They say, never go back. Don’t tarnish your reputation. I’m sure that’s what people were whispering in Kyel Reid’s ear when Bradford showed interest in bringing him back, but nine un-beaten league games later, it’s like he never left.
The jittery start to the season now finally seems to be over with the new squad looking to have gelled into a fully functioning and hard to beat team. Most importantly in the managers image. Now the fans and media, for the most part, are reverting back to the same narrative that we heard in august – i.e. that City are serious promotion candidates.
Like we saw in the opening part of the season we can’t become complacent. I put our poor start down to inflated expectation weighing down on a new squad that were expected to turn anybody and everybody over in front of 18000 season ticket holders. Now just because we are unbeaten in nine in the league, with 5 consecutive clean sheets, the last thing we need is another wave of expectations. We all know that Bradford perform best with our backs up against the wall and like to win against the odds. (I don’t need to remind us fans of our, ‘losing to bottom of the table syndrome’ at Valley Parade) Unfortunately now expectations are sure to rise but the question is whether this time they’re justified. What cannot be ignored is the simple fact that we do look like contenders in the flesh and on paper! So I’m finding it hard to restrain myself from making sweeping generalisations about our fate come May. What is in order is some perspective and detachment.
City lie in the top six accompanied by Wigan, Walsall, Burton, Gillingham and Coventry. Two of which we haven’t played yet. To stake a claim for promotion you have to beat your rivals but we have failed to take 3 points off any of the three we’ve played. The highest ranked team we have beaten is Bury in ninth, although we were the first team to defeat them on the road since January. Furthermore the Gillingham game was an early season anomaly and the Coventry/Wigan games were hard fought draws against very well organised teams. My point here, though, is that promotion is won on margins. We don’t want to miss out on the play offs by one point again and these draws may come back to haunt us. Three points are much needed against Walsall on Saturday. Draws can only take you so far.
A reason why maybe we aren’t converting the one point into three consistently, especially against the big teams, is the apparent lack of cutting edge and ruthlessness in front of goal. This isn’t a Hanson bash, but a clear example of this was against Coventry when a Reid cross was deflected into Hanson’s path which he failed to do anything with. Strikers are meant to come alive in the box and pounce on scraps like that. There are many other examples of this not just in front of goal. From the midfielders perspective there have been too many misplaced passes and poor crosses. There is no issue with poor passes, everyone is human, but when there aren’t enough good balls in relation to bad balls it becomes a problem. Promotion teams should be ruthless.
Wayne Jacobs mentioned on The Pulse how crucial ‘healthy competition’ is and the fact that we have it in abundance. I agree that now our injury list has shortened for the first time in years we have a very strong bench which in theory should raise everybody’s game. Hopefully the competition will raise the bar and create the much needed cutting edge to everybody’s game. It certainly worked with the entry of Brad Jones into BD8 as it gave Williams something to think about. He now looks like a different man.
While taking these criticisms on board it is plain to see that this year we are conditional contenders for promotion. I put this down to stability, sturdy defence and a strong squad. I believe these positives outweigh the negatives.
Stability
The un-sung heroes of recent relative success at Bradford City has to be the board. For all their critics they have the best interests of the club at heart but most importantly their management style ensues stability and confidence which feeds into the team. The most important factor in this is that they let the manager manage and back him to the hilt. After a busy summer it would have been quite legitimate for them to tell Parkinson to get us out of the early season rut with what we already had but instead they trusted Phil and after Cole, Reid, Burke, Evans and Bowery that faith has been repaid.
Sturdy Defence
There are two ways to win a football match, outscore your opponent or limit them as much as possible. We all know that Parkinson aims for the latter which is not necessarily a bad thing. This tactic only works when your back 5 is sturdy and solid which we thought we’d lost since the departure of Davies. Since the Colchester defeat we haven’t conceded more than one goal which has recently become 9 league games un-beaten and 5 league consecutive clean sheets. This is an out-standing record which everyone should be proud of which has certainly makes up for my earlier insinuation that we don’t score enough goals.
Strong Squad
Everybody, quite rightly, has pointed out that this year we have been terribly unlucky with injuries which started all the way back in July with Brenan’s terrible injury in Scotland. Since, the list has been growing week by week but now the only long term injuries are Morais and Anderson (which shouldn’t be down played). Early in the season teams posture to make a play off push but fall away due to a thin squad. A prime example being us in our first season in league one, or the now league two side Orient in 2013/14. Especially at this level football is a squad game as injuries, fatigue and form are inevitably fluid which is why, for the most part, the big teams always succeed as they have the best strength in depth. This is why come May the likes of Wigan, Millwall, Coventry and Sheffield will all be up there. That’s who our squad has to be as good as and on recent form and results I think we are as good. The way Parkinson has engaged in smart rotation shows we have a deep and competitive squad. Liddle/Evans/Knott are cleverly rotated based on the fixture being home or away and the international break has proved Clarke and Leighs worth. Also based on form we have seen many different strike pairings and different winger combinations.
The main point you can take out of this article is that Bradford are clear promotion contenders, but only conditionally. At first it was a matter of sustaining form game to game but now that monkey is off our back it’s time to actually get down to winning games and continuing on our run. There is now no excuse, the season has really started, the squad has gelled and the table has taken shape. All that’s left is to try finish 6th or higher. If we can’t score our way in, I’m sure Parky will fight his way in.
