By Jason McKeown

This was supposed to be pressure. This was supposed to be nerve-wracking. But Bradford City shook off any quivers, any wobbles, and any fears their promotion charge was collapsing. They rediscovered their old swagger, then unlocked even greater levels of brilliance. And on a day where a club league record crowd was set, they found utopia.

Just an incredible day this. Wow, wow and wow. A pulsating, hedonistic, beautiful Bantams display, the like of which not seen in almost a decade. This was a statement showing that proves the good times really are back. A performance of a side who on this evidence are surely going up. It was played out in front of a spine-tingling, rousing Valley Parade atmosphere, as the crowd baked in the feel-good factor. And it all added up to a truly memorable day which will be looked back on with pride no matter what happens over these final eight games.

To shake off back-to-back defeats, plus a sizeable injury list, and deliver this type of showing says so much about their bravery and their character. They could have given in to self-pity and doubt. Fallen back on excuses seemingly there to be indulged in. And they couldn’t have asked for a harder game than to face a Colchester United side absolutely flying right now. But the resilience, courage and purpose here was so, so impressive. They absolutely blew away League Two’s form team, and in doing so put themselves right back towards the front of the peloton.

And as they did so, they fuelled a mood of glowing positivity that was embraced by the bustling crowd and returned in kind at the highest of decibels. A special bond between supporters and players has been bubbling up nicely in recent weeks. Here it blossomed into a fully blown, mutual love affair.

Every part of Valley Parade, save for a small pocket of Colchester United fans, roared on the home team, with the chanting emanating from Kop’s B Block attracting widespread participation. The players responded by showing intensity, crunching tackles and front-footed attacking play – all of which only served to crank up the volume even louder. Here was a perfect feedback loop of crowd inspiring players. Players inspiring crowd.

It led to new heights in what this team has produced. City did start slightly slowly, with 10 minutes of Colchester supremacy. But after that, it was complete Bantams dominance. Like fixing a malfunctioning computer, it was as though they had turned themselves off and on again, and in doing so rediscovered their functionality. The self-assurance missing of late was back, and with it was City’s Valley Parade invincibility.

Who can stop them when they play like this? Definitely not Colchester, who soon began to wilt. The opening gains they had enjoyed of Jack Payne spraying the ball around with menace and Owura Edwards exploiting space between Brad Halliday and Neill Byrne were soon nullified. Over a 21-minute period, City punched their opponents in different ways and from different angles. High press, clever link ups, shots on goal and an unrelenting fast tempo.

Colchester did well to survive as long as they did, really. Survive Byrne volleying just over from a corner, Brandon Khela shooting just past the post, George Lapslie lunging at a brilliant low cross and firing just wide, Tyreik Wright looking like he might have been tripped in the box by Matt Macey, and Macey himself beating away a powerful Tayo Adaramola effort.

But survive forever they could not. 31 minutes in, and Brad Halliday showed great tenacity to scamper after a loose Khela ball heading out of play and turn it into a low cross. The recalled Calum Kavanagh nipped in ahead of Fiacre Kelleher and finished brilliantly from an angle, and the roar of 23,000 jubilant Bradford City supporters was something to behold.

Colchester did, undeservedly, equalise only five minutes later. Great work from Edwards, who picked out Ellis landolo on the edge of the box. Great work from Payne, who reacted to landolo’s shot being blocked to win the loose ball, skip past a couple of challenges and get a shot away. The ball bounced haphazardly and eventually into the path of Harry Anderson, who couldn’t miss. Another test of City’s mental strength awaited. Could they shake off this unmerited set back?

The answer was hell yeah. Just before half time, City pressed and pressed, keeping an attack alive and keeping United pinned back. Eventually Adaramola skilfully found room to engineer a cross, and it was so flawlessly delivered that the onrushing Lapslie could not miss. Valley Parade once again erupted, and during the break a contented cloud of blissfulness swirled around the concourses and the long queues for the toilets and kiosks. It had been breathless, stirring stuff.

There is so much to say about the compelling, intelligent football this team are producing. Instead of looking at it from front to back, the robustness of the structure is best analysed by going from side to side.

Because on the left and on the right, there are trios working superbly together that are giving the team a coherent structure and a clear identity. The range of different cast members used to achieve this shows just how deeply the set up has become woven into the team’s DNA.

Here we had Romoney Crichlow as left centre back, Adaramola as left wing back, and Wright as left forward – all linking up to devastating effect. They operated in close proximity both going forwards and when defending. Over on the other side, it was the right centre back Byrne, the right wing back Halliday and the right forward Lapslie doing similarly joined up things.

It’s truly remarkable how in tandem these three-way partnerships look. The clarity shown in when and where to run. The deadliness of the triangles and quick one-twos. It all allowed City to swarm Colchester from different angles. Right jab, left jab, and then an uppercut through the middle for good measure.

