Bradford Game

[zenfootball]

another tough game bradford have won there lasst four games town have lost two and drawn two , town have lost against teams in a play off place Bradford are fourth, if town wont to be sure of not dropping in to a relegation place nothing but a win will do, i dont know know how serious blacks injury was but if he cant play we need Wesolowski to add some physicality to the midfield.
town are paying for sloppy defending if we wont to stay up this has got to stop.

Chesterfield v Sheff Utd ,Colchester v Peterborough , Crewe v Scunthorpe , Doncaster v Wigan ,Feetwood v Oldham , Rochdale v Blackpool

we could with a fleetwood draw and the rest lose , unfortunately for town apart from Doncaster and Crewe the rest are improving so things are very tight, we have two home games and we badly need 6 points.

[zenfootball]

from a confidence point of view and just getting some momentum , town badly need a point we do not wont three loses on the trot.

[zenfootball]

Town face another team in a play off place and there was another gulf in class as Bradford gave town a lesson ball retention
Bradford must be wondering how they did not win, Town made a slow start and for most of the game struggled to get out of there own half , towns defense was bombarded by shots , corners, free kicks and throws.at times it was like the Alamo as town showed resilience and determination whilst working incredibly hard , players put there there bodies on the line with some last ditch defending, in the first half towns midfield was overrun . over the course of the game we had five crucial goal mouth clearences, two headers of the line, multiple saves by Leuitwiler one from a header was world class it looked goal bound and some how he clawed it out of the air, Bradford had a goal disallowed
Mangan came on for Cole towards the end of the first half.

Wallace and Whalley came on early in the second half,Whalley came close with a shot from a sharp turn, whilst town did improve in the second half they were still on the back foot, Bradford won most of the 50 - 50 goals, after such resolute defending conceding such a soft goal were Bradfords number 19 was unmarked for a free header.
I did not understand the couple of Bradford fans running on the pitch as they were caught by the stewards and escorted out ?
on the 84th minute JLAA got on the end of a route one ball 1-1 a vital point which prevented town from losing three games on the trot.

Most of the results went towns way ;
Colchester 1 - 4 Peterborough , Crewe 2 - 3 Scunthorpe , Doncaster 3 - 1 Wigan ,lFleetwood 1 - 1 Oldham ,Rochdale 3 - 0 Blackpool . Chesterfield 0 - 3 Sheff Utd.

[zenfootball]

i appreciate that towns defense worked incredibly hard and had little rest but just seen the goals, at the match i thought it was sloppy defending but it looked worse on tv , Bradford number 19 managed to have far to much space and time to beat three defenders to have a free header,
in the lat three games town have been overwhelmed at times, the more experienced players must get a grip and slow the game down just to give the rest of the players some breathing time.

[lazchamp]

When I saw how the teams lined up at the start I was reminded up the Man Utd game - five at the back with an open invitation to Bradford to come and attack - which is just what happened. It was total domination by Bradford for half an hour and to start with i thought it was just a matter of time before they scored. As the game went on I got more and more absorbed by the contest as Town were defending as if their lived depended on it and Bradford didn't seem as incisive as I'd expected.
MM clearly thought the balance was wrong and I thought his subs (Mangan for Cole towards the end of the first half - quite brave to make a tactical switch that soon - and Walley and Wallace at half time) were quite shrewd and at least gave Town some attacking options. The constant assault on Town's box continued unabated however and a goal was surely going to come eventually.
I agree with you, Zen, Porter had too much space for his header. I thought Dom Smith was slightly off balance,' helped probably by Porter giving him a little nudge out of the way. The sort of little nudge that always seems to go unpunished these days. Probably a case of a seasoned pro's experience getting the better of a bit of naivety on Smith's part. That aside, I thought the defence were terrific on the whole and a couple of Leutweiler's saves were world class.
Still, when they scored I thought that was that. There had only been Whalley's effort to offer any encouragement. So it was ecstasy all round when JLAA popped up to score. What their goalie thought he was doing hurtling out to the edge of the box I will never know! Leave it to the centre backs!! Never mind, he did what he did and left the goal wide open.
The BBC stats showed Town having 46% possession - not my perception I must say. 17 corners to Bradford - 0 corners to Town tells the story better
So a truly unexpected point in the end. What a bonus!! And Blackpool lost. Yaayy!!
First time I've seen James Wallace - I liked what I saw although he was limping at one point towards the end. he does seem to be a bit injury prone. Maybe carrying a bit too much weight?!
Roll on Tuesday!