Match Thread Bradford City V Rochdale Tuesday 10 January 2023 @ 7.45

Losing Wright will make that a touch harder now.

 

The pitch has stood up well to the battering of rain before the Harrogate and Salford games and credit to the drainage that was done in 2018 and the ground staff as the pitch wasn’t heavy at all. However Tuesday forecast is rain of biblical proportions so not sure it will stand up to this.

 

By eck, Stevenage and Steve Evans, no matter your thoughts, have done exceptional so far this season. Couple of decent scalps in the LC, a fantastic win at Villa this afternoon and sitting proudly in the league. Momentum is everything. Stevenage have it.

 

Talking of Stevenage. Just watched their game at Villa. Fantastic win for them, let's hope the continuing cup run distracts them and affects their league form for a bit

 

it’s brilliant but it could start to affect them at some point like it did us in 2013

 

If they get promoted they'll have a load of money to pay out.

The debentures they sold to pay for the new stand had a payback clause based on promotion to league one.

 

Most League Two teams beat Villa in the cup from my experience?

 

Massive banana skin Tuesday.

Think the doggies back in the nearly season. Rock bottom and roll on up a mid-week and come away with a win.

Whenever it's a game where we should win we always seem to feck it up

 

Let's hope this cup run affects their league form like the capital one did with us

 

How many extra points do you get for having more fans?

 

A young lad who sits near us in the main stand reckons that Evans is like Otis on WWE.
I had a quick look and had to laugh.

 

The reason the “ New Towns”, aka Harlow, Stevenage etc cannot readily generate crowds is pretty simple. Traditionally these places were built on the basis of traditional North or East Londoners moving away from their roots to “ greener new towns after the second world war. The tradition still lives on to this day, grandad supported, dad supported , so “I will support” Spurs Arsenal or to a lesser extent West Ham. As these towns were based on mainline commuter routes it’s far quicker to travel the thirty miles or so to their native clubs than it is for City fans to cross Bradford.

Stevenage have a local fan base ceiling they have probably hit already and whilst the existence and travel facilities to the “ traditional” clubs remain, they have little chance of it growing.

 

You right of course, however the issue is sustainability without funding from whatever source. Crowd income being one of the factors. They have done well on such a small squad for sure.

 

We are the exception to the rule.

Generally, if you have more fans, you do better, over a long period.

But then, we only seem to exist to prove statistics wrong...

 

I very much share your hope. If we can reign in Stevenage then IMO we will be very close. With regards to the Cup exploits, we reached the league Cup final, JPT semi final and FA Cup 2nd round (including 2 replays) that season, Stevenage 3rd league Cup, PJT, 2nd round and to date, 4tb round of the FA Cup.
Just across November and December, we played 5 more games during our cup exploits. Plus, Stevenage in a much better position then we was at said time.
Going into that game against Villa, we had took 1 point from 9, Stevenage today, 7 points from their last 9. Momentum.

I'm not sure the size of the club and its supporters will determine where they finish this season. Glass ceiling... I'm not sure you or I can determine the future.

As for Evans the man, I don't advocate him. But I do advocate (like yourself) what Evans and his team are doing.

I'll stick with what I said earlier, Stevenage have momentum and a huge 12 point gap on City.

 

I'm not sure we are anymore. The higher you go, the less the fans mean as it's TV revenue and foreign owners that provide the money rather than bodies through the turnstiles.

 

I'm only concerned with the 22/23 league 2 season. Sustainability and funding does not seem to have overly effected them this season.

 

I'm not seeing that born out, to be honest.

League One always has a few very well supported sides.

None of them seem to struggle in League Two for very long.

Just us.

We seem to endlessly struggle in League Two lol

 

@JonButterfield 7 years of R&R may lead you to the answer