Written by Jason McKeown (images John Dewhirst)

The blistering sunshine called for a relaxing afternoon, and Bradford City were happy to provide one. In a victory that was as comfortable as it was convincing, the Bantams eased through their season opener with scarcely a moment of concern.

It made for what might just be the most straightforward start to a season in the club’s long and varied history. City moved through the gears without ever needing to find top speed, scoring once in each half and steadily draining the belief out of a Rochdale side who had started brightly but ultimately fell apart.

There might easily have been more goals, but the lack of them barely mattered. This was dominance without drama, control without complication. A job completed with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of confidence, strengthening the feelgood factor around Valley Parade ahead of next week’s League One curtain-raiser.

Nothing was going to be fully proven here. But there was plenty of encouragement to take from the first competitive impressions of the new faces, and from the rejig of central midfield that grew in authority and importance over the 90 minutes.

Callum Connolly does not seem to have the same extroverted presence as the two predecessors to wear his number six shirt, Richie Smallwood and Max Power, but he quietly and competently sat in front of the back three and kept winning back possession to set up home attacks. He also cleared a Rochdale effort off the line and bagged an assist.

Connolly’s positional discipline gave Antoni Sarcevic licence to get forward, and by the second half the newly appointed City skipper was almost playing alongside wide forwards Will Swan and Kayden Jackson, to join the press.

And that was ultimately Rochdale’s downfall. Their new head coach, Ian Watson, used to be Mike Williamson’s assistant at Gateshead, MK Dons and Carlisle – and it showed. Like his flawed old boss, Watson likes his team to play out from the back, and they looked useful to a point. That point being every time they crossed the halfway line, where their slick passing was betrayed by a lightweight attack.

As soon as Sarcevic – who initially sat deep and looked a little awkward – pushed up to press Dale’s playing-it-out-from-the-back approach, the EFL returnees were in trouble and couldn’t cope. City initially had less of the ball but more territorial advantage. In the end, they had much more of both and they made it count. It will be interesting to watch from afar just how well Rochdale get on this season. They’ll certainly need to offer a lot more than the flashes of promise they showed here.

It all meant that City were pretty much in control throughout. Early chances came and went for Tyreik Wright, Jake Beesley and Jackson. Initially the Bantams were a little hesitant in possession, unsure of how to get attacks going and whether to play through midfield or rely on diagonals.

In a game where no City player was terrible, wing-backs Wright and Josh Neufville were quieter than usual standards. But with the hardworking Beesley holding up the ball well and Sarcevic routinely turning a front three into a front four, they got joy from going direct, winning first or second balls, and then pinning their opponents back.

The first reward came in first half stoppage time when Ethan Ebanks-Landell failed to spot Swan and played a backpass to his keeper, Nils Ramming, that the City wide forward was able to intercept and finish calmly. It was curious to see Swan in the starting line-up ahead of Bobby Pointon, with manager Graham Alexander stating afterwards that City’s homegrown hero hadn’t done anything wrong in pre-season, but that Swan’s form and goal return had given him the edge.

A further Swan goal here would appear to mean Pointon will start the league campaign on the bench. A sign of how high the standards up front are climbing.

The second goal came midway through the second half. Connolly showed real promise in his corner delivery and from one such set piece was able to find the head of Aden Baldwin, who easily nodded the ball into the far corner for his first-ever goal at Valley Parade. That was cue for Rochdale to disassemble into a bit of a mess of continually giving the ball away to City in the final third, leading to opportunities for Sarcevic and Pointon. Another sub, Nick Powell, was very unlucky not to celebrate re-signing for the Bantams with a goal, after he came close on four occasions. It was a really promising cameo from Powell, who was a handful.

But for all Rochdale’s struggle, their goal wasn’t breached any further, and they may have even made a game of it late on when sub Dajaune Brown was played through and Jon McCracken made a decent one-on-one save to deny the visitors.

It was one of only two efforts on target McCracken had to deal with him on his debut. He got the starting nod ahead of Sam Walker, with the latter seemingly on his way out of the club, with reported interest from Watford offering him the chance to move back down South and be nearer to his family. Alexander confirmed after the game there is a decision to make over Walker, and that he will spend the rest of the weekend mulling it over. It would be a sad development for Walker to leave like this, and potentially undermine the City boss’ pre-season aim of having two equally strong keepers competing for the number one spot.

Walker’s future will be a big talking point in the build-up to the first league game next week (plus that of Stephen Humphrys, who didn’t even make the bench here), but beyond this there was nothing to trouble new season optimism here. It’s true there remain question marks over whether a Connolly/Sarcevic midfield partnership will work against league opponents who flood the middle of the park and overcrowd them – any side that can beat the City press could have a lot of joy against this Bantams set-up. But the first glimpse here of the midfield plan was encouraging, and right now that’s as much as we can ask for.

So City march in to Round Two of the League Cup, looking in decent fettle. This largely felt like a hybrid of pre-season friendly and competitive cup tie, but Graham Alexander’s side could only beat what was put in front of them and they did so with impressive authority. Tougher examinations await, starting next Saturday against Peterborough. But when the high temperatures and limited nature of Rochdale’s threat called for calm rather than chaos, City delivered exactly that.

Categories: Match Reviews

Tags: 2026/27, BCAFC, League Cup, Rochdale