| Bradford City 2 |
| Powell 59, 71 |
| Newcastle United U21s 1 |
| Ferreira 42 |
By Jason McKeown
Has there ever been a happier Bradford City substitute than Nick Powell? The 32-year-old came off the bench here to score a brace that rescued the Bantams from a losing position, once again relishing his impact role. This is his job, and wow, does he do it well.
Powell was introduced in minute 57. By minute 59, he’d equalised. By minute 71, he’d struck what proved to be the winner. Four goals now in 11 substitute appearances that total just 288 minutes of action. Limited minutes; major impact.
He is some weapon to have. For most of last season, the wisdom of recruiting Powell had looked highly questionable. When finally fit, the former Manchester United forward had some influence at the end of the campaign, but the decision to re-sign him over the summer was drawn-out and reflected a sea of doubts. It’s now abundantly clear that talks centred around his willingness to accept a super sub role. And it’s quickly turned into another Graham Alexander masterstroke.
This was probably the clearest example yet of Powell’s value to City. He equalised when fellow sub Bobby Pointon received the ball outwide from Macaulay Gillesphey and sent over an excellent cross, from which the veteran escaped his marker and headed the ball through the legs of George Mair. 12 minutes later, Pointon again did well and sent Corey O’Keeffe away, who produced some dazzling feet before crossing for Powell. The City number 25 chested the ball down, took a touch and finished coolly to win the game.
Powell is big, physical, tough and uncompromising. As legs and minds tire, his freshness off the bench gives him an edge. Throw in his high intelligence and vast experience, and City have a valuable weapon. It’s not just the goals, but the way he bullies and harasses opponents. The frustration he causes is evident. Here, it truly descended into red mist when Newcastle sub Johnny Emerson completely lost his head and booted Powell. A red card followed.
Job done, from a player rapidly rising the ranks of cult hero status. A catalogue of injuries have hurt his career and clearly place constraints over just how much football he can play. But City are managing that frailty brilliantly, and the reward is to have the services of a player who is ultimately too good for this level.
Powell was certainly the emergency glass City had to break here. If he seems to love his more marginal status, the same probably isn’t true of many of his team-mates. Two weeks ago, this group of players looked so hungry as they demolished Leyton Orient. Here they looked as though the wind had been taken out of their sails.
It wasn’t the same, high-spirited performance of Brisbane Road, which will concern Alexander. Against Orient, the manager had been able to dangle the carrot to his back-up charges that a strong performance would boost their first-team prospects. The problem? Everyone took that incentive and delivered excellent individual displays, giving Alexander huge headaches. The fact he went back to his first choice XI for the subsequent two league games was fully justified by the six points delivered. But for those who gave their all at Leyton Orient and still found themselves back on the sidelines, maintaining that level of motivation can’t have been easy.
And it didn’t look like they’d succeeded here. Nine of the players who began this had started at Orient – but this was a performance that for large spells was anything but the same level. Those who had justifiable grievances for not playing more of late did very little to prove their point. And that gives Alexander a different type of headache.
He will have certainly wanted to tear his hair out over Stephen Humphrys. His vibrant display in East London two weeks ago was followed up by an utterly anonymous performance. Alexander has shown his forward some tough love of late, giving out a clear message that he wants Humphrys to display consistent high standards. Not just one-off good games. Any hopes the penny had dropped now need to be revisited. This was Humphrys at his frustrating worst, and really he’s got no one to blame but himself.
He was in good company for large spells of the evening. City started reasonably enough, with Kieran Morgan firing an early chance just over and O’Keeffe rattling the crossbar with a curling free kick. But after Gillesphey cleared the crossbar with an effort from inside the box, City retreated and allowed Newcastle’s kids to take over.
Cameron Dawson – making his City debut between the sticks – made a great save to keep out the outstanding Matheos Ferreira’s effort from distance, but soon after the same player superbly struck the opener with a long-range strike that followed Morgan losing the ball.
City just weren’t at the races. Morgan and Henry Cartwright looked laboured in midfield, with Will Swan and Adam Phillips barely involved either side of Humphrys (Phillips’ lack of impact since signing in the summer is starting to become a concern). Under Alexander, City have become accustomed to beating up Premier League kids in this competition. Before tonight, they’d won three out of four Alexander vs U21 cup ties, racking up an aggregate score of 14-4. And given Newcastle sit second bottom of the Premier League 2 table, another rout was not an unreasonable expectation.
So this performance was, to say the least, disappointing.
Until the cavalry arrived.
Powell’s introduction came alongside Pointon and Harry Ibbitson, with Humphrys, Phillips and Swan withdrawn. City were instantly better, equalising and taking full control. The winner followed not long after, and the final stages were played out to a Newcastle side increasingly losing their heads and ultimately ending the night a player light.
How much to read into this? Dawson looked fine in goal, which will ease some tension about going to Reading without Jon McCracken. Pointon’s resurgence in form continues. O’Keeffe is quietly proving to be an astute signing. Ibbitson has real potential and should be given more game time in this competition. Some green ticks then.
