By Jason McKeown

Turns out you can’t win ‘em all. Bradford City’s home invincibility reaches its end and that left the players in the unusual position of not being able to toast victory on the pitch at full time. But with faces looking slightly crestfallen as they walked around applauding the fans, the players were greeted by an overwhelming show of appreciation. And they deserved every clap, every cheer, and every smile that came their way.

Turns out you can’t win ‘em all. But if you’re not going to win, this is pretty much everything else you could hope for. The players were outstanding. So committed. So purposeful. So entertaining to watch. They merited the win – certainly by any statistical metric. And there wasn’t a lot to find fault with for why they couldn’t quite make it eight home victories from eight this season.

So it’s not a win but it’s as good of a draw as you’ll witness. And that’s why it was surely impossible to exit Valley Parade without those positive seasonal vibes still intact. You couldn’t reasonably ask for more, and any sense of disappointment was channelled in empathy towards the players. Of feeling sad for them, that they didn’t get what they deserved.

When a guy scores a goal from inside his own half, heck – maybe it’s not quite going to be your day. When you register an expected goals (xG) of 3.3 to 0.36 and don’t win, you’ve probably not got your just desserts. When you’ve just racked up your most shots on goal in a game this season (25), you probably don’t need to spend the next week questioning your methods.

The positives certainly outweigh any negatives. This was such an enthralling, pulsating game of football between two really good sides. Barnsley absolutely played their part, demonstrating their quality and resilience. Winless in five going into this, the visitors spent large spells of this game under siege from an opposition side brimming with confidence, backed by a fierce partisan crowd. Much more fancied League One teams have already buckled in this BD8 pressure cooker. Barnsley fell behind twice, threatened to be blown away, but found enough inner steel to recover and go home with a share of the points. Maybe they’ll even think they could have won it.

We’ve already established City definitely feel this way. They had emerged from an early-season break looking right back at it against Everton kids midweek, and they absolutely carried that on here in the first half especially. The Bantams flew out of the traps, pinning Barnsley back and maintaining the standards that have characterised their season. No Bobby Pointon, a first start of the season for injury victim Calum Kavanagh, a first league start since August for Stephen Humphrys, and a return for the sidelined Joe Wright – yet same old City.

Kick off, attack, corner won. Here we go. Barnsley knocked around the ball, and City quickly showed them that they were not prepared to give them the luxury of time to do such things unchallenged. They’re at it. It took only nine minutes to make the breakthrough with typical pressing persistence. Two balls into the box were cleared, but each time a claret and amber shirt was there first to launch another forward move. Josh Neufville fed Neill Byrne, who crossed it. Alex Pattison half-won a header at the far post and his eyes lit up as the ball bounced loose. He sent over a low cross, Kavanagh had his effort saved and Antoni Sarcevic smacked home the rebound.

It was a goal that was testament to never giving up. To never letting Barnsley off the hook. This is what we do.

Sarcevic’s goal also set the tone for an afternoon where City could wait for Barnsley to probe and make mistakes that they could quickly latch onto. Kavanagh revelled in Pointon’s wide left role, evidently trying to make up for lost time by reminding his public of his quality. He linked up superbly with Ibou Touray, who had returned to left wing back and was unstoppable. Humphrys was a menace and almost made it 2-0. Pattison was back to his high energy best, proving to be a constant pest. And is there a blade of grass on the Valley Parade pitch that Max Power didn’t cover? What a performance from the inspirational skipper.

It was all going so well, but then it turned in the most astonishing of ways. Pattison was charging forward and got knocked off the ball. As he lay on the ground injured, Reyes Cleary received the ball just outside the centre circle in his own half. He saw Sam Walker off his line and all but Tom McIntyre up the park for City. Cleary had the audacity to shoot, and his lob flew over a scrambling Walker and dropped perfectly into the back of the net.

Wow. Just wow. One of the most astonishing goals any of us have ever seen at this ground. The best goal since…I’m going for Paul Scholes’ famous volley from a corner for Manchester United during our Premier League days, 25 years ago. Feel free to disagree. What can’t be disputed is Cleary’s finish was utterly incredible.

The goal stunned everyone, and City’s daze was added to by Pattison not recovering from the tackle. After a lengthy break for treatment, he had to go off injured. And yet again, this gifted footballer is beset by outrageous bad fortune. Is there a City player this millennium who has been more unlucky with injuries than Pattison? For the second time this season, he gets a start in a big Yorkshire derby and doesn’t make it past the half hour mark.

Jensen Metcalfe replaced Pattison and would go onto have a really good game. But the double whammy of conceding and losing a player to injury temporarily knocked City off their stride. There was a slightly awkward spell where the crowd went a bit quiet and grumbles could be heard, but here City once more displayed their amazing levels of character.

