Sparkie Out

I seriously didn't think Gilly was that bad last night.

Chapman was terrible and he also has very poor body language. For me out of all the signings he's been the most disappointing. For such an experienced player, his decision making is terrible.

I also thought as a collective, the back four had their worse match. Foulds was back, to looking like the naive soul of last season. It's significant that his best performances, coincided with Wright playing just in front of him. Let's hope rumours about that Harrogate LB is correct as it's time to get ruthless.

 

With Gilliead it isn’t about a one off game, we need a midfielder in there which will help us control the game better we never feel on top for decent periods, he contributes nothing to the goals column as well which doesn’t help. Same goes for Chapman, with that system we need a couple of good mids imo and I’d have played East, he played well Salford away and hasn’t had a look in since. I think he can consider himself unfortunate to say the least.

 

Robbie Blake was a player that hardly got a look in for 18 months. I think we forget that it is correct that we take rough diamonds like Young as investments for the future.

We do seem to make assumptions of players, very very quickly - certainly compared to before we got relegated in the 07' season.

I also don't get this attitude towards Hughes. Our 24 game points total is one of the best we've ever had. Hardly justification for the harsh comments he's now getting.

Don't get me wrong the last 30 minutes was terrible. Goodness knows why Hughes was so late with the subs - Walker looked immediately far better than Chapman (not hard) so get the others on. However, I think we need to take a deep breath and count to a zillion before writing off Hughes.

 

What are game points?

 

Our 24 games played points total is one of the best we've ever had.

 

Total number of points after a number of games.

Since 1987/88, the current total is only beaten or matched by 98/99, 08/09, 16/17 and 17/18. Note, that in none of those other seasons did we have much more points than we have now

Now, admittedly, a couple of those, turned out to be a disaster from this point onwards!!!

But at this stage, none of those managers was questioned / criticised as much as Hughes with.

Or put another way, we as fans, are easily the most negative about this promising campaign, compared to others that have started off similarly.

 

Thank you. I don’t want MH sacked. I want him to put right what is happening. It has always been my view it will take 2 seasons to get us promoted. Other teams do it in one full leap, but we are not going to do that given the many setbacks we have had. If we do it this season brilliant, but I still think our odds are better next season.

what I do want to see this season is steady progress. I suppose game points is telling us we are making progress. MH is an experienced manager maybe not at this level but he is not daft and can see what we see. He is apprehensive of being overly positive. He wants to go the steady as you go route which is fine but that is not entertaining, he also had to make sure the customer likes the product and wants to come back next season.

 

Shows the entitlement of our current fanbase or society as a whole these days.
Hughes at least until the end of his current contract for me.

 

But that's pretty meaningless information without a comparison to the points tallies of the other teams in the league at the same point.

Given the trajectory of the club in the time scale quoted (from 99) being the fifth best points tally (in the bottom tier) isn't much to get excited about!

 

Last night was terrible and so disappointing. I guess we all felt as though it was a great opportunity to get within striking distance of Northampton and an auto place. It wasn't to be. However there's still a long way to go and no one should be giving up on promotion. I mean Crewe are in 17th place. If they go on a decent run they might just overcome the 9 point deficit. We are in a far far better position. If we win our next match you just watch the optimism for the autos come flooding back. It would be plain silly to sack MH, a nonsense.

 

Of course we shouldn't sack or even contemplate sacking Hughes, but he has failed if we don't at least finish 7th. After that, the lottery commences.

 

MH can only send the team onto the pitch with his plan/orders
Most of our poor performances are down to the team
No shots or defending mistakes are not down to him

 

Agree no Bradford City fan having watch last night's game could come away with much positivity but as you say there are still plenty of points to play for.

 

It's since the 84/85 season.

And it's the joint 4th best - with 2017/18 (we were about to have that wonderful losing steak in that season!!) i.e. one of the four best starts in nearly forty years.

Even if it was 5th best since 1999. Clearly that puts it in the Top 20% of seasons so far. My point is you wouldn't think that from a lot of the comments this season.

 

I never let defeats affect me much, i.e. never been a 'kick the cat' person. But last night and Northampton was so depressing. The lack of belief when we went 2-1 down in both these games, is worrying.

However, I do think a positive character like Walker can make that slight difference (that ball where he had three around him, lost his balance, but still came away with the ball and got us attacking gives me hope)

And as we saw last night, let's face it we could and should have been 2-0 up if the ref's doing his job, it's marginal gains we need, not wholesale ones.

 

Not sure I agree about Walker tbf I thought he was useless when he came on. chapman has bags of Skill and like so many of our players has zero end product

 

Play with intensity and desire we showed against Salford and we will make the play offs or play like wimps as we did last night and it will be mid table

 

I'm in the camp... Be careful what you wish for.

It ain't perfect, undoubtedly mistakes occur, but we sit tidly in the table with plenty to play for.

 

Happy to take the other City’s current investment if their fans don’t think it’s enough! Appreciate it’s all relative to the level/division they are in though.

As regards MH I think we should refer back to Crewe Alexandra who for years punched way above their weight when Dario Gradi was Manager. Why did they achieve this - continuity and stability. BCFC could learn a lot from this - both as a club and as a group of fans. Yes we are all fickle and want more, especially after thinking the world has ended after a loss at home to Rochdale. But we are currently in the play offs ffs. Give MH a break and give him time