By Jason McKeown

It should feel more nerve-wracking than this. There should be much more tension. Here was another slender Bradford City lead. Here was another fine margin. But they continue to look so comfortable in uncomfortable moments. They saw out a 1-0 advantage with such authority that it seemed as though a befuddled Notts County were more relieved to hear the final whistle than the Bantams.

At no point did City make this feel like a struggle they were desperate to be over. Three minutes of stoppage time were signalled, yet they looked like they could have done another three hours. In the words of Captain America, “I can do this all day.”

By the time the final whistle had sounded, it seemed City had sucked all the joy and enthusiasm out of their opponents and out of their public. The greenness of the Meadow Lane pitch repainted grey. How tediously dull City must be to play against. Home side vibrancy had long given way to hapless impotence. They skulked off having hardly laid a glove on City. They’re not the first and they won’t be the last.

The Bantams are marvellously monotonous. They lead the division for clean sheets and fewest conceded. They are not getting any points for style and excitement. This single-goal victory means that City’s six league games have served up only 10 goals at either end. That is a long way behind the 26 seen in Stockport matches, the 25 served up in Luton games, the 24 Wycombe have witnessed, and the 23 involving Bromley. But while those sides are leading the entertainment, City are collecting the points.

Because here City are, third in the league. Above Stockport, Luton, Wycombe, Bromley and their goal collections. Everyone loves goals. League tables tend to care rather more about results. Boring is functional, and functional is good.

There are enough early season patterns to suggest this is going to be the norm. Four out of City’s six league games have been 0-0 at half time, including this. First-half Bantams displays have generally not been great. But they’re very much following the mantra that it’s a marathon, not a sprint. After half time, City keep finding those higher gears and blowing away their opponents.

It’s why no one, least of all manager Graham Alexander, would have been unduly concerned by the utter snoozefest of a first half here. As soon as they restarted for the second 45, City upped the tempo and took control. And as so often happens, a goal arrived. This time from the unlikely source of George Pratt, whose long-range volley gave City the small but nevertheless concrete platform they needed.

Notts County have had their own early season patterns that might have meant they wouldn’t have panicked when Pratt found the back of the net. The newly promoted side were unbeaten but have conceded the first goal in every game. They’d been in holes like this before and every time dug their way out of it.

Only, their powers of recovery failed them here. And that’s far from a shock. When Alexander’s City grabs the first goal, they almost always win. You have to go all the way back to the end of February – the 2-1 loss to Reading – for the last time they opened the scoring and didn’t go on to claim victory. That was one of only five league games last season where the Bantams were 1-0 up and didn’t win. There were only five league occasions the season before that, and just one in the season before that after Alexander took charge. So it’s happened in the league on just 11 occasions under Alexander’s reign, out of 128 league games in charge. Some record.

It’s why the chant “1-0 to the Bradford boys” is not so much a brag as a victory proclamation. And here again, that slender advantage was managed expertly. I mean, what did Notts County actually offer in response? A couple of long-range efforts that flew over Jon McCracken’s goal were about it. By the end, the focus was all on sub Nick Powell winding up Lucas Ness. The clock was run down with reassuring ease.

Zero County shots on target in the second half. Zero County shots on target from the fourth minute onwards, in fact.

And that’s where City are so adept at almost lulling opponents into a false sense of superiority. The home side will have gone in at the break feeling they were marginally the better side, and that’s probably fair. Yet when City did their habitual second half turning of the screw, County were found wanting. They might have the manual for rescuing 1-0 deficits, but those instructions don’t work against this City side.

As the dust settles, they will have few complaints. Their best chance – and that one shot on target – came very early doors. Crystal Palace loanee Hindolo Mustapha – who was heavily linked with a move to Bradford City last January – ran through on goal, rounded McCracken, and hit a low shot that was rolling into the net until Callum Connolly got back to clear off the line. It came a couple of minutes after Antoni Sarcevic had sort of tested James Belshaw. And at that very early stage in the afternoon, an end-to-end battle threatened to break out.

That it didn’t owes much to the striking similarities between the two sides. If the first half could be summed up in a meme, it would be the one of two Spidermans pointing at each other. City and County were so similar, even lining up in the same 3-4-3 formation and with a mirroring gameplan of getting the ball high up the pitch to a big targetman, allowing them to press.

