| AFC Wimbledon 1 |
| Tilley 13 |
| Bradford City 0 |
By Adam Raj
Today’s fixture certainly brought the excitement back. Two promotion contenders going at it in front of a packed house in the capital with a sold out Bantams travelling support. It had the makings of an appetising game at the Cherry Red Records Stadium but City’s history at this ground would suggest otherwise. In what is their only third visit, the results have been a 0-0 and now two 1-0 victories for both sides. There’s not often goals when these two meet.
Graham Alexander once again chose to shuffle the pack with two changes from midweek. Alex Pattison was back after being rested against Morecambe and there was a first league start for Callum Johnson at right wing-back.
It meant breathers for Brad Halliday and Bobby Pointon, the latter of which didn’t even make the bench. It was an understandable decision to rest the youngster but, in hindsight, he proved to be a big miss.
It was a scrappy, yet even opening to the game. Wimbledon set out their stalls as a long ball team early doors and never faulted from it. Omar Bugiel proved a very awkward opponent for all three of City’s central defenders and his presence and physicality allowed them to get up the pitch quickly on transition, in a game where the ball was being turned over constantly. City, disappointingly chose to play them at their own game, which didn’t work.
Long balls to Callum Kavanagh’s head don’t work and never have. It needed a cuter approach which was often available to City players in possession but they were far too rushed and panicked with the ball at their feet leading to an inability to retain the ball for any substantial period of time.
Which is where Pointon’s omission was felt. The City midfielder is the only one whose first thought is to get the ball down and play, no matter what he may be instructed to do.
It just so happened to coincide with Pattison’s worst game in a while. The in form midfielder was sloppy in possession and his decision making was nowhere near the level it usually is. The midfield unit has taken plenty of plaudits in recent games as the reason for our upturn in form, but with two thirds of that unit absent or not being quite at the races, it made it very difficult for City to get any sort of foothold in the game.
Former Bantam Jake Reeves had a good game for the hosts. Whilst they were a very direct side, he was the player that made sure he got his foot on the ball and made them play in the final third. We didn’t have that player.
And it was Reeves cross which led to the games opener. Three City players got attracted to the ball on the left flank, leaving Reeves free just outside the area. His deep cross found James Tilly at the back post for a simple header back across goal to give his side the lead.
Defensively, a poor goal to concede. Questions will be asked about how Reeves was afforded so much time to cross the ball and how Tilley was left unmarked for a tap in.
The first goal was always going to be crucial. Wimbledon with the best defensive record in the league couldn’t really be afforded a lead to cling onto. They’re very clearly experts at it.
And credit to them, they shut down City very well with the visitors only managing to create a single big chance. That came midway through the first half when Antoni Sarcevic’s crossfield ball was cushioned into the path of Pattison by Tommy Leigh. The City number 16 saw his effort saved well by Owen Goodman and the follow-up seemed to hit Pattison and be cleared off the line, albeit it was hard to see from the away end.
City got themselves into some half decent areas as the game wore on but struggled to make the right decision or have that bit of quality in and around the box.
The game petered out slightly, with both sides having some half chances but nothing noteworthy and nothing to trouble either keeper. A draw would’ve probably been a fair reflection of what was an expectedly tight game.
A certain positive was Michael Mellon getting his first minutes as a Bradford City player and he looked handy – certainly giving Wimbledon’s Joe Lewis a harder time than Kavanagh did.
No matter what anyone may say, Andy Cook is missed. Not only for his goals, but for his physicality and nuisance factor which is a necessity with this style of football.
Kavanagh has not had a great season, albeit looked better recently and Mellon is still an unknown. We need a striker. We needed a striker when Cook got injured, we needed a striker when we beat Walsall and we need a striker now. I sincerely hope Alexander’s previous comments of not thinking we needed a striker were not serious.
We’ve got a serious opportunity of success and it would be negligent to gamble on our current striking options being adequate simply because we’ve won 3/4 games since Cook got injured.
Irrespective of that issue, the key to whether or not we achieve success this season will be how we respond to this result. We’ve been a notoriously streaky side under Alexander. We’ve seen us win a few then lose and continue losing. That cannot happen this time otherwise we can kiss any promotion hopes goodbye. However, a positive result against Harrogate next weekend will hopefully kick off another winning run, with what appears to be a very favourable set of upcoming fixtures.
Two concerns were also losing Lewis Richards and Ciaran Kelly through injury. Richards looks to be a reoccurrence of his shoulder issue, and it appeared to be a hamstring issue for Kelly. Richards has made the left wing back spot his own with several good performances but in fairness to Tyreik Wright, he played well and needs to use this opportunity to stake his claim just as Richards did.
