By Jason McKeown

It was all about to completely collapse: Bradford City’s season, the mood of supporters, Graham Alexander’s managerial reputation, and probably the last remaining morsels of confidence in Stefan Rupp’s ownership of the club. And yet not for the first time, Andy Cook came to City’s rescue. Nodding home an equaliser to sticky plaster the Bantams from imminently falling apart. They are still alive. Just.

In time, maybe we will be able to look back and say Cook’s 82nd goal in a City shirt was one of the most crucial moments of the season, turning the tide. Or maybe, we’ll reflect that there was just no papering over of the cracks. That the graves had already been dug. But make no mistake, if City had have lost here, the post-match fallout would have been overwhelming and perhaps irreversible. The club was absolutely staring into the abyss. And they’re still very much glancing in that direction.

As we shivered inside Valley Parade, watching the Bantams trail to a bang average Barrow side, it was difficult to avoid inhaling the darkness of the winter night, and contemplating the futility of the club’s very existence. Everything was so pitiful on the pitch – and wearily familiar. The purposeless hit and hope punts forward, the struggles of a manager to get a group of players running through brick walls on their behalf, and the slow puncture of a push for promotion fading into mid-table mediocrity.

It all feels like such a tired, tedious repeat of the same events, season on season. The club – and Stefan Rupp – seem to have signed us up to a life sentence of faltering in the fourth division. Trapped in the mud. Trying everything, but achieving little more than rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

This is who we are, and now always will be. It’s a Bantams thing.

And how long can we keep watching this same sorry saga? The answer for many fans seems to be clear. Empty seats outnumbered those occupied by frost-bitten home supporters here. It’s so much easier these days to watch midweek games from the warm comfort of your own living room of course, but the sparsity of the crowd for the first home match in weeks should have everyone at Bradford City feeling worried. It’s a damning indictment of how so many fans feel about the club’s future.

The apathy is growing. People are finding better things to do with their lives than watch the same plotlines rehashed year after year. And there wasn’t much on offer here that will have made the stayaways regret their life choices.

Because for 75 minutes, it really was awful. City’s worst home performance of the season so far for sure, just as they really needed to make a positive statement. The team were so listless, slow and ponderous. Too many players passively waited for someone else to provide the inspiration. Passes lacked bravery and intent. Back and forth in their own half, as players waited in vain for team mates to pop up in space. Too often the ball was eventually launched long, with a low success rate.

The plan of how City were going to attack effectively just wasn’t evident at all. That’s on Graham Alexander of course, and it really worries you just how far off he seems to be from knowing what his best XI should be. Here, he decided to drop Jamie Walker and Bobby Pointon as his number 8s. Fair enough to some extent, neither have been excelling of late. But replacements Alex Pattison and Clarke Oduor – both back to fitness after injury lay offs – did not work at all.

Pattison began this season in scintillating form away to MK Dons. Since that opening day man of the match display, he’s offered almost nothing – before injury once again struck. And it might be unfair to read too much into his first start after two months out, but Pattison’s quality on the ball is really worrying. Here, he had a dismal 53.9% pass success rate. How can a team ever hope to be effective going forward, when one of your attacking midfielder gives the ball away half of the time?

Oduor was not a lot better in truth, and the pair had a frustrating tendency to pull outwide when City had the ball deep, occupying the space you wanted Jay Benn and Lewis Richards to run into, and leaving the middle vacated. It meant there was little chance of City playing through the centre, and tempting Barrow’s back five to pull out and leave gaps that could be exploited. Endless long balls were sent out wide, that sometimes a City player won – but more often than not saw possession conceded. The front two were completely starved of service. In the first half, Cook and Olly Sanderson had the fewest touches of the ball of the entire 22 players on the field.

In some ways you could understand why Alexander kept faith with Sanderson. Yes, he missed some sitters at Morecambe on Saturday. But he got into positions to miss them, which was at least something. Sadly, it didn’t work out again. Sanderson was completely anonymous and looks devoid of all confidence. On the plus side for City, Richie Smallwood showed mettle and was their best first half player (a low bar, admittedly). At one point in the second half, the crowd really got on Smallwood’s back. Yet he stood tall, and kept demanding the ball. Look, the guy ain’t perfect – but we need more of his kind of mental toughness.

It all meant that, for an hour, City were playing mightily ineffectively. No pattern to their play. No spell of coherent attacking football that suggested they had a feasible plan to score a goal. And it made for a bitty, dreary game of football as boring as anything we’ve seen in the last six seasons of being stuck in the basement league. At least if you were watching on from home, you could change the channel.