Because in such situations, so many Bantam sides of the past would have retreated into their shells and cowered in fear of the crowd turning on them. But these guys are built differently. They slowed it down a bit, focused on getting the basics right, and then suddenly flew through the gears again.

The 10 minutes before the half time whistle sounded were extraordinary. With 10 attempts on goal during this spell, they forced Tykes keeper Murphy Cooper into making some brilliant saves, hit the woodwork and had efforts cleared off the line. There were some mad scrambles, so many corners, free kicks and long throws. Barnsley were utterly pinned back, praying for the half time whistle.

They nearly got away with it, but then on 45+3 Power sent a low free kick into the box, and Humphrys produced a delightful flick to steer the ball into the back of the net. The former Barnsley man showed no sentimentality. He charged towards the North West corner, grabbing his Bradford City badge with glee. He later sat on the floor to seemingly give a prayer of thanks, before fist-pumping the Main Stand.

It hasn’t been the easiest of starts to life at Valley Parade for Humphrys, but with three goals in two games this feels like the week where he’s really started to make his mark. Where something has clicked. (On BfB last month Michael Wood brilliantly wrote Humphrys was pregnant with goals, so I guess this week he can write that the City striker has given birth to triplets.)

How deserved that goal was for City. Was that their best first half display of the season? Mmm, tough one – the bar is incredibly high on that front. Maybe you say Huddersfield and Cardiff were better, but it did feel that there were times during this 45-minute display where they touched new heights. Where their dominance and rhythm was the best we’ve seen all season. Maybe that’s just me…All I’m saying is, the hardest part of the interval was getting your breath back after what we’d just witnessed.

Fair to say the second half didn’t touch those same levels. Barnsley boss Conor Hourihane made a double change at the break and looked better for bringing on Maël de Gevigney to deal with Touray compared to the broken Tennai Watson. For introducing Patrick Kelly to challenge the dominance of Power and Metcalfe compared to the dazed Caylan Vickers.

The game became more even, though former Bantam Jack Shepherd – who played really well on his Valley Parade return – had to clear a Kavanagh lob off the line after Humphrys was denied by Cooper. Then City’s front three began to tire, which gave Barnsley greater freedom to make their possession count by the Bantams gifting them more space from which to work the ball into dangerous areas.

Barnsley’s equaliser – the result of some excellent passing play that overworked an exposed City defence, culminating in the two subs combining and Kelly tapping home de Gevigney’s cross – was undeserved overall, and yet had been coming.

A minute later Barnsley created another overload and Adam Phillips hit a powerful effort that hit the upright. And suddenly it seemed City were hanging on. Cue an ‘injury’ to Sam Walker, which just like at Newcastle allowed Graham Alexander to call everyone over for a pow-wow and instructions to calm down. Birthday boy Andy Cook and Will Swan replaced the knackered Kavanagh and Humphrys, and though neither made a game-changing impression their greater energy levels at least allowed City to press and win the ball higher up the park again.

So just like the first half, City managed a tricky spell really well and emerged stronger for it. In those final 10 minutes, the Bantams looked the more likely to win it. The dominance was not on the level it had been just before half time, but when deep in stoppage time Neufville was played in space in the box and had the chance to pull the trigger, Barnsley were hugely grateful to a last-ditch block preserving their parity status.

From minute 80, City had seven shots on goal to Barnsley’s zero, while forcing four corners to the Tykes one. Huff, puff and some decent chances for Cook, but there was no prize of a late winner that would have sent Valley Parade into raptures.

This draw combined with results drops City down to third. The top six is bloomin’ tight, though, with just two points separating new leaders Cardiff and sixth-placed Lincoln. City’s next two opponents are second place Stevenage and the Imps. High stakes, but exciting occasions.

What matters is that City are amongst that leading pack and looking every inch deserving of that status. They did not win here but they once again demonstrated their quality and potential. Defensively they were great with McIntyre and Joe Wright having excellent games. They missed chances, but will be so encouraged by how many they created. And if they can keep playing to this standard, well…we dare not jinx them by suggesting what that will mean. But reader, you know what I’m thinking – because you’re thinking it too.

Ultimately, they are doing us supporters so proud. This is a squad to completely fall in love with. Every member of it is on the same page, setting and maintaining amazing levels of consistency. Even when big players are out injured, there are talented replacements who routinely step up in their place.  

The big unanswerable question is how far they can take the club. It promises to be a whole lot of fun finding out. Because whilst it turns out they can’t win ‘em all, they’re giving it a right good go.    

Categories: Match Reviews

Tags: 2025/26, Barnsley, BCAFC, League One