By Jake Verity

Well, there’s nowhere else to start this match report than talking about Andy Cook, really.

For so long, we have been worrying about what happens if we lose him. There’s been talk for a long time about how we need to start sharing goals out across the team in the event Cook isn’t available.

Unfortunately, that day has now arrived.

It came following a draw against a poor Barrow side, where a late equaliser helped us rescue a point and stretch an unbeaten run into three games, following two wins over the festive period at Valley Parade.

You’d have probably taken seven points from nine on Christmas Day, but it does feel like this was a match where if Cook had been up-front, we’d have been more clinical and able to retain the ball better in dangerous areas, and ultimately walk away two points better off.

There has been a lot of talk about investment in the club this season. With many fans expecting a strong window from the club, the stakes have been raised extremely highly now after Cook’s injury. Though losing our talisman is one of the worst situations imaginable, it is also, in many ways, an opportunity for the club to show they really are serious about getting out of this division by signing a quality replacement.

I’ll talk more about Cook in a minute and get onto the match itself shortly, but another key takeaway here is that our away form really does need to improve – a task made even harder with a now depleted strikeforce. We have just two wins on the road all season in eleven games – the opening day of the season against MK Dons, and a good performance against Tranmere back in October.

Over the last two seasons we have been fairly good on our travels, but have struggled more at home. So it is strange we’ve had a reverse of that this season, with our home record being excellent (W7, D3, L1), and our away form less so (W2, D4, L5).

Fortunately, our next fixture is at home this Saturday, before a fourteen day break from league football. We’ll then go to bottom side Carlisle on the 18th January. On paper, that is as good of an opportunity as any we could ask for, to try and turn our away form around.

The first half

Onto today’s game, Alexander made four changes to the team who lined up in Sunday’s win against Chesterfield. Lewis Richards was back after sickness, while Jack Shepherd and Calum Kavanagh made returns to the starting eleven. Bobby Pointon was also back into the starting line-up too.

Antoni Sarcevic and Ciaran Kelly were both dropped to the bench after performing well just a few days earlier. The suggestion here was that they were both given rest. A smart decision in all likelihood, given they’ve been out with long-term injuries and both are key players. Jay Benn and Tyriek Wright were left out of the team, while Callum Johnson was named in the squad for the first time this season.

The real talking point though came just a minute after kick-off, as Cook went down injured on the far side of the pitch. After getting up and struggling for a couple of minutes, he fell to the ground and it became clear he was unable to continue. Immediately, there were concerns that it looked like a knee injury, which Alexander confirmed at full-time. We don’t know the duration yet, but the hope is it won’t be long, at all.

The importance Cook brings to our squad simply can’t be understated. I don’t need to explain this to anybody reading this, but to lose a fifteen goal striker when your next top scorer has just three goals – is to put it politely, far from ideal.

Cook went off injured to be replaced by Olly Sanderson, who struggled to impact the game over ninety minutes, before a few minutes later one of Barrow’s defenders went down unchallenged. This was the case several times over the game, with players seemingly struggling with the surface.

Barrow started well by putting several balls into the box, but after around quarter of an hour, we were looking the more comfortable of the two teams. The first clear chance came from us, with Richie Smallwood kickstarting a counter attack and feeding the ball through to Alex Pattison. The midfielder then played the ball through to Kavanagh, whose low effort to the bottom corner was saved by Paul Farman. A chance the striker really should have taken.

But a few minutes later, we’d taken the lead and things were looking very positive on the pitch. Bobby Pointon picked the ball up in the corner and played it to Smallwood who put an excellent ball through to Richards. The wing-back put the ball into the top corner and City were ahead. It has to be said that Richards is in a brilliant run of form at the minute, and was a notable absentee against Chesterfield. You have to feel that the left wing-back spot now is very much his own.

We pressed Barrow effectively for the following twenty minutes or so, with Smallwood and Pattison at the heart of it – the former picking up the ball and the latter driving forwards – while Pointon was also working effectively in the midfield. We had another chance after Pointon sent Sanderson through, but the striker was unable to get a shot on target.

There were warnings though that Barrow were working their way back into the game. Connor Mahoney missed a free header from just yards out. But a few minutes later during eight minutes of injury time, they would find an equaliser.

Some poor defending saw a through ball to Andrew Dallas, before the striker was then knocked over by Aden Baldwin – despite the fact he wasn’t really going anywhere. Baldwin looks to be a good defender on the ball and is good at starting attacking moves, but has made some mistakes over the past two games that won’t fill fans with confidence. Dallas converted the penalty, and the scores were level after their first shot on target.

