute, Doncaster had nine shots on goal to City’s three, and racked up seven corners to the home side’s two. It was one-way traffic.

What rankles most about that period is how long it took Alexander to try and change it. He absolutely should have done something at half time to address the problems Smallwood was experiencing. Introducing Cory Evans, perhaps, and going 3-4-3. Going more defensive to curb Doncaster’s dominance. And yes, that sounds like a negative move that might not have aided the manager’s popularity stakes. But, at half time, what City fan wasn’t reflecting on Doncaster’s superiority and pondering if they’d settle for a point? Sometimes you have to be pragmatic.

Even if that was too soon to act, surely Doncaster’s opening goal should have been the cue to change things. 1-0 down, Alexander stood on impassively as his charges continued to struggle against the visitors’ excellence. A second goal was coming well before Sharp struck. Actions needed to have been taken to curb this. City had no plan to win back possession when they lost it, and that’s why they lost the game.

It’s times like this that make you realise that as fine of a job as Alexander is doing – and he really is – in crucial moments he still lacks that bravery and acumen to make tough, effective choices. Why did he continue to allow Wright to struggle so badly? Tolerate Tyler Smith’s ineffectiveness (City lacked their usual pressing game without Calum Kavanagh)? Recognise that Walker and Pointon were too immobile out of possession, leading to Doncaster attacks that outnumbered home players?

Eventually Alexander did act, making 5 (five!) changes in one go. Kavanagh for Smith, Brad Halliday for a struggling Diabete, Lewis Richards for Wright, Vadaine Oliver for Walker, and Evans for Benn (who found it tougher going on his return from illness). And it was a move 3-4-3, with Smallwood helped out by Evans. And it was more successful.

With seven minutes to go, Richards found space on the left wing and sent over a brilliant cross that Cook headed home to reduce the arrears. And suddenly we saw a completely different game. City pushed forward, roared on by a packed home crowd that stayed with the team all afternoon. Doncaster looked nervous and edgy. Crawling, rather than striding, their way to the finish line. Oliver and Neill Byrne had opportunities to equalise. Richards was great – he surely starts from now on. Deserved or otherwise, a City equaliser would have surely sparked scenes of bedlam.

But time ran out. The quintet of substitutions was ultimately too little too late. And really, there can be no complaints. The better team absolutely won.

And that’s why this defeat can’t be easily shrugged off as a bad day at the office. An under-performance in the manner of their three previous league defeats at Grimsby, Walsall and Harrogate. This was something bigger, something more significant. No one would claim City played well, but that was because they weren’t allowed to. Another League Two side has strode into our backyard and exposed our inadequacies.

No need to panic. Absolutely no need to panic. But work to do for sure. The positive run of late was no fluke, but did partly disguise the growing problem of a lack of partner for Cook. Stopped us thinking too much about suspicions we didn’t recruit well enough at left wing back over the summer. And quietened conversations that maybe converting a forward into such a specialist position is not the most robust of plans.

Every City fan loves Bobby – what a talent he is – but maybe, maybe, Alexander has been getting it right over the amount of minutes he’s had so far this season. Certainly the balance in midfield is an issue we can’t ignore. If you didn’t rate Oduor before, you might do a little more after that.

It’s fair to say that as a fanbase scarred by the let downs of the last few years, we haven’t been getting carried away with the P word. But up until today, there were many reasons to quietly believe this could be City’s year. Not least, a feeling that this division is much weaker than last year – and the year before for that matter – and that there is no one to fear. But Doncaster have rudely shown us there is, in fact, another level. High standards do indeed still exist in League Two. A standard that City have so far not come close to reaching.

And so the unavoidable downgrade. In no way should we be dismissing City’s promotion prospects. But today was the day that the automatic promotion places began to feel more of a pipedream (especially when you look at the table and realise Doncaster are still only fourth), albeit it with a long way to go. We turned up in good numbers – even Stefan Rupp was here – hoping for City to make a real statement of intent. But what we saw was something very different.

The evidence so far this season suggests City are play off contenders. But perhaps no more than that. Not the end of the world for sure. Offer us a trip to Wembley and play off success next May, and I’m sure most of us would gladly accept. It’s just that for a while there, City were hinting they could do something even bigger.

Categories: Match Reviews

Tags: 2024/25, BCAFC, Doncaster Rovers, League Two