After Saturday’s somehow thrilling 0-0 draw with Charlton at Valley Parade, City are back on the road this weekend with a trip down to Birmingham to take on mid-table Walsall.
Saturday’s draw with Charlton was a difficult one to gauge. With the Addicks hitting the post, bar and having one cleared off the line heroically by Stephen Darby in the first half you’d say we were lucky to get a point. But with a stronger second half display and big chances for the likes of Jordi Hiwula, we could have nicked all three points with a bit of quality up front.
We’re still struggling with indifferent form and subsequently are falling behind the likes of Scunthorpe, Bolton and Sheffield United in the league as a result. We now sit 7 points behind Bolton and the automatic promotion places.
The problem is still the same for the Bantams. Goal scoring. It is difficult to find a 20 goal-a-season striker though and City fans need to understand that. As they say, form is temporary whilst class is permanent but to find a class striker at a reasonable price at the League One level is almost impossible.
Going into Saturday’s clash with Walsall, we have a full strength squad. With the return of Tony McMahon last week it leaves manager Stuart McCall with a selection headache. At full strength we have fantastic squad depth for a League One side. For me the issue of squad depth has always been a problem but this season we have more than enough players to fill gaps if and when necessary.
The Saddlers have largely struggled so far this season. After an impressive league campaign last year as they made it into the play-off positions with a third place finish in League One, Walsall have failed to capture the same form that saw them perform so well last campaign.
Currently sitting in 16th place, the team from England’s second city have had very up-and-down form of late. Despite beating Sheffield United 1-0 at the back end of last month, Walsall have recently lost matches to Fleetwood and Gillingham as well as being thumped 4-0 by Rochdale. With only 1 win from 7 matches in the month of November in all competitions the Saddlers don’t bring good form with them into this weekend’s match up.
Walsall still have dangerous players though. Granted the loss of winger Romaine Sawyers and top scorer Tom Bradshaw have significantly hurt their ambitions but players like Simeon Jackson, who has 5 goals in the league, still pose a huge threat in this division. Franck Moussa and Florent Cuvelier are good players at this level but for me Erhun Oztumer is the danger man. The 5ft 3 playmaker has 8 goals and 4 assists in League One since August, he’s the sort of player that can make something out of nothing.
Despite our relatively poor form over the last few weeks I would fully expect us to take at least a point from Saturday’s encounter if not 3. The Christmas period is arguably the make or break time of a football teams season so let’s hope the lads can kick it off with a big win on Saturday afternoon.
