Accrington (H) 1st January 2019

Comfortable victory today without getting out of 3rd gear.

Some very good performances at the back again, notably NKP, who is surely the most improved player since the turn of December.
Whilst perhaps not quite as good as his recent very high standards, Payne was still very good
My MOTM today though would be Doyle. One of his best performances since he signed for us

We certainly look far removed from a side currently battling to beat the drop, and its good to see we are now in touching distance of lower mid table. Still a lot of hard work ahead of us to keep the momentum of this excellent run of form we have hit.

The players can now take a much needed, and well earned rest, ahead of a difficult next game at Oakwell.

Well done to Hopkin, McElhone, Drury and the players for the astonishing turnaround since Herr Rahic left us alone

 

We missed him badly today when he went off. We also missed the likes of Akpan/O’Brien, at times today they went through our midfield today too easily even when down to 10. Shows how important Jim O’Brien and an improved Akpan are to our midfield. Hopefully all three will be fit for the Barnsley game, we need our best team out against that lot.

 

While i still remember, major props to the converted midfielders today,

Ball,O'Connor and Wood- not the best positions for any of them but stuck to the task, albeit against 10 men.

 

Hope Udders realise a dog is for life and not just for Christmas....

 

Did we? I'm not disputing he's a cracking player for us and I want him in the team as much as possible but I think your comment is unfair on the rest of the team, including Wood who replaced him and had an excellent game. We won 3-0 in case it escaped your notice...

 

Form over last 5

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/league-one/formtabelle/wettbewerb/GB3

 

Do we have to go through this anytime anyone dares pick out a comment that someone construes as negative. For what its worth it was a great result but in my opinion it was our weakest performance in our good run of form. I thought Accrington started well the first twenty minutes but we well marshalled by ourdefence, especially NKP and Caddis who i thought were excellent today. I don’t want us to go into the Barnsley game without O’Brien and Akpan/Jim O’Brien, they are intergral to what we do well.
This isn’t a criticism of the likes of Wood or O’Connor but they are not midfielders. They did a job but Barnsley will take advantage if we don’t get our midfielders back.

 

Are we not allowed to have different points of view now? I agree with you 100% he is a valuable member of the team but I don't agree we missed him today when he had to go off - I would have done if we had ended up losing 3-2 but we didn't, we went on to score again (thanks to the player that replaced him) and we kept a clean sheet.

 

I have no problem with different viewpoints, no so keen on disparaging comments about whether i’d forgotten what the scoreline was? Of course i knew the score, i was there. But i know we can play better because i’ve seen it in the last few weeks. Thats not to say it wasn’t a decent win, all wins are good wins. But we need to carry this form on and we will do if we have those aforementioned midfielders back raring to go.

 

https://www.skysports.com/football/bradford-vs-accrington/report/393396

 

Exactly.

Not to mention we still have away games at Barnsley, Portsmouth and Charlton, with Luton coming here too.

 

It was a bit of sarcastic banter but if you are offended by that, I apologise. Of course we need to carry this form on and LoB has been a big part of that and if he is fit for Barnsley of course I would want him to start. However, 1 player does not a team make and if we can still win and win convincingly when one of our best players goes off, I disagree that he was missed and I think it shows a lack of respect to the other players out on the pitch. Just my opinion and as I said, if we had ended up losing or even drawing, I would have agreed with you.

 

What a bag of sh*t, they don't even know what score it was.

 

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-one/27-november-2018/

Month and a bit later. All a bit rosier

 

No apologies needed, you certainly weren’t offensive. If anything i’m being critical because i know the standards that this team are currently setting are very high. I didn’t want it come across as an attack on a great result, more a observation of how important Akpan and J OB are to what we do well.

 

Agreed, I put money on a top 6 place at 250 to 1... I’ll pay for the wembly weekend

 

Solid performance today. Though Accrington looked like a decent team and even with 10 men we didn’t overrun then as we did Rochdale.

Nice to see Doyle get another goal as I think his performances have been getting better in recent weeks (as with the rest of the team) and we want him to get more confidence. The link up play between Doyle, Payne and Ball is really enjoyable to watch. They are all very technically gifted and when you combine them with the work rate of Miller and O’Brien we have a really potent attacking team.

Sadly I can’t see us making the playoffs but hopefully we are laying the foundations for next season. It would be great to keep the current team but I fear some of the loanees will be unlikely to return next year. However, it’s reassuring that Hopkin seems to have a good eye for transfers and has already made some astute signings so I trust that he will be able to bring in appropriate replacements. At the moment though, it’s just great to be watching exciting football matches again.

 

I think we are also starting to see the best of Hopkin and I'll say this quietly but I think he could go on to be one of the best managers we have ever had. One thing that is clear is that he has a strategy. Any players we sign will be strictly vetted based on whether he fits into Hopkin's blueprint. There's something about the way he conducts himself on the touch line and in interviews that gives me the impression that we are in very safe hands. I can't see him putting up with anyone who is not dancing to his tune. Maybe it's the one and only gift we have been left with from the Rahic legacy!

Pinch yourselves fellow bantams. We're not out of the woods yet by a long chalk but who could have dreamed the last 3 weeks a month ago!

 

Enjoyed another win today. Not one of our better recent performances but considering our recent schedule and the injuries we had in midfield I think it was a commendable win.
We were helped by th sending off of the player who ran us ragged at there place. A terrible tackle hope the injury to Obrien doesn’t affect our chances of keeping him.