Long term diagnostics for those two could mean a busier final few days of the window than anticipated.
Categories: Match Reviews
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widthofapost.com 
We’ll never know if Pointon would have made a difference, but I disagree that he would have been able to play his front footed game, against that mean spirited Wimbledon side (and that’s a compliment).
Bobby’s weakness, is that he tends to be easily knocked off the ball and it’s significant that he has his best games against teams that allow us to play footie or as a sub.
This isn’t having a go at our local hero. Quite simply when he gets a bit more streetwise in holding onto the ball – there is no reason why he won’t have a career that takes him to at least The Championship.
Onto the game, I always feared a 1-0 defeat. The worst thing you can do against Wimbledon is concede early at their place.
However, good efforts were made to get back in to the match to such a degree it’s arguably one of our better away performances (not saying much) but Wimbledon’s attritional style is what we’ll face in our next two away matches at Newport and Bromley and we have to get more than three away wins in our remaining matches.
But it’s good to be firmly in the race, with two winnable home matches to come. We simply have to win them.
I believe Walsall are catchable. Problem is Doncaster and Notts County, who significantly are the two teams that looked better than us, might not be.
I srongly disagree that GA reasoning for dropping Pointon for this match. Last week he dropped Pattinson against Morecambe and although we won, it was made difficult. Pointon plays well and he is always causing defenders problems and that was missing today. Pointon is full of energy and I would expect him to play 2 full games a week. I would understand if we sat at the top with a 20 point lead. We are fighting for a top 3 finish. Today we could have drawn and been above Wimbledon. Only time will tell. Whether the decisions GA makes going forward will cause us to miss out again on promotion.
This game perfectly illustrated the fine margins between success and failure. One poor bit of defending cost us the game and on another day we would have scored from at least one of the 3 good opportunities we created in the first half. Our key players in midfield were just off their best and the absence of Bobby Pointon may well have been a factor in our slight under performance. However though this loss is significant, we can quickly put it behind us in the next few winnable games. The injuries to Richard’s and Kelly are a concern as both have contributed to our improved form. Doubts also remain over the Centre forward position. Kavanagh struggled today and it is too early to know what impact Leigh and Mellon will have in this role. The top 3 is still up for grabs but we cannot afford many more slightly under par performances like today.
I agree Steve, we are atm chasing a top 3 place and inmo I would be playing our best 11 as a priority and until its not possible. After sight is a wonderful thing but we had to ask what would be the outcome if Bobby had have played.
On another not, I always thought Jake Reeves was easily pushed off the ball, and indeed he dropped into no league football for a while. It was evident that he had bulked up and was far stronger than yesteryear.
A good summing up of the game. Wimbledon were very direct and physical.
I thought Tommy Leigh was really good – string in the air, mobile and intelligent. He could prove to be an excellent addition. Mellon also looked lively and though a bit lightweight he looked more “ streetwise” than Kavanagh. We had really good chances to win the game but the most concerning aspect is the injurieszpicked up. Baldwin was also limping badly at the end.
February started badly after a very good January. We lost a six pointer: two players crucial to the recent revival were injured: the goal we conceded was a Sunday League shocker. I commented last week that I was no fan of playing without a conventional target man and certainly not against a team with an indomitable stopper like Joe Lewis marshalling the meanest defence in the division. This was the first match we really missed Cook and I never felt confident we would score. Kavanagh can’t be expected to win the ball in the air but he found it hard to control it even on the ground. I thought Mellon would have come on at half-time. When he did he showed good movement – preferable to running madly around closing down defenders- but is not a direct replacement for Cook. Alexander does keep his cards close to his chest but I always get the impression he would rather our unwanted players came to him to ask for a move than he approach them to make it clear they were not in his plans. We really need an upgrade on Oliver to be available to put himself about in games like this. The prospect of playing Wright at left wingback for the foreseeable future does not fill me with confidence.
Is GA falling into the trap of trying to please everyone? Was there need to rest Pointon? Surely we can rest him this week. His hold up play & ball carrying was a massive miss.
Leigh has great vision & needs a striker on the same page to link up, hope he starts with Mellon on Tuesday we need to get a front two partnership going quickly.
Neither will be playing on Tuesday. Both are cup tied at their previous clubs.
18 games left to go, lots of twists and turns yet to come. Trust the process as my manager keeps saying…
Bobby took a knock on his ankle against Morecambe and was walking gingerly for a long period. It was definitely the best idea to rest him in what proved to be a difficult and physical match.
I thought there wasn’t much between both teams. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve seen a side knock us out of our stride a little. Maybe with Pointon out, that was part of it, but we need to deal better with losing one or two players. If Sarce or Pattison ends up injured, we need to be able to adapt and kick on.