Nice and early Bradford Match Thread........

[smudgie]

Seeing as I havent started one in a while..............

Hopefully a good turn out of red's supporters over the hills for this one, just a shame we arent going for our annual 3 points at the globe arena

[cashman]

Nice one Smudge, looking forward to this un, will be a tough un,no doubt, but if we apply ourselves like yesterday then a result is on the cards.

[Bradford City]

Bradford City fan in peace.
Looking forward to this one, Accy are bogey side to us at Valley Parade, four 1-1 draws and a 3-0 win for you in the last five seasons, in fact looking at the records it was 1956 when we last beat you at Valley Parade so bogey side full stop, Accy are unbeaten against City in the last eight meetings but hopefully things will be different this year, it must be our turn now.
What is happening with your goalkeeping situation, are you signing someone on an emergency loan?
There should be a decent crowd on Boxing day maybe 12000 plus depending on how many Accy bring.

[smudgie]

Our emergency loan keeper got sent off at the weekend.......

All we have left is a very talented youngster called Andrew Dawber, so im not sure who will play between the sticks to be honest !

[Bradford City]

Originally Posted by smudgie

Our emergency loan keeper got sent off at the weekend.......

All we have left is a very talented youngster called Andrew Dawber, so im not sure who will play between the sticks to be honest !

Bit of a joke really that sending off, he didn't touch the Plymouth lad, he just pushed head up against him and Chadwick rolled about like he was shot and dying, Chadwick should be punished as well for cheating. The same thing happened with one of our players at Burton and believe it or not the Burton played admitted cheating to get him sent off, disgraceful really, thing is an appeal isn't worth it as the intent was there or that's what the ref will say in his report.
Could go either way for the young keeper, this will probably be the biggest match of his career so far, either he will freeze as it will be an intimidating atmosphere for him or he could play out of his skin and end up with the man of the match.

[VALAIRIAN]

Same as Plymouth game!!!

Leam has named an unchanged side for this afternoon's game with Bradford.

Goalkeeper Paul Rachubka starts after his red card was appealed by the club.

Stanley: Rachubka, Toto, Deano, Murphy, Lidds, Linny, Miller, Joyce, Moly, Rommy, Beattie.

Subs: Dawbs, Hatfield, Clark, Dixon, Eckersley, Carver, Podge.

[Kiwi John]

Dam.

[cashman]

Game of 2 halves First Half never created 1 attempt on Bradford Goal, didn't play that bad though if that makes sense? Second half tried a different system n ran Bradford ragged imho.equalised n was hoping fer a point at very least, Could not understand the second yellow card which resulted in what i think was a harsh dismissal, to me the first yellow was justified, the second was just a 50-50 as far as i was concerned. Bradford i thought luckily nicked it near the death wi a great move, Possibly the striker should have been marked, but a good goal nonetheless. Bradford will be in the shake up come seasons end imho.

[football19]

Missed the game today,so let others comment on the game.apparently the sending off was for deliberate handball !!!,according to the ref. have to watch it later,but apparently it very harsh.

[dabeast]

To me it looked like deano handled accidentally but then left a leg trailing which caught the Bradford player. It was hard to see from the away end. The Bradford fans in that side were sure that he should walk - it was the only time we heard them all game. The first half was very poor imho but the lads came back strong after the break so credit should be given, but Bradford deserved the win.

[smudgie]

Well my two pence worth.......

We need to start getting things into perspective. Yesterday we where playing an ex-premier league club, who knocked a full strength Arsenal team out of the League Cup only a few weeks ago, in front of 11,000 supporters. We have been over achieving in this division for years, but no mistake we are now in the fight of our lives. As always the target before the season starts is 40 points, with anything after that being a bonus.

Maybe Leam needs some help from an experienced assistant.... ??? But at the moment I cannot see where we are going to start picking up points. We have scored 2 goals in 5 matches, which have both been down to Defensive mistakes from the opposition. Beattie looks like he can just about manage 70 minutes once a week, never mind every 3 days. He looked miles off the pace yesterday.

We have a total lack of creativity in the Midfield, Joyce and Miller where yet again passengers, they both either need resting or dropping. We have the likes of Hatfield & Clarke, for christ's sake give them a chance. Hatfield is starting to get annoyed according to his twitter, he scores 4 away at Fylde, and has hardly played since??? Why???

Apart from a 10 minute spell in the 2nd half I thought we looked a very poor side indeed yesterday. We either need to bring in some loanee's or make some changes, simple.

As for the red card, for me was stone-wall deliberate handball. Maybe its the chance Eckersley has been waiting for??? I rate him very highly whenever I have seen him play.

Massively looking forward to Rotherham away......... honest !

[ddevil2006]

i don't think 40 points will be enough to keep us in the division

[Exile on Spencer St]

It's not all bad news, at least Stanley have moved off the bottom of one 'statistical' league:
The Football League | Stats | Club Discipline

[choirboy]

Disappointing performance. However, Bradford are a strong side and they are playing with a confidence and an expectation that they will win every match. Agree with earlier comments that we were weak in midfield, both creatively and offensively. I have said in recent weeks that we lack a truly combative midfield player or two.....like Procky used to be. Yes a few of our lads are lacking confidence and are playing below par, Moly seemed out of sorts. Rommy was our only real attacking force yesterday and he deserved his goal. Carver did well and added some needed physicality to our attacking line in the second half.
I thought that the referee was too generous to Bradford. He let three of their players; right back, big lad up front and right winger, use their arms continually in on the ball challenges. The right back just gently nudged into the backs of our lads all the time. The centre forward set his arm across the body of our defenders every time he went for the ball. Now whilst these incidents do not look like blatant fouls it makes it very difficult for the honest player to get anywhere near the ball. I was getting really frustrated!! The game is called football not "Armball". Come on match officials, get onto it!! Also the two Bradford forwards purposely stood ten yards offside from their goalkicks which went mainly to the head of their right winger and as such they should have been flagged offside because they were often the next receiver, albeit by then in an onside position. The effect of this tactic is simply to cause confusion for the officials and it caused our defenders to be on the backfoot as they retreated to try to pick up the second phase whilst travelling backwards into deeper territory.
Having said that, Bradford deserved the win but when we equalised I was really hoping for the robbery event of the season and would have loved to have spoiled the Bantams Christmas party and come home with a point!
We have to try and be more physical in midfield for me and defend further up the pitch if we are to improve our season and start getting some points.
ps. I do have a real bugbear about the use of "arms"!

[cashman]

Thing is, its painfully obvious to me, we play much better wi 2 strikers as demonstrated in the second half. Whilst this system can work very well fer some clubs, no doubt, we aint got the players to operate it good enough, its that simple to me.