Written by Jason McKeown (images by John Dewhirst)

That was a struggle. That was imperfect. That was slightly lucky too. And that’s why this should probably go down as Bradford City’s most impressive win of the season so far.

Because in AFC Wimbledon, the Bantams found stubborn, organised and well-drilled adversaries who weren’t prepared to fall into the traps that so many of their early season opponents have stumbled into. The Dons had a plan. A plan to stop Bradford City. To nullify the home side’s strengths. To try to turn the buoyant Bradford public against their own. And it came so, so close to working.

That’s what it made so encouraging that City still found a way to win. Behind twice. The defence shaky. The midfield confined. The attack disjointed. Their backs were against the wall. And in such circumstances, even claiming a point would have felt a reasonable achievement.

But this Bradford City team – well, they never stop.

So it was that with seven minutes left on the clock, Ryan Johnson attempted to shepherd a slow-moving ball through to his goalkeeper Nathan Bishop to clear. The Wimbledon defender should have just booted the ball into row Z, because Nick Powell was breathing down his neck, making himself a nuisance. Bishop’s panicked clearance hit Powell’s shin, and the ball ricocheted into the path of Will Swan, who calmly fired it into the unguarded net. It would win City a game that for significant spells they were second best in. And all the great work from Wimbledon – who played really well – was to be in vain.

It was one of the few times the Dons put a foot wrong. If there’s a manual out there on how to stop this Bradford City side, their manager Johnnie Jackson had evidently studied it intently. Wimbledon made it the type of game City are less comfortable playing. The ball quickly booted forwards from the back, so the Bantams could not press. A 5-4-1 formation, which routinely saw every visiting player lining up behind the ball whenever City had possession. Muscle all over the park, ensuring Wimbledon would not be bullied as others have.  

Josh Neufville and Ibou Touray were successfully quarantined. Especially as Max Power and Tommy Leigh were denied forward space to run into through the middle of the park, where they would usually try to link up with the wing backs. Ahead of them George Lapslie and to a lesser extent Bobby Pointon were crowded out, leaving Stephen Humphrys operating remotely and feeding off scraps.

It wasn’t all about Wimbledon parking the bus though. When they won turnovers, the visitors sprung into life and counter attacked with menace. No starting player had fewer touches than lone striker Matty Stevens – but my goodness, didn’t he give Curtis Tilt and the returning Joe Wright a tough afternoon. Especially as Myles Hippolyte and Marcus Browne prowled behind Stevens, ready to compete and win second balls.

All of this wasn’t a surprise. Wimbledon stand proudly alongside City within League One’s top five for lowest average possession. They were never going to play open, passing football like Wycombe and Luton in City’s previous two home games. They know how effective City’s high press approach is, because they are having success using it themselves. And they know how to stop us. If this match was a meme, it would be the one where two Spidermans are pointing at each other in realisation they are the same person.

So we got a game that very much felt like a League Two affair. And just like for a lot of City’s six-year exile in the bottom tier, for a long time it proved very challenging for them to handle. The pattern was set early. One team launching it long. The other standing tall and returning it back. City were direct but struggled to find their usual base camp up the pitch from which they can start to knock it around and cause damage. They couldn’t pin Wimbledon back, because the ball didn’t stick up the park long enough.

An early Bobby Pointon run and shot at goal – his effort was well saved by Bishop – showed it was possible to get through the dark blue lines. But it proved hard to sustain any pressure.

Wimbledon found the ball equally difficult to keep inside City’s half, but in Stevens they were causing problems. And so when they scored 25 minutes in, it was hardly a shock.

A long pass was sent towards Stevens, who shoulder-charged Joe Wright to the ground. There was no foul awarded, allowing Stevens to nod the ball into the path of Browne, who was afforded too much space by Tilt. Browne struck a low effort that arrowed past Sam Walker and into the bottom corner. And given the often-seen playbook of Valley Parade visitors deploying defensive tactics, scoring early and grimly hanging on, you already feared the worst.

Indeed, Walker had to make another smart save not long after to deny Hippolyte. And though Pointon remained lively, not much else was going right the other way. Several corners were won that came to nowt. Chances were limited to a Humphrys shot that was tame and straight at the keeper. If only they could find a way to press.

Just after the half hour mark they finally got a chance to do just that – and from it unexpectedly equalised. The ball was cleared but picked up by Touray, who laid it back to Leigh to launch an up and under. Bishop raced out of his goal to try and claim it but collided with Tilt, and the loose bouncing ball was headed in by Wright to atone for his earlier error. Was it a foul? Very possibly. Was it poor goalkeeping? Most definitely.

The goal led to City’s best spell of the first half. They were never exactly on top, but began to apply more regular pressure and Humphrys produced a superb long-range effort that rattled the crossbar. You didn’t really want the whistle for the interval to come.

