This Saturday sees the Bantams take to the road for their first League One away match of the season. After a 0-0 draw at home to Port Vale on the opening weekend of this campaign, City make the relatively long journey down south to Peterborough and Cambridgeshire to face the Posh in what should be a tasty League One affair.
Last weekend the two sides had quite the contrast in days. Whilst City looked shy in front of goal once again, Peterborough were sticking three past Rochdale away from home at Spotland in their opening game of the season. Further to that, both teams played once again on Tuesday night but endured contrasting success in the first round of this seasons EFL trophy. Peterborough stuck another three goals past fellow League One side AFC Wimbledon in ninety minutes whilst we crashed out 11-10 on penalties against Accrington, failing to convert any of our 27 attempts at goal during open play despite having an extra man on the field for the last half an hour of the match.
'Graphics courtesy of KickOff'
It’s not uncommon for Bradford to suffer from a poor start to the season though; instead it’s rather usual that we struggle during the opening stages of the season for some reason. It’s no different to last year when we started with a loss against Swindon in the league whilst being dumped out of the cup by York in the first round. Despite those early setbacks though, we recovered and secured a top six finish in League One. This year though the teams shaky start is largely understandable. To a certain extent the club has undergone a huge rebuilding process over the summer months. New owners have been welcomed, Stuart McCall has returned as manager after Parkinson and half of the backroom staff left, there’s six or seven new faces in the squad, the list goes on. For me, it was crucial not to lose our opening match at home to Port Vale and we managed that, I’m confident that Stuart and the team will kick on in the league after what was a reasonably good performance against Vale.
Away from the two matches we’ve played, there’s been further positive news off the field with the loan signing of Josh Cullen from West Ham United on an initial five-month deal. We all know what Cullen can do in the centre of midfielder and his inclusion in the squad last season after the Christmas break was, in my opinion, the reason why we secured a play-off position. The young Irish playmaker has that spark and creative edge that will most definitely push the team on during his stay with the Bantams. Not to mention, he was man-of-the-match against Juventus last Saturday for the Irons, putting in a great shift against one of Europe’s biggest sides.
For me we still need a few more signings to complete the current squad. Evidently the Bantams still need a goal scorer. Now, people need to understand that going out and purchasing a ‘prolific’ goal scorer is extremely difficult. Yes I agree a striker needs to be brought in quickly but right now I feel that expectations are very high. A Keiran Agard, Adam Le Fondre type of forward would be a fantastic acquisition for the club but an expensive one at that and just because our club has been recently purchased doesn’t mean were going to see the new owners throw huge amounts of money at transfers and wage bills straight away. Patience is key in football.
Our signings so far have been fantastic in my opinion. Jordi Hiwula looks quick and agile upfront, something we have lacked largely in recent years, whilst Cullen, Dieng, Kilgallon and Knight-Percival are great players at the League One level. There’s some real competition in certain areas of the squad this year which will only bring out the best in players during the course of this season. My favoured starting XI, if all players are available, would differ from most I imagine. I’d love to see City play an attack minded 4-5-1 with Doyle in net, a back four of McMahon, Kilgallon, Knight-Percival and Meredith, Dieng as the holding midfielder, Cullen and Vincelot in front of him as playmakers, two wingers of Marshall and Anderson with Hiwula up top.
As for Saturday it will be a tough encounter there’s no doubt about that. Peterborough United are a strong side in this league and can score goals for fun on their day. Although our defence looks solid once again coming into this season, the Posh will really test it’s ability on Saturday afternoon and the team will need to be at 100% to get anything from the match. Our opponents always seem to have a strong start to their league campaign and will be looking to further that this weekend with another win. We will have to stand up and be counted for as a team to come away from London Road with any form of result on Saturday evening.
Up the Bantams!