Barrow didn’t exactly pull up any trees themselves, but of course they scored. City don’t keep clean sheets – their last shut out was 10 games ago – and do give up chances. A Barrow attack appeared to break down but was kept alive, with the ball worked to Ben Jackson outwide, who was easily able to find space ahead of a slow to react Benn and send over a cross. Robbie Gotts was stood between two City defenders, but neither Brad Halliday or Paul Huntington were able to stop him reaching the ball first and firing home. Just poor, and predictably poor.

At that point, the sky really was threatening to fall in. City continued to look feeble in attack. Confidence rock bottom. Crowd hostility grew. And a very big nail about to be hammered into Alexander’s coffin. For a manager deservedly criticised for making changes too late in games recently, he did at least quickly react. Four subs were introduced on the hour – each one of them improved City.

That included Aden Baldwin replacing Halliday, who in recent weeks has been parachuted into different defensive positions with little success. Halliday was right sided centre half here and hardly flourished. It’s surely right wing back or nothing for him, now that other centre backs are returning from injury. Baldwin instantly looked better on the ball here. It’s good to have him back.

On also came Calum Kavanagh for Sanderson. The problems of finding a partner for Cook who can contribute goals has been talked about at length. The shuffling of options is not unearthing any solutions. Kavanagh is certainly not the perfect choice, but the greater pressing and final third involvement he displayed here shows that he is the best route to take right now.

Also coming on was Walker for Oduor. The Scot has not been at his best of late, but he will always offer the courage to get on the ball and make things happen that Oduor and Pattison simply did not provide here. Walker instantly brought more drive and thrust, playing in the gaps that Oduor and Pattison were reluctant to occupy.

And finally coming on was Bobby Pointon for Pattison. And, wow. Didn’t he take the chance? Pointon follows the Walker example of fearlessness. And in hindsight, why on earth did Alexander think that a team low on confidence would be better without such boldness?

Pointon more than anyone changed the game in City’s favour. And with 11 minutes to go, he did brilliantly to deceive Rory Freely, run into space and send over a perfect cross from which Cook was never going to miss.

This cameo from Pointon is an interesting addition to the season debate of whether he is better as an impact sub or starting games at this stage of his career. Well then. It’s a tricky one for sure. The big question is – has Pointon played as effectively as he did here, when starting a game this season? This was up there with his best performance of the season, at home to Newport in October. And that was another game where he came off the bench to change a game.

I think we’re broadly getting 6/7 out of 10 performances from Pointon when he starts, but 8/9 out of 10 performances when he comes on as sub. It’s not that he shouldn’t be starting games, it’s just that he’s a very good fresh legs player to introduce mid-match. He has a real impact. The only practical solution to this dilemma that I can see is that we need to clone the guy. We need a Bobby Pointon to start games. And we also need a Bobby Pointon to bring on in the second half.

The equaliser led to a belated big push from the Bantams. They finally unlocked a sense of urgency, and produced pressure on the Barrow goal. Had the game gone on a further five or ten minutes, they probably would have won it. That wouldn’t have been deserved overall, but it could have been so significant. As it was, those final 15 minutes of City improvement gives us all some crumbs to hold onto. A small dose of hope.

The bigger problem though is that we can’t forget those first 75 minutes happened.

It was, undoubtedly, a dismal night for City. Against opponents now winless in nine, they failed to convince and the doubts about their promotional credentials have only grown. Alexander’s popularity won’t have been boosted by what we saw. The only consolation, perhaps, is that it hasn’t plummeted further. This was a night that threatened to spark serious questions about his future. That won’t go away, but it won’t intensify further just yet.

The tools do seem to be there, especially with more players returning to fitness. At the weekend Alexander will finally have every central defender available. Antoni Sarcevic and Tyreik Wright the only long-term injured absentees. And yes, gulp, they must go to Crewe on Saturday without Andy Cook, who picked up a fifth yellow card of the season here that means he is suspended (it’s seven games against EFL opponents since City last scored a non-Cook goal). But they just have to kick on now. There is no alternative. Excuses just aren’t going to wash.

They were absolutely on the brink here. And they don’t exactly end the night receiving any great love and affection from their fed up public. But they’ve delayed the day of reckoning. Now, they’ve got to use this reprieve as a springboard to better times. And they’ve got to do it very, very quickly.

Categories: Match Reviews

Tags: 2024/25, Barrow, BCAFC, League Two