It’s mistakes like these that will prevent us from moving up the league.

The second half

The first period of the second half was largely uneventful, we had plenty of possession but did very little with it. Only Pattison looked like doing anything with the ball, though was unable to find the target with a long-distance effort that went wide of the goal. We did have a clearer chance a few minutes later, when Pointon hit the ball over the bar following a Smallwood corner.

It wasn’t long before Sarcevic came on for Pattison, and Jamie Walker for Kavanagh in an effort to try and retake the lead. We were starting to lose control of the game around the time of the substitutions, though.

Though Barrow had little of the ball, they were creating chances. Jack Shepherd let a Barrow forward break free, but Sam Walker came out and was able to clear the ball.

The goalkeeper was once again in action a few minutes later, saving a free kick from Ben Jackson down to the bottom of the left of the goal.

A few minutes later though, we ran out of chances and Barrow were in the lead. A ball from Aden Baldwin went loose, and Antoni Sarcevic was unable to take control of it. As a result, Barrow launched a quick counter attack and put Emile Acquah through, who put the ball beyond Walker.

Alexander made a double substitution with just under ten minutes to go, swapping Kelly and Clarke Oduor for Jack Shepherd and Neill Byrne and changing the shape of the team.

It was once again substitutions that ended up saving another game for Alexander. Because three of them combined to find an equaliser. Kelly put a long ball forward which landed in the middle of the defence, which Sarcevic ran onto. The ball then came off a Barrow defender and found its way to Oduor, who after a mishit managed to put the ball into the back of the net.

There were a couple more chances to find a winner in six additional minutes. A free-kick from Smallwood, and chance for Sarcevic to put the ball across the box, but neither managed to find anyone. The full-time whistle went a few minutes later – and it was a point gained, on this occasion – even though it feels in many ways like it was two points dropped.

What comes next

Well, it’s the one thing on every Bradford City fan’s mind. How do you solve a problem like replacing Andy Cook?

But it’s more than just replacing Cook. We go into January with a shopping list, where put simply, we can’t leave the supermarket forgetting any of the items. It’s fair to say we would definitely benefit from bringing in a defensive midfielder and a ball-playing defender, and that we also need some cover for Sam Walker too. I think most fans would agree that we need to bring these players in, and doing so would give us the opportunity to win the promotion that we so badly crave.

George Lapslie is already a decent addition to the club. But what’s even more welcome is the fact that we’ve wasted no time in bringing in a new player proactively. Over the last ten seasons, we have only once brought one player in at the start of the January window – Ciaran Kelly from Bohemians in the 2022/23 season. I have been critical of the club’s approach off the pitch at times this season, however this is the sort of proactiveness which we have wanted to see for some time.

The question now is whether the club can rise to the challenge in front of it. We don’t know how long Cook will be out for, but we do know he is our most pivotal player, and covering for him will more than likely determine whether this season will be a success, or not.

It is near impossible to be positive about the prospect of Cook being out for the season. But what it does mean is that we simply have to invest in a proven goalscorer. There have been suggestions that the club might be interested in Josh Stones, who at 21-years-old could prove to be a long-term talent. But it would be a huge risk to replace a proven League Two goalscorer with a young striker. He would be the sort of signing I’d like to see us make alongside a Cook replacement, rather than being one himself.

I said this some months ago, and I still maintain that one of the most intelligent pieces of business the club could do would be to bring somebody like Michael Cheek in from Bromley into the club who already has twelve League Two goals this season, and fits a similar profile to Cook. At 33-years-old, he wouldn’t be a long-term signing, but could fill the gap nicely for us. Without being disrespectful to Bromley, who are having a good season, they are a smaller club than we are.

I’m sure if we were to offer an eighteen-month contract at a 25,000 seater stadium, the ambition of going to League One and good terms, it would be tempting for him. If you’ll remember, Sheffield United did this to us when they took James Hanson. It’s thinking like this that could set us apart – rather than taking a risk on a younger player who might not be ready to make the step-up.

The broader point I’ll end on is that it feels like Cook’s injury (which hopefully isn’t long-term) is a bit of a wake up call, and a final chance for the club to really make a statement. A positive window and some smart recruitment could begin to restore confidence in the leadership of the club; and it would no doubt set us up for an exciting end to the season. But if we get it wrong, then apathy will naturally grow and it will feel like an opportunity missed.

Stefan Rupp penned an open letter to fans in November saying:

“Looking ahead, planning is well underway for the January transfer window. I will again invest and make more funds available to ensure we can do the deals we want and need to do.”

It’s now over the club, to see whether they can really make this a Happy New Year for Bradford City.

Categories: Match Reviews

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