Is it narcissistic to ponder if Bradford City were Notts County’s inspiration going into this season? Just like the Bantams a year ago, the Magpies revamped their League Two promotion-winning side during the close season, and their style of play certainly invites comparisons. City’s achievement in reaching the play-offs last season shows that clubs promoted to League One need not assume mid-table survival is their ceiling. The Bantams offer a pretty compelling blueprint to follow.

Whatever the truth, the mirroring styles made for a game of pretty approach play but little more. Notts County are clearly decent. Nick Tsaroulla shot wide from distance and later blazed a free kick effort well over the bar. But they were the sort of opportunities that wouldn’t be worth noting in more exciting, chance-filled games. The half time xG scoreline of 0.35 for Notts and 0.05 for City told its own story. The Spidermen could not get past pointing at each other in hesitant wonder.

Then the second half City impetus, inspired partly by an early enforced change that saw Kayden Jackson enter the field for the injured Adam Phillips, just before half time. Jackson was one of 10 outfield changes at Leyton Orient midweek who did so well, and he was one of 10 outfield players who can feel harshly treated not to have kept their place, as Alexander completely reverted back to the team that beat Mansfield last Saturday. But no matter for Jackson, who after being summoned provided an energy and cutting edge that had been lacking in Phillips.

It was from great Jackson approach work that City scored. He got room down the flank and floated over a cross which County struggled to clear. The ball fell to Pratt a long way out, and he produced a lovely dipping volley that flew past Belshaw and into the back of the net. What a strike! It’s only the second of Pratt’s fledgling career. His one other goal came last October, during a loan spell at Chorley, where he netted during a 3-2 loss at Buxton in front of 745 people. Fair to say this goal was bigger in every way.

Jackson continued to be a thorn as City had County right where they wanted them. They could keep men behind the ball and deny their opponents any encouragement, whilst pressing with menace on the counter attack. Jackson twice went close and Powell took a break from winding up Ness to test Belshaw with a low effort. For County, Rory Finneran’s speculative long range shot, which hit Aden Baldwin’s back and flew just over, was as good as it got. It’s true they did find the back of the net in stoppage time, but the flag was up long before substitute Connor Grant bundled home.

Outside of Jackson, it was a City display where defensive players stood out more than the attackers. Pratt’s goal cemented another accomplished display, whilst Baldwin and Matt Pennington did a great job dealing with the physical, 6ft 4in presence of Australian forward Luke Smyth. Ollie Cooper, who had scored in three of his last four games, was equally kept quiet by the Bantams backline. A word too for the excellent Josh Neufville and Ibou Touray. The latter’s performance was especially impressive given he spent almost the entire afternoon walking the tightrope of an early booking.

Connolly and Sarcevic battled hard and ultimately edged the middle of the park contest against Finneran and James Gibbons. But it wasn’t a game where Jake Beesley and Bobby Pointon were able to shine. Beesley’s return to the starting line-up was no great surprise, but he now has Stephen Humphrys breathing down his neck and would have wanted to do more here to prove he merits his place at the top of the pecking order.

Humphrys himself was on the bench, albeit unused. At least he was in the squad. After a week where all 20 outfield starters against Mansfield and Leyton Orient did well, Will Swan, George Lapslie, Henry Cartwright, Reece Welch and Hayden Matthews were the extremely unlucky quintet to completely miss out.

That they kicked their heels on the sidelines is an encouraging marker of City’s strength in depth. They truly are blessed with strong options for every position and, because of it, look well-equipped to mount a promotion push. Doubts do linger about their attack, which is still yet to fully click, but there are different combinations available to unlock greater potency. If Alexander can find that forward formula to go with their supreme defensive solidity, City are going to take some stopping.

Even without that full attacking force, it was beyond County’s ability to stop the Bantams. The mirage is that City let them think it was closer than it was. The fine margins offered them the bait of Bantams’ vulnerability, yet it remained dangled just out of their reach.

Alexander sides revel in the narrow leads. They reek of a winning mentality. Of knowing exactly how to game manage their way to three points. Their only real limitation is that they deploy those higher gears intermittently. They keep hinting there is still much more to come.

These should be anxious afternoons. Instead, City are increasingly turning them into routine ones.

Categories: Match Reviews

Tags: 2026/27, BCAFC, League One, Notts County