Lets face it, our upcoming game on Saturday away at Bury has got to be better than our defeat against Colchester on Tuesday night. I don’t think the side could possibly turn in a worse performance than what we had to endure in that second half at Valley Parade against the leagues bottom club in midweek.
Every player on the pitch in a Bradford shirt, with maybe the exception of Wes Thomas, put in a very poor performance. To lose so comfortably to a team that has gone a club record 19 games without a win is very worrying to say the least and in all my years of watching the Bantams, whether that’s in the Premier League or League Two, I have never seen my team throw in the towel so easily. To be completely honest Tuesday night was embarrassing, the worst we have played for a very long time.
However the past is the past and the only way to rectify what happened on Tuesday night is to go to Bury this weekend and put in one hell of a performance that the manager, the players and the fans can all be proud of. As Parkinson said after the defeat, “we’ve got to take the criticism squarely on the chin” and you can only expect that the performance hurt the players as much as it hurt the fans watching on.
Luckily despite our loss on Tuesday night we still only sit a point outside the play-off positions in League One with a game in hand on some of the other teams around us. In his post-match comments Parkinson stated that "we've had a good run and now we have to make sure there isn't any lingering feeling from Tuesday. Other teams around us struggled again, so we've still got it all to play for – but we have to do better.” Looking at the form table in the league, Parky is right. With the exception of Barnsley who now sit in 7th place and maybe Millwall who are 5th, all the teams either just in the play-off positions or those currently vying for a place in the top six are currently struggling with form. Coventry and Sheffield United have won two in their last ten, Southend are very up-and-down whilst Port Vale and Swindon have shown real weaknesses regularly this season. It has to be said that we still have a very real chance of securing a top six finish this season!
As for Bury, well this is the fourth time we will be matching up against them this season as we’ve won once, drawn once and lost once to them in the league and FA Cup this season already. With similar form to us over their last ten games and added to that the fact that our opposition are unbeaten in four at Gigg Lane, Bury represent another difficult challenge for Parkinson and his men. Buoyed after their 3-1 win against Peterborough on Tuesday night, Bury have some dangerous attacking players not least winger Danny Mayor who has been one of their stand out players this campaign and is one to watch. However with a goal difference of -10 after 34 games it is clear to see that Bury struggle in defence and with the recent news that the clubs captain and key central defender Nathan Cameron has been ruled out for the rest of the season as he requires surgery on a knee injury, the Shakers backline will be substantially weaker.
Back in mid-October in our first meeting with Bury this season we ran out comfortable winners at Valley Parade thanks to goals from Rory McArdle and an own goal which broke the Shakers 17 game record of not losing an away match however the two meetings in the FA cup were to be very different. After a 0-0 draw in the first leg away from home City would go on to lose on penalties in the second leg of the FA Cup third round tie, a game the team dominated but failed to win despite Bury having ten men for the majority of the match.