Still, half time all square – which was to be expected. At the start of this week, Not The Top 20 reported that AFC Wimbledon are unbeaten in their last 19 first halves of league matches – and have only trailed at the break 19 times in their last 101 encounters. For their own part, City haven’t been losing at home at half time in a league game since March 2024 – the 3-0 Notts County loss, during that infamous 10-day implosion – some 29 matches ago. Both teams do not like to be trailing when they are supping their half time drinks, so again made sure they weren’t.

The second half saw a similar overall pattern. Sporadic moments of promise from City, but more often Wimbledon looking a nuisance on the counter. They went back in front through Stevens with a volley from a difficult angle. The goal had followed a period of play where Wimbledon pressed, and every time City cleared their lines the ball came straight back. So this is what it feels like to be pecked by the chickens.  

Again behind, but again not for long. Perhaps Wimbledon’s failing on the day was getting a bit too carried away with their counter attack overloads. Because when City got a chance to counter attack a Dons counter attack, Power was for once afforded space and played a brilliant ball to Humphrys. The City number 11 displayed excellent footwork to beat his man and shoot from a tight angle. Bishop could only palm the ball to Pointon, who finished brilliantly.

Three home games. Three home games where Bobby has scored. Don’t you just love him?

Although on this day, maybe Graham Alexander wasn’t feeling that Pointon affection quite so much. As the attack for the goal was taking shape, the City boss was preparing to make a triple sub. Even with City drawing level, Alexander went through with these changes. And that prompted the unexpected sight of Pointon going off just seconds after scoring. Humphrys was withdrawn too, which also felt less than ideally timed given how well he’d done to make the goal. Hmmm.

The other player taken off – Lapslie – was certainly justified after an underwhelming performance. And so onto the field came Powell, Swan and Antoni Sarcevic. It would be wrong to say the changes lost City some of the initiative – they never held it in the first place to give it up – but for the next 20 minutes, it did feel as though the triple substitution had only succeeded in weakening them. A tiny bit like the Banks off-Platt-on change during Carlisle play off game in 2023, a glimmer of momentum had been passed up.

Certainly Wimbledon will be ruing their failure to regain the upper hand during this period. From another successful counter attack, Browne was played in and just had Walker to beat. He screwed his shot badly wide. Moments later Wimbledon executed another press and the ball pinged around the box. It fell to Alistair Smith, who couldn’t really miss. He did.

Those let-offs allowed City to eventually regroup and assert themselves, which was cue for the late Wimbledon defensive mess up that allowed Swan to score the winner. It sparked scenes of joyous celebration on the pitch and in the stands. And as is largely the Bradford City way under Alexander, they saw out victory with relative comfort.

3-2 Bradford City. Not a scoreline that seemed likely given the recent goal-sporadic meetings between these two sides. Not a scoreline in keeping with the respective form of each team over the past 12 months either. It’s the first time City have conceded more than one goal at home since a 2-1 loss to Doncaster on 26 October 2024 – 20 Valley Parade games ago. The 26 October 2024 is also the last time, before this game, that Wimbledon have shipped in more than two goals in a game. Fair to say the goals conceded by both teams here were out of recent character.

But character is absolutely what City do possess. They have deep buckets full of the stuff. And they proved it emphatically here. Few of the players will look back on their individual performance with great pride (though credit to Leigh and Aden Baldwin, who made slow starts and improved as the game went on, plus Pointon who did well going forwards if not defensively). But no matter.

To come through adversity like this would suggest this might prove to be a game that really sets them up for the battles ahead. Because the reality is that it’s only a matter of time before League One opponents stop turning up to Valley Parade with a set-up that leaves them vulnerable to City’s high press, physical, direct and low possession approach.

That Wimbledon – a team who were widely tipped for relegation – gave City a much tougher game than the highly fancied Wycombe and Luton says a lot. Like Jackson, opposition managers will increasingly get wise to the need to cut the supply to City’s wing backs, to flood the midfield, to not play it out from the back, and to not commit too many players forward.

Our start to League One demands respect from everyone else. And we’re going to start getting it.

With that in mind, City here proved to themselves that they can still prosper and win when opposition sides deploy spoiling tactics, a similar level of physicality, and target their weaknesses. This will be an important experience to fall back on the next time they’re in this type of situation – which as the season goes on is likely to prove more common.

That’s all for another day. For now, City can revel in standing third in the fledgling League One table. Still yet to be defeated. And one midweek EFL Trophy game away from setting a club record longest unbeaten start to the season.

It truly has been an Awesome August – and now we move into a Sizzling-looking September. Huge games coming thick and fast, from a first league derby with Huddersfield Town for 18 years to a trip to the mighty Newcastle United.

These truly are special times to be a Bradford City fan, and you just don’t want them to end. We came close to the music stopping here. The fact it didn’t leaves you feeling even more confident about this team’s resilience. And even more excited about their potential to make this a very special season.

Categories: Match Reviews

Tags: 2025/26, AFC Wimbledon, BCAFC, League One