That middle uppercut was supplied by another band of brothers operating in close proximity. Aden Baldwin looked slightly wasted as the middle centre back against Tranmere last week. But going this way again worked so much better, as Baldwin routinely picked up possession deep to decide whether City’s next attack would emerge from the right or the left. Ping went Baldwin’s pass and off the team went.

In front of him in the middle, Richie Smallwood and Khela have developed a terrific partnership that combines skill with grit. And then completing the spine through the middle was Kavanagh, working tirelessly, running himself into the ground. After the game Graham Alexander described Kavanagh as “a little hand grenade, dropping little bombs everywhere”. With this performance, Kavanagh has firmly wrestled the leading-the-line starter jersey from Michael Mellon and won’t be giving it back anytime soon.

Winning at half time on home soil is a familiar position for the Bantams. Before today, City had gone in at the interval leading in 13 of their 19 home league games. They had gone on to win all 13 of them. There certainly weren’t any guarantees that the 14th occasion leading at the Valley Parade break would end the same way. But the team made sure that would be the case by keeping their foot firmly on the pedal.

Indeed, what impressed so much after the break was the way they built on the individual battles they had won in the first half. Every player maintained their superiority and kept Colchester at arm’s length. There were some early second half scares when a decent penalty appeal was turned away and soon after Edwards latched onto a Byrne mistake and bore down on goal, but Sam Walker produced a stunning finger tip save to make sure the one-on-one effort went the wrong side of the post. For a bonus, the referee missed Walker’s touch and awarded a goal kick instead of a corner.

Those left-offs aside, City kept up the press, kept up the momentum. They had chances. Lots of chances. With 20 minutes to go, Khela produced a beautiful piece of skill and cut back for Kavanagh to clinically smash home for 3-1. And eight minutes after that, Lapslie was able to scramble home his second and City’s fourth. These second half goals came in front of a gleeful Kop. The scenes of celebration all around the stadium will be long cherished.

They could have had more, especially with the welcome return from injury of Alex Pattison and Bobby Pointon from the bench, plus the hardworking Jamie Walker, who set up Pattison for a shot that flew just wide. Colchester were hoisting the white flag, but no one in claret and amber was feeling merciful.

The sight of Pattison bursting at high speed into the box must have been torture to those tiring blue and white shirts, who had nothing left to do but long for the final whistle. “I don’t want to ever overestimate an opponent and give them more credence than us,” Alexander had declared pre-match, when asked if he was worried about Colchester’s blistering form. Well, it was a message his charges well and truly heeded.  

The hardest job of the afternoon fell on the matchday sponsors. With 20 or so minutes to go, someone behind the scenes would have asked for them to choose the player of the match. And the temptation to say “everyone” must have been so overwhelming. How do you survey your way through a collection of 9 and 10 out of 10 Bantam performances and single just one player out? Perhaps diplomatically, the sponsors went for the captain. However big the bottle of champagne Smallwood was awarded, there should have been a long queue of team-mates waiting for a deserved swig of it too.

Not that any player is going to be short of jubilant Bradfordians willing to buy them a drink just now. To a man, they were magnificent. Playing Wright – wearing a protective mask – as wide forward was inspired. The Masked Winger delivered his best performance for the Bantams since re-signing for the club 15 months ago. Lapslie and Kavanagh were outstanding alongside him, with the wing backs Adaramola and Halliday uncontainable. Smallwood and Khela bossed midfield, and the centre backs restricted the often dangerous Lyle Taylor to just 20 touches – no player who started the game saw less of the ball.

A special word for Byrne here. He initially had it tough going against Edwards but simply would not back down and ultimately won his individual battle. Byrne is not the most celebrated member of this Bradford City squad, but did an excellent job and was subbed late on with the Kop chanting his name.

The saddest part of the day? That it had to end. This really was an extraordinary afternoon of stirring football and stirring sounds. Alexander was beaming about the crowd afterwards. In truth, he hasn’t seen what a Valley Parade atmosphere can truly be like, until now. He came in during a difficult time for the club last year, where the mood in the stands was fraught. And this season’s misguided B block section move has up until this game succeeded only in providing Valley Parade a fragmented atmosphere. This was different. Another level. The cauldron of noise and positivity is something we should aspire for the old place to be like more often, especially over the three final home games.

Alexander touched on those darker times post match, pointing out it is exactly a year ago this weekend that City lost 3-0 to Harrogate, in the midst of their infamous March meltdown. Fair to say the situation has improved. Over the 45 league games since that dark afternoon at Wetherby Road, City have won 25 games and picked up 85 points – only Doncaster have won more points these last 12 months. Win four of their final eight matches, and City should be just about over the line in achieving automatic promotion.

They go into the run-in with renewed heart and vigour. Alexander described this result, performance, and energetic atmosphere as a “massive shot of adrenaline” and it’s a great way of looking at it. They were flagging it seemed, now they’re revitalised and flying once more. It edges us one more step towards the big prize of promotion, and leaves you hoping we are living through moments that we’ll be re-living for the rest of our lives.

Categories: Match Reviews

Tags: 2024/25, BCAFC, Colchester United, League Two