By Jason McKeown

The inboxes of every League Two club have just pinged in unison, because Bradford City have sent a message to the rest of the division. They’ve thumped the league leaders. Outplayed the country’s form team. Completely beaten them up, in fact. This was verification of the fortress status that Valley Parade has reached. The loudest statement yet of the Bantams’ promotion credentials. 

It was seriously impressive stuff. City were purposeful, focused and powerful. They flexed their muscles by scoring relatively early and assuming full control. It was 2-0 by half time. 3-0 before the hour. A game that threatened to be laced in tension turned into a stroll. And a boisterous home crowd lapped it all up, the feelgood factor inescapable by the end.

Perspective is really important here in underlining the absolute scale of this achievement. Walsall travelled to West Yorkshire on the back of nine straight wins, during which they netted 22 goals and conceded just six times. They started the day 12 points clear at the top of League Two, with a game in hand. They’d lost only three league games all season – the last of which was all the way back on Tuesday 1 October.

At the start of this week, the always excellent Not The Top 20 podcast posed the question of whether Walsall are the best League Two side of the last 20 years. After swatting MK Dons aside last week, the Saddlers had 58 points from 25 games, putting them on track to finish on 106 points. No team has managed 100 points in League Two since Plymouth Argyle back in 2001/02. So it seemed a fair question.

Presenters George Elek and Alix Maxwell pointed out that Walsall are outscoring everyone by some margin, with 52 goals from 25 games comfortably the highest in the league. They’re also very good defensively – holding the fourth-best goals against record. On average they score 2.1 and concede 0.9 goals per game.

But it’s the way they’ve been doing it that’s so striking. Walsall have the second lowest average possession in the entire league – only Bromley have less of the ball. Yet they have the highest shots on target per game. They are, in Ali Maxwell’s words, “Not free flowing, but fast flowing” in style. They play a very high defensive line and let the opposition have all the possession. But when they do win the ball, they usually make it count. The results up to now really do speak for themselves. George Elek summarised Walsall’s approach, “It feels like football that’s been solved at this level by Matt Sadler.”

In those first 10 minutes, we got a glimpse of what the fuss was all about. Walsall started really strongly, pinning City back. Jack Shepherd hastily conceded a corner inside 90 seconds, which led to a frantic scramble in the box. City cleared their lines then, but early doors they just couldn’t keep hold of the ball. Time and time again it came back quickly and left City under the cosh. As visiting shirts routinely piled forward, you could only gulp and fear imminent pain.

But it all changed very quickly. Bobby Pointon and Lewis Richards did Bobby Pointon and Lewis Richards things, linking up beautifully and ripping through Walsall’s right hand side. Richards crossed the ball and it eventually fell to Brad Halliday, who had one attempt saved and a rebound effort tipped onto the post. The fact both wing backs had been so forward-minded and influential in the attack said everything about City’s attacking ambition. They were here to play after all.

In that moment City had shown their teeth, and from there Walsall curiously cowered. They had just been Walsall-ed. Their own style of attack used against them. A couple of minutes later Pointon and Calum Kavanagh especially did brilliantly to work the ball to Antoni Sarcevic, who lashed it into the back of net. A stunning goal, if coming with a suspicion of offside.

And it really was lift off from there. City bossed the half. For all the supposed quick transition and high press strengths of Walsall, the Bantams have been executing their own version of such weapons with increasing effectiveness in recent weeks. On the day, they deployed them much better than Walsall – and that would prove the difference. 

Because with Alex Pattison’s relatively new role sitting alongside Richie Smallwood, City are developing a really solid off-the-ball shape. The gameplan is to set traps out of possession. Wait for the right opportunity to win the ball. And then get it up to the final third as quickly as possible. The Walsall playbook, with a West Yorkshire interpretation.  

So we saw fast transitions that resulted in long balls sent to Pointon, Kavanagh and Sarcevic to chase. Get them to hold it up there for as long as possible, so the rest of the team – and we do mean the rest of the team, even the defenders – can get forward to support. Set up base camp in the Walsall half and don’t let them out. Then even if a City player loses the ball, everyone is lying in wait to press and win it back. And when they do, they’re all in a position to start the next attack higher up the pitch. The only way out is for the opposition to launch it out of play or long for Sam Walker to mop up. Otherwise they’re trapped.

There was a moment in the first 45 that summed it up. Walsall had the ball just inside the City half with everyone but Kavanagh behind the ball. Pattison won it back, the space opened up and he ran and ran, getting to the edge of the area before he was finally crowded out. As Walsall cleared, there was Richards waiting to collect the loose ball midway inside the Walsall half, with Ciaran Kelly a nearby option. Another quick fire attack began, this time ending with Kavanagh shooting just wide from an angle.

