| Huddersfield Town 1 |
| Harness 23 |
| Bradford City 0 |
By Jason McKeown
The huge reserves of credit Bradford City have banked over the past 18 months will be needed right now. This was a derby horror show. A feeble performance that offered only the tiniest crumbs of comfort. This is the last fixture you can afford not to turn up for. And so, for the first real time all season, it’s fair to say Bradford City let their supporters down.
That’s where the bucketloads of goodwill they’ve built up should act as a buffer against the sky falling in. It’s been a season of above-expectation achievements, following a terrific promotion campaign the year before. For so long they’ve been doing us proud. Against that backdrop, a bad performance – even in the derby – deserves quick forgiveness. And indeed, it must.
That doesn’t shield them from a whole heap of deserved criticism. They were dreadful here for long periods. And even with the helping hand of Huddersfield Town’s Marcus McGuane stupidly getting himself sent off, with a third of the contest left to play, they couldn’t rescue themselves from a timid defeat. They trooped off at full time having registered an overall xG of 0.16, which is utterly pathetic.
There can’t really be any complaints. Maybe there’s an argument McGuane should have been red-carded much, much sooner. Just five minutes in, the Town midfielder aggressively pushed over Aden Baldwin and earned a yellow card when other referees may have inflicted stricter punishment. Even then, McGuane had been provoked by Baldwin pushing him first. It was far from a game-shaping moment. It certainly didn’t explain why City were so lacklustre.
And they really were. Right from the start, Huddersfield looked up for it and City seemed apprehensive. There was, of course, the new-manager effect, with Liam Manning taking charge of his first Town game. A fresh start. A new guy for the players to impress. McGuane himself was perhaps the best illustration of that clean slate. The injury-afflicted midfielder came in from the cold after making just one substitute appearance in the league all season, back in August. McGuane was at Bristol City last season under Manning, and the pair also worked together at Oxford. It’s fair to say Manning knew exactly what he could do.
McGuane lined up in the middle of a 3-4-1-2 formation that saw Huddersfield completely overrun City’s midfield. Marcus Harness played as a number 10, ably linking midfield with attack. Town passed with pace and purpose, hunting for chinks in a surprisingly frail Bantams’ armour. Their complete dominance in the opening 25 minutes proved telling – just as Cardiff’s powerful start to last weekend’s victory over City was ultimately decisive.
City clearly need to re-learn to start games better. Town raced out of the traps and Alfie May had a couple of early sighters at goal. His second chance, a one-on-one well saved by Sam Walker, should have led to a Town goal, when Layden Gooch somehow put the rebound wide. The pattern was set. In the opening 10 minutes, Town enjoyed 70% possession. Bobby Pointon had to wait until the 13th minute just to get a touch of the ball.
The chances kept coming. Ryan Ledson shot wide from the edge of the box. Harness blasted over from distance after Joe Wright struggled to deal with a high-bouncing ball and the attentions of Bojan Radulovic. Then came the goal. A Town throw-in was taken quickly, May ran clear of Max Power and delivered a cross. It was met by Radulovic, whose header was brilliantly saved by Walker – but Harness was there to smash home the rebound. No one could dispute it was deserved.
Harness’ goal, 23 minutes in, was already Town’s ninth attempt at goal. At that stage City hadn’t registered a single effort, or even had a touch in the opposition box. They were passive. Insipid. Antoni Sarcevic was absent through injury, and they missed not just his guile but his lucky-charm status. City have won just one league game all season that Sarcevic didn’t start – Wimbledon in August, when he came on as a substitute. Last season, the Bantams lost just two league games when he started. He is so important, and he was certainly missed here.
Going 1-0 up at least satisfied Huddersfield’s early hunger and their pressure eased slightly, with City attempting to plug the leaks by pushing Power deeper to sit on Harness. But it would be stretching things to suggest City improved. Town still looked the more likely side to score again. The Bantams’ first-half pass-completion rate of 56% spoke volumes – almost one in every two attempts to find a team-mate ended with them giving the ball away.
It took City 35 minutes to produce anything resembling an attacking move. And even then, it amounted to a couple of crosses that were meat and drink to deal with. Humphrys looked isolated, with Joe White and Pointon struggling to make any impact. Finally, in the 43rd minute, City managed a first shot on goal. It came from White, and it was utterly tame (it registered 0.01 on the xG measure).