But there will also be learns that Alexander will take from this. Some of those who have spent recent weeks waiting for opportunities were unable to channel their frustration positively. That’s understandable. It is also dangerous. Competition for places only works when those left out respond by pushing harder.
Powell, however, is the perfect counterpoint. He is not a regular starter. Nor is he getting everything he wants. Yet every time his number goes up and he enters the fray, he proves his worth all over again.
That mentality won City this game.
That’s why the headlines belong to Powell. His specialist role is proving a revelation. In an era of five substitutes and constant rotation, he is giving City something different: a player capable of changing games in half an hour rather than starting them for 90 minutes.
Others spent the night looking frustrated by their role. Powell embraced his. And City collected the rewards.
Categories: Match Reviews
1-0 to the Bradford Boys 
Marvellously Monotonous – City edge past Notts County 
The perfect response: Humphrys and Lapslie lead Bradford City’s resurgence 
A calmer conversation as Bradford City get back to winning ways 
Bang on, frustrating to see many of our second string not deliver a follow-up to the Orient match. This match did remind me of the 1st EFL Trophy game vs Grimsby last season, a game you’d expect us to win well and yet we struggled and had to turn to a super sub, in that case, Andy Cook. Maybe it’s just an EFL Trophy thing?
Powell does show so many great qualities for a centre forward, amazing jumping and heading, strength, build up play and he winds up the opposition brilliantly. He’s turned into the opposite of the player I thought we were getting, which I imagined would be a fancy but lightweight number 10, either I wasn’t familiar with his actual game or we’ve helped transform him?
I do wonder how far we’d have gone last sesson if we had this Powell to bring off the bench? He looked good at the end of last season, when he had his very own Easter Resurrection but imagine if we’d have had him as a super sub all of last year, how many more goals and points could we have got?
On a side note… Crikey, some of those Newcastle kids were cranky… maybe past their bedtimes?
I think it’s harsh on Humphrys. He was poor but so were virtually all of them, meaning he had no service at all. They played like strangers, with no tempo and little endeavour.
The subs brought instant impact and Newcastle responded to going behind with putting the boot in. They probably went too far but I liked the fact they weren’t prepared to lie down.
It must be odd playing in atmosphere like that, and City, just about, did enough!
Be interesting to get Matheos Ferreira here on loan in Jan, kid looked good.
Shame to see Hump not double down on his last performance but maybe it just isn’t going to work out for him.
like others I just thought Humphries was starved of any decent service. The poorer performances to really worry about for me were Philips ( again – in fact was he really playing ?), Cartwright and Morgan. We had very little control through the middle of the pitch ( bar OKeefe who did ok), and no fluency.
Oh and I agree a cheeky loan move for Ferreira in Jan would be interesting !
I didn’t watch last night so this is a question/observation based on reports/comments than a statement.
Comments suggesting Humphrys was starved of service, but Beesley is arguably starved of service every week and still makes an impact for the team. Winning the ball up the pitch and starting our attacks. Is that therefore the exact issue with Humphrys in this team.
In 15-20 games this season he may look like a brilliant player because things are going well but in 15-20 his head will go down when it turns into a scrap and a battle. Our approach and style of play means we can’t carry individuals and that’s what’s working.
For 40 games Beesley will look like a workhorse and look like an average to good League 1 player. They will probably end up both scoring between 10-15 goals if they start every week but Beesley will deliver more for the team.
Given most of our goals have come from crosses – even Bobby is scoring headers – I think it does a little bit of a disservice to the rest of the team to say the service isn’t there for a traditional number 9, as Powell is showing. Beesley is either doing so much outside of the box that he can’t then get into the box or he doesn’t have the footballing nous of a Powell to pick up the right positions in the box. Neither would be playing for Bradford City if they also had the attributes of the other though.
Side note: having listened to the interviews I don’t think Powell is quite the happy substitute the above suggests but accepts the team is winning, it’s working and he must be patient.
Agree completely. I was alreay typing in my head the comparison with Beesley, but you have dealt with it perfectly.
The issue is, and always has been, Humps himself. He shows little accountability and those who continue to sing his praises, despite the evidence consistently pointing towards underwhelming inconsistency, aren’t doing him any favours. There needs to be a significant and permanent shift in his mindset.
The only thing I’d disagree with in your post, somewhat cheekily, is the suggestion that Humps may have 10-15 good games – I’d be amazed if that happened – he may have 10-15 good moments over the course of a year, but that does not necessarily translate into 10-15 good games.
Unfortuantely, the reality is that the Humps experiment failed a long time ago. The saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting different results couldn’t be more apt to the ongoing debate concerning him.
There’s a reason the second string players are second string. It’s their mentalities. As professionals they should have put in the same performance as the Orient game regardless of if they felt aggrieved or not. To briefly paraphrase Mike Tyson’s trainer Gus De’amatto (not sure on the spelling) “a professional gets the job done no matter what the circumstances”. It makes me wonder how they became professional players in the first place as it’s no mean feat to achieve.
Humphreys is a wasted talent.
Powell is fantastic, he’s great to watch when he comes on. I’ve warned my Huddersfield supporting mates of him!