Home v Plymouth Feb 29th

Once Lowe made his two half time subs we could see he was saying we have nothing to lose we'll go for it which to their credit they did, but do we make life hard for ourselves, three glorious chance to extend our lead Novak should have done better but Donaldson's miss was right up there with sitters of the past, we should have coasted this game without a Plymouth reply, 3/4/5 - 0 onto Salford with a bit of confidence from a clean sheet but no not Bradford City we have to finish the game clinging on against 9 men.
Given how the pitch looked both teams tried to play football, today Connolly was unplayable, he had the Plymouth full back in his pocket most times he went forward and rightly was named MOTM.

 

Dylan Connolly, take a bow played like a man possessed and made stuff happen!
Leaving aside the goal my fave moment was late in second half and Dylan chases down the goalie, goalie tries to kick up field and ball spins back to Dylan wide out.
When its your day and all that.

On the usual note, plymouth despite being down to 10 men for over 45 mins were able to attempt 14 shots with thankfully only 3 on target.
Game after game City are unable to put a shift in midfield to keep these attempts down and then you have Mellor and Henley backing off and backing off and..................oops another simple goal.
On no account can City allow Clayton another 1 year deal, he has nothing left to offer.Tell him we will send him on loan to non league football.

 

Thoughts on some of the players:

Donaldson - criminal miss in the second half, you just can't have a seasoned striker missing those chances.
Novak - passenger most of the time, bad miss at the end
Motley Henry - the lad keeps coming on and contributing very little, not only that but once Stuart had switched the right hand side to DMH and Henley we looked very fragile yet again. DMH does not defend at all, and is a bit of a liability. Looks like a kid learning the game, but isn't that what he should have been doing at the Barnsley Development Squad...?
McCartan - reasonable game, but I don't know how many free kicks he would have needed before hitting the target!
Connolly - MOTM by a country mile, the Plymouth defence couldn't get to grips with him and his free role-type position made him a nightmare to deal with. What a strike, but I hardly expect the same again next week.
Akpan - already said it, he is the absolute worst.
Wood & Reeves - two neat footballers, tidied up a lot
Mellor/Henley - both poor, Henley weakened the team when he came on however
BRE/AOC - finally, a goal from our lumps!
ROD - generally steady, had a 'mare for their goal

 

Not a lot to disagree with there. Except I don’t get all this criticism of Novak. I’m waiting to see what he offers when the ground isn’t so heavy. He works hard for me.

 

Strange how we see the game differently I thought Mellor did a good job against there wideman but looked to be struggling late on with it being his first game back after a lay off, sorry I'm not sure what Henley brings to the game(although Stuart had little option but to make the change).
Cooke for Akpan should have been made earlier, possibly when he took Mellor off, and I personally thought young McCartan played well today and was tidy just behind the front two.
I was really disappointed we conceded late on unfortunately their goal was always looking like coming from that side, another indecent that I need to look at again was it poor keeping, we hear keepers should not get beaten on the near post, saying that their keeper certainly kept them in the game with his keeping.

 

Akpan you cant give heart to someone with a soft centre who doesn't want it.

 

Rumour circulating around our area scouts watching Wood today.

 

Actually Broncs I think we see it very much the same. I didn’t criticise Mellor, I don’t think. The three I mentioned as delivering par performance for them were Donaldson, Henley and Akpan. However because of the weather and fact I live in Scarborough I watched on IFollow today which is never as good as seeing live for judging performances. The ground looked terrible - as bad as I can remember. How bad was it and how much does it affect our performance.

 

I was pleased to be at Valley Parade today to see the first City goal of the season scored from a corner kick, a fortnight after I'd let Stuart know that statistic.

 

No shock that.

 

I think it’s fair to say they weren’t running the rule over Alpan.

 

What's his contract situation?

 

Another year left. Player of the season by a mile

 

No one else even in the conversation.

 

Glad the consensus seems to have moved away from AOC.

I wouldn't be looking to sell Wood, full stop.

Flattering if teams are looking at him, but nobody pays money for League Two fullbacks.

 

Its to be hoped we can tempt him with a contract extension

 

Not at all as I said I thought Mellor did OK to say it was his first game back, and was expected to support Connolly whenever possibly, first half the major problems were coming down the Plymouth left and he did well IMO, always offering something in the box from set pieces and his long throws are another advantage, I was just worried when Henley came on and had to nullify there biggest threat we got the three points and that's all we could get from the game but out game management once again was poor, a heavy pitch like that down to 10 men we should have worked them harder, yet even when they went down to 9 they looked a threat going forward.

 

We look a lot better side when he plays

 

3 year contract signed June 2018.

 

Agreed. I posted when Henley came on we were opening up our right side and so it proved although keeper should have saved it. As I say it’s difficult to judge from a one camera television image. Pitch looked an absolute shocker.