Graham Alexander reacted with a triple switch at half-time. Off went the anonymous right-hand side of Josh Neufville and White, plus the equally uninvolved Pointon. On came Harrison Ashby, Louis Sibley and Calum Kavanagh. Sibley lined up as a number 10, with Kavanagh deployed alongside Humphrys to mirror Town’s 3-4-1-2.
But when, early in the second half, Harness latched onto a mistake from Curtis Tilt to set up May – whose shot was blocked – it was clear the balance of the game wasn’t really changing. Soon after, Joe Low headed wide from a corner, completely unmarked. Defensively, City were miles below their usual standards. Joe Wright and Tilt were especially off the pace.
Just after the hour, McGuane ran past Sibley and saw a decent effort saved by Walker. At that point, the shot count read 13-1 in Town’s favour, with the home side enjoying 62% possession. City were on the ropes. Town looked on the brink of putting them out of their misery.
Then, weirdly, they did the opposite. Moments after nearly making it 2-0, McGuane was leaving the pitch early after collecting a second yellow card. Jenson Metcalfe – the only City outfield player to emerge with any credit – was too quick for 26-year-old, who produced a poor challenge that could easily have been a straight red. Manning’s faith in McGuane was not exactly repaid.
And suddenly, having had all the authority, Town opened the door slightly.
Over the remainder of the game, City enjoyed 80% possession and finally began to muster a few efforts. Humphrys had a shot blocked. Sibley fired wide from distance. Metcalfe engineered space for the type of effort from which he’s scored twice in recent weeks, but this time Lee Nicholls gathered comfortably. A low cross from Humphrys couldn’t find a taker. City finally won their first corner in the 95th minute, from which Tilt headed straight at Nicholls.
It would be a stretch to say City dominated the closing stages. Fanciful to argue an equaliser ever truly felt imminent. In many ways it echoed the second half at Cardiff last week, where territorial advantage failed to translate into clear-cut chances.
Still, they kept going to the end, trying to right their wrongs. Tyreik Wright and Tommy Leigh were introduced. Town – without a league win since 29 December – were made to sweat. They might even have been reduced to nine men, with Bali Mumba’s elbow on Ashby arguably deserving more than the yellow card the January signing received. But in the end, Huddersfield triumphed, and there was no disputing they deserved it.
It was a very bad day. Not a performance to inspire confidence in the durability of City’s automatic promotion hopes. Stockport’s draw with Cardiff puts them level on points with the Bantams, while Bolton’s late win over Leyton Orient edges them ahead of City and into third on goal difference. City trail second-place Lincoln by five points and go to Sincil Bank on Tuesday for a game they can ill-afford to lose. The good news, at least, is they still hold a seven-point cushion inside the play offs.
But there are reasons to worry. This was City’s fourth defeat in seven games. For context, they lost only two of their first 19 league matches. After an extraordinary start that saw City win 11 of their first 16 games in all competitions, they now have a far more ordinary six victories from their last 18.
Are they on the slide? It’s a fair debating point. Certainly what is clear is they are no longer hitting the heights of August and September, and it’s been a long time since you could say they’ve genuinely played really well. A levelling off, then. A reversion to the mean. The question is whether they can find a second wind and return to their rampaging best. The upcoming fixture list is largely brutal. They need to get a lot better, very quickly.
Which brings us back to this performance. The team were found badly wanting. The midfield once again failed to cope with an opposition deliberately out-numbering them. The wing-backs were isolated. The forward line couldn’t press. On the rare occasions City got in behind Huddersfield, crosses were hopefully flung into the box with too few bodies arriving to attack them. Will Swan was also missing through injury. Without him, the need to sign another striker before the transfer window closes on Monday 3 February feels increasingly obvious.
They can – and must – do better than this. Losing to Huddersfield, with all their greater financial muscle, is far from a disgrace. But the manner of the defeat was unacceptable. So yes, they lose a chunk of the credit they’ve stockpiled. They must accept the arrows coming their way. Take their medicine. And then, together, move on quickly.
Because the bigger picture is still big. This group of players have proven they are among the best in the division. They don’t deserve to have us turn on them. They are absolutely fit to wear the shirt. Everyone connected with Bradford City – players, coaches, supporters – will spend the rest of the weekend sulking and fuming. But then we must dust ourselves off and go again on Tuesday.
With 20 games to go, there is simply too much at stake to lose our heads.