You can find plenty of other examples of this defence-quickly-springing-into-attack. It was simply magnificent stuff. A real testament to the coaching ability of Graham Alexander. Every player knows their job and they work so well together – but Pattison is undoubtedly the difference maker. With Walsall’s counter-attack threat, there was an awful lot riding on him to be sensible, disciplined and not bomb forward too much and risk leaving Smallwood overcrowded on the transition. Pattison got this balance right. He is so intelligent and knows when to sit and when to go. It sounds silly to say, but after 18 injury-dominated months, we’re only finally getting to appreciate what a brilliant player he is.

The rewards for Pattison’s man of the match display came in the shape of two well-taken goals. He scored just before half time when Halliday won the ball up the park, and Pointon and Sarcevic set the City midfielder up to produce a low shot that Saddlers keeper Tommy Simkin probably should have done better with (in a team with such strong data readings, the on loan Stoke stopper is Walsall’s only notable weakness, as he has the third-worst save percentage in the division). Eight minutes after half time, Pattison made it 3-0 with what is becoming a trademark surging run and lovely low shot from an angle. And that – amazingly, given there was at least 37 minutes to play – felt like game over. 

Indeed, strong suspicions it wasn’t going to be the leaders’ day were confirmed when they won a penalty that substitute Danny Johnson could not convert, with Sam Walker saving his fairly tame effort. The City keeper would have expected a busy afternoon, but that was pretty much all he had to do all game. Maybe if Johnson could have converted, an edgy final 25 minutes would have ensued. But as City players high-fived Walker, the last semblance of belief drained out of the visitors. They were done.

A curious performance from Walsall for sure. They never recovered from going behind, and oddly looked like a team ill-equipped to chase the game. Jamille Matt went off injured before half time and striker partner Albert Adomah – the guy who used to habitually terrorise us in his youthful days at Barnet – was very quiet. Again, context is really important here. Walsall haven’t lost on their travels since Saturday 7 September. They’ve been sweeping aside all before them, but here they were meek. Second best in every department.

Perhaps they missed their prolific top scorer, Nathan Lowe, who was recently recalled by parent club Stoke. But City are of course missing their own prolific top scorer in Andy Cook. And here in his absence, they once again made the point that they were never a one-man team.

Indeed, the evolution to this 3-4-3 playing style and high press approach began when Cook was suspended for a game at Crewe in December and has continued in the aftermath of his devastating ACL injury. Cook’s long-term absence is a huge blow and there will be days he will definitely be missed. But right now, City are flourishing from playing in a way that was less suited to Cook’s considerable strengths. They are better in circumstances like this, because they have Kavanagh’s tireless running. We’ve talked about the Ewing Theory before, and right now it’s an idea that seems to have substance.

That is because of how well structured and accomplished this City side have become. Pattison takes the headlines here, but with a goal and two assists, Sarcevic is right behind him. It’s so great to see there is still room for Pointon, even when the bar is rising. And the homegrown hero is growing in stature with the team – we are so lucky that, unlike other recent promising City youngsters, he wasn’t snapped up by a higher league club at an early age, and instead we get to watch his talents blossom. Just behind Pointon, Smallwood is firmly back to his best, benefiting greatly from playing alongside Pattison.

The backline is also looking really good, keeping back to back clean sheets here for the first time all season. There were doubts about Aden Baldwin that are now beginning to fade. Shepherd lost his place over Christmas, has won it back and is thriving as the middle central defender. Kelly has come back really well from his injury and actually looks like a better player than before. The wing backs are so important to what City are trying to achieve, and are playing so well right now. It’s great to see Halliday back to his best after that weird first half of the season, and Richards is emerging as a player of huge talent – with a higher ceiling than League Two.  

The fact the team are playing so well means that the January reinforcements are so far unable to do more than look on from the sidelines, patiently hoping for a chance. And drifting completely out of the picture are the likes of Jamie Walker, Jay Benn and Neil Byrne. All of which underlines the genuine strength of this squad. Those in possession of the first team shirts have now produced an eighth win in 10 games, and a fifth home victory on the bounce. And finally, City have ended the day on the right side of the top seven dotted line.  

How far all this can take City, we still don’t know. In some ways, Tuesday’s visit of 24th-place Morecambe is a bigger test of faith to us supporters, as we harbour scars of so many wretched occasions losing to teams at the bottom. It would be typical Bradford City to lose that one. We’re very much hoping this isn’t a typical Bradford City side.

What’s indisputable for now is that this is proving to be City’s best run of form of the season. They are producing their most convincing performances yet. And what’s more, they’re only getting better. In fact, this is the strongest Bradford City have looked since their demotion back to League Two, six years ago. Sure, that isn’t a very high bar. But after year upon year of struggle to live up to some pretty basic expectations, this current bunch look well placed to deliver badly overdue success.

Which is the message the rest of League Two has just received.

Categories: Match Reviews

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