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widthofapost.com 
A very fair appraisal. IMO, we are tactically inflexible. Surely when playing top of the league, Cardiff, or Huddersfield in a derby we might think of quietening things down in the first half and not going one or two down. Today we could have gone into the break three down. Surely the management has to realise that what worked in the first couple of months hasn’t worked since mid-November. We need to be more savvy and be prepared at times to play pragmatic football, which means keeping some possession and not wafting the ball down the middle to a non-existent target man. We’ve nobody up top who can head a ball. I think that was the most lacklustre derby performance I’ve seen in 65 years. We always used to raise our game in derbies, show maximum effort and passion. Not for one moment did we look like scoring – from the moment the team-sheet was announced. Some of our players are not only not up to it but don’t look that fussed. Where, btw, are our great triers? Cook (the best header of a ball at City in my time),Halliday, Pattison? All 3 hastened out of the door for no benefit in terms of passion, endeavour, morale – or skill, based on this. The post match narrative put about last week was we were honourable losers, plucky and a tad unlucky, against a great team. So what is it now, bearing in mind Huddersfield did not look that great even though overwhelming us. Go ahead, zealots, and give this the downward digit.
I’m sorry but this transfer window has taken us 2 steps backwards!!
Been saying it for weeks despite you deleting my posts on here that were only going 1 way – said before we’ll be out of the PO’s by the end of Feb and we’re on course for that.
Certainly won’t get anything out of Lincoln on Tuesday based on last 2 performances.
Not beaten anyone in top half of table since winning away at Cardiff says it all!!
Hi. No one has been deleting your posts. They’ve never appeared. Not even in our spam folders. Not sure if there is an issue at your end?
Nope they’ve definitely appeared in the past for an hour or so then mysteriously disappeared!
I’ve absolutely no record of them on the site. All deleted comments are stored and no record there. I would never delete comments about matters on the field and nothing you say you’ve said sounds like it should have been taken down. Not sure what’s happened but genuinely no record of deleted comments from you anywhere
Er, we’ve beaten Reading / Exeter who’ve swapped top half places.
And we’ve only played four others.
Basically we’ve played 6 of the top 13, winning two, losing three.
And I’m not certain how this window has taken us backwards, when all we’ve done is get rid of players not good enough and replaced them with at least two better ones (Sibley and Ashby)
They weren’t at the time we beat them…
any jury massively out on Sibley and Ashby.
Sibley on a par with Lasplie (even looks like his twin) and not seen enough on Ashby but on 1st impressions Haliday wins for me!
In that case only played the five teams, winning one, losing two.
It’s not that disastrous!!
We are told that we cannot bring in our transfer targets until the selling club bring in their targets, yet we show the likes of Cook out of the door without bringing a replacement in. So far all we’ve been fed is a Man. Utd kid who’s injured! Deary me.
Letting Cook go before having a replacement of his type might seem poor, but don’t forget that Grimsby might have wanted him then or not at all – plus we have to watch incomings vs squad numbers.
And Andy was not good enough to be vital for a promotion chasing L1 team – but nice to see him scoring today.
he would have been a damn better plan b on days like today (and mansfield) for sure!!
Cooks 3 year contract. year 1 – came back from preseason overweight. Took nearly all season to get fit. Not a good season for the team.year 2 – looked lean and fit. Got injured halfway through the season. After which we played better and got promoted.
year 3 – still injured for the start and when fit not considered good enough by the manager. So far a decent season without him.
But that is not my point. My point is that we are letting players go (no matter who) without having replacements through the door first!
we may well have had to move players out before we could bring new ones in. In which case it would make sense to move one who isn’t going to feature.
It may only be one poor performance But…. No pressing, no passing, no possession, no pride, no power, no plan, no pace, no pattern, no progress, no passion, no pleasure so please….no more PINK !
PS Being Positive, Promotion push still possible .
What’s City’s record playing in pink? I seem to remember a couple of other lacklustre performances… It might sound daft, but years ago I read that teams playing in red win more often. Don’t blame the players, blame the pretty pink!
I think most fans have put this defeat in perspective, but those linking this to the three ‘legend’ departures need to try and put aside their love of those players.
Pattinson got hauled off at half time against Exeter.
Cook did not improve us when he came on against Burton or anyone else. Fair play he made a contribution against Rotherham – but they are a very poor side (and we were almost as poor at their place as we were today)
Halliday is a bit of a loss. However, as we play a 3/4/3 with a defensive LWB it’s vital that the RWB is attacking. So Ashby is probably an improvement, which justifies Brad going.
The cold sobering fact, is that,apart from Metcalfe, none of this squad would get in any of the first 11 of the last two teams we’ve played.
Also let’s remember that this time 2 years ago, GA was having his biggest rant in his time here, when we tamely lost to a Swindon team that hadn’t won in ages.
I repeat. 9th will be some achievement. All the others in the Top 7 with us have far better squads.
let’s stay positive, we would have laughed if you told us we would be 3rd by mid January . cook Halliday Patterson, great players for us, they got offers we weren’t going to match so good luck to them
I’m struggling to comprehend that performance, I think Graham Alexander was as well judging by his post match interview.
For all the credit he and the team have in the bank, that was an absolute disgrace today. I thought Mansfield away was a one off low point but they plumbed new depths here today.
The team, tactics and basic football fundamentals were badly lacking. I can accept getting beaten by a better side but a lack of fighting spirit in a derby match is unacceptable.
I’m getting fed of watching us getting overrun in midfield every game and waiting until half time to change things up. Not that changing things helped at all today.
I’m hoping for a response on Tuesday night but I’ve got that niggling feeling that the wheels are coming. I hope I’m proved wrong.
Sometimes you can tell from the 1st minute that something is wrong. Defenders miskicking and simple passes going astray. City looked like the proverbial ‘rabbit in the headlights’. Why? Every City fan knew Huddersfield would be up for this game, given their embarrassment at losing so badly at Valley Parade. Add in the possibility of the ‘New Manager bounce’ and it was crucial we started quickly. Quite a few players looked like they were still on the team coach in that first half.
We can argue about tactics, team selection etc. all day but if you can’t do the basics and don’t look up for it you are in big trouble.
Let’s be honest Huddersfield were decent today but nowhere near the quality of Cardiff.
The season is at a crossroads so let’s hope we can kick on from what feels like a bit of a slump.
I wrote an article on here just over a year ago after the Barrow stalemate on New Years Day, suggesting City needed to be more flexible with their systems. Before I continue, I want to state that in no-way am I suggesting I know what I am talking about, however I am just applying my experience in good level sport (cricket).
I appreciate there was a slight change in formation at half-time but the basis of the system was the exact same. It didn’t exactly trouble Huddersfield!
My big worry is that City are extremely inflexible in their approach and as a result are becoming too predictable for sides, who in L1, will work out how to set up against you and will punish you.
After the sending off, I cannot fathom why we persisted with three at the back, we don’t need it when we’re chasing the game and attacking. When Wright. T replaced Wright. J, I thought good, we’re going 4 at the back and brought an extra attacker on. I was dismayed, not however surprised, when I saw Touray tuck inside into LCB. Same when Leigh came on for Baldwin, thought we were going 4-3-3 however Metcalfe was hoisted, and utterly wasted, at RWB with Ashby suddenly in RCB. The formation wasn’t working, so change it!!! We’re all too often when losing, putting people out of position just to accommodate the system.
Darragh MacAnthony said on his podcast with Pideson, that when P’boro have been promoted to the Championship twice before, they had an alternate formation they’d switch to, to change things up when it wasn’t working (4-2-3-1) and this change often worked well for them. City and GA, who I believe have got the players to suit that formation, have got to adopt this approach proactively when change within a game is needed in order to kick on to the next level.
We clearly missed Sarcevic, who seems to be the link between the midfield and forward line as when he doesn’t play, we often, if not always, look so disjointed.
However, we don’t need to worry. Good teams play poorly and have off days. Some may disagree, but one thing that City do is give everything. They didn’t not try today, they were just extremely poor. You don’t need to rip up the playbook over a couple of defeats and City shouldn’t. However, I do think they need to be more flexible during the game to get more success when playing poorly.
Two strikers needed immediately. Don’t waste this golden opportunity City ! If we don’t then it all starts on Tuesday night with a scrappy 1-0 win !
We were outthought,outplayed,outfought. We were poor. We desperately missed Sarcevic , and Pointon doesn’t seem 100% fit.
It was terribly disappointing.
But let’s look on the bright side. At the beginning of August I would have been thrilled with 12th place at the end of January.
We have had some wonderful performances, league and cup. We are trying to sign top end league 1 players.
We are well , very well, supported. We are well managed.
I personally feel we have punched above our weight. I also believe that with a change in form, and with a couple of signings ( a big mobile front man), we could make the play offs.
We are doing well.
this week will show whether City as a club are ambitious or not with their recruitment of at least one striker. They needed one when Cook was still here. We have more support than Huddersfield and have spent a fraction of what they have on both wages and transfer fees. If history repeats itself like when Dolan wasn’t backed when going up to Division 1 with McCall and Hendire us supporters will never forgive the board and owner.