Home vs Port Vale 22nd October

I haven't seriously considered who the MOTM was, but it's telling that Cooke had SO MUCH of the ball, including all the set pieces, and really conjured little. I'm not knocking him, I'm saying that's not necessarily his strength.

 

Had the referee consulted me, I would have informed him it 100 % was definitely a foul, studs up, and two footed.

How he stayed on the pitch having deliberately tried to also elbow Devine AND punch him, I'll never know.

Otherwise, no, not a penalty.

Even more bizarre given he let plenty of similar 'fouls' go throughout the game.

 

There's surely an issue. You'd have though he'd been at least on the bench in front of Staunton

 

We missed Pritchard, Connolly and Donaldson badly. They’d walk in most teams in this league so it’s understandable, as would Palmer and Devitt and I’ve probably missed one or two. To many injuries is the main problem, if the first three played tonight we win easy imo, but we’ll never know. The only thing Bowyer should have done differently imo was play Henley over Mellor, but even then it’s a couple of silly individual mistakes that have cost us.


Devine and Akpan weren’t awful, but I can’t go as far as to praise them, you see the lack of quality when Pritchard isn’t in there. It felt like Cooke was on his own at times. Devine reminds me of Miller a bit, very, very lightweight and although can find the odd good position I never get excited when he’s in one as I’m always sure nothing will come of it. And Akpan always looks 2 yards off the pace even in his better games, and for his size if ridiculous physically.

We need our injury load to lighten ASAP.

 

Cmon it was a shit shot easily saved.

 

Good play though.

Plus, if you're playing against two keepers like the BBC report indicates, you're always going to struggle - apparently both keeper Scott Brown and keeper Richard Brown did well to save efforts!

"Bradford dominated the second half as Zeli Ismail's close-range shot was saved at the near post by keeper Scott Brown in the 57th minute, Kelvin Mellor saw his shot cleared off the line by Legge in the 70th minute and keeper Richard Brown did well to save Connor Wood's 25-yard drive before Atkinson's dramatic late winner."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50051092

 

The first half, like the second half against Crawley was shite. Without a doubt. Without Pritchard we have very little penetration. Vaughan is getting stick on here tonight which I think is unfair. GB is playing one striker with O coming in from the wing. Vaughan has no where to go and no one to knock it to. Pritchard and connelly were really missed . Even then we were the better team in the second half but for GB not to make a timely substitution is criminal. That result has been coming and even 4th in league still not convinced GB is the the best man

 

Could not agree more

 

Go on then, we’re all ears as to who you propose and why.

 

A few bullet points:

• First half, take your hat off to Vale, they were very good, particularly off the ball. Good running, pulling players out of position, a high pressing game when not in possession. We were struggling, but credit to they players, the stuck with it and didn’t fold or let their heads drop. Lucky to go in at 1-1 on the balance of play.
• 2nd half we were a totally different team. We were asking all the questions. Lots of possession, nice build up play at times. Cooke is exactly what we’ve been missing for 4-5 years, an excellent acquisition.
• Thought both full backs, Wood and Mellor were poor, Wood unusually so, lots of stray passes from them.
• Ismail was a marked man especially first half, but had better luck in the 2nd.
• Akpan has been transformed. Don’t know what Bowyer has said to him but he’s a different player. Thought he was very good tonight.
• Thought both goals were shocking, especially the 2nd one. Atkinson won a header on the edge of the box and followed up into the area unchallenged. A very soft goal as Bowyer rightly pointed out in his interview.
• I don’t mind if we lose if we show spirit and endeavour and on the whole we did.
• We’ve got to remember we have key players out, Pritchard, Donaldson and Connolly to name but 3.
• People are complaining about the lack of subs but I’m not sure who we could have changed given we were dominating the 2nd half. McCartan looked to be coming on at one point but Vaughan ran off his knock. Perhaps he could have come on but for who, Oteh perhaps but I can’t see why we’d have made 2-3 subs when the momentum was with us.
• All in all a frustrating night but far from a wrist slasher as some fans would have us believe.

 

Odd comment regarding Paudie. Who would you drop? I can’t say I’ve seen anything that suggests he’s our best CB. They are all pretty much the same for me, although I think AOC is better on the ball and for that I prefer him given our tendency to play from the back.

 

Agree with all but the subs issue, which I do find an issue tonight.

Oteh did nothing until his interplay with Akpan, and was moved from the wing to play up front with Vaughan to equally little effect.

Akpan's performance dipped in the first fifteen minutes of the second half, and he failed to influence anything from the attacking midfield role - a perfect time to introduce McCartan - but once that passed and Akpan reasserted himself, Oteh should have departed (particularly once he was playing up front).

Henley would have been a sound replacement for Mellor once on top, and furthered our attacking potential.

As for Devine off for P. O'Connor in the 90th minute, MEEEEEEEEEH. That's a much better sub if we're WINNING.

 

He just needs another 6 months to grow into the season or sommat. Butterfield told me and Butterfield knows fullbacks.

 

We are masters of our own destiny and need to weather the storm. The most important members at the Club right now who can influence matters on the pitch are the physios. We need bodies back pretty sharpish!

 

Couldn’t agree more on every point, spot on IMO.

 

Agree with all of that. Though I'd say the second half was more about huff and puff than real quality and penetration.

That said, we were missing Riley, Palmer, Pritchard, Connelly, Donaldson, Devitt, Gibson. Plus Robinson and Reeves.

Theres not a side in the league who could take 7-9 first team players missing and not have it impact the quality of their performance. In fact, the only club in the entire country who probably could is Man City and they're funded by an oil state.

One slight gripe is our set pieces. We're a big side and we dont seem to be a threat from them. And the only justification for Mellors inclusion seems to be his long throws - but we never threaten from them

 

Yep , pretty much mirror the last few posts in all honesty. A very frustrating night but one where its hard to single out an area of blame seeing as though we dominated without carving out a real clear chance.

Thought we started slowly and again our midfield shape suited our opponents more than us but we adjusted well eventually.

Alot of huff and puff and desire to get in the box but we did struggle to break them down at times (always gonna happen with no creative mid) and we were left seemingly hoping ismail could do it all.

Defence reasonably solid, thought AOC best of the bunch again, solid in the air and used the ball very very well at times. Both full backs have had better games.

Midfield i thought werent bad, devine grew into had probably his best game, getting up and down, taking players on, getting in the box, pretty much everything we hadnt seen before from him. Looks like he is getting more confidence with gametime although it does look like he may need to take some blame for the winner with atkinson seemingly running behind him.

Cooke used the ball well as a pivot but i wonder if in games like this he would have been better in a more advanced role and let akpan sit rather than starting moves 30 yards off vaughan.

The front three tried, ismail looked knackered early on and whilst a threat i feel he should have done better a few times and just actually cross the ball instead of beating the full back for a fifth time. Oteh i would maybe have liked to have gone more central earlier, has genuine pace and would have caused problems, took one cross off vaughans head and again needed to be more clever with his big chance late on.

Vaughan was playing a role he isnt suited to but is going to have to get used to, and needs to understand he will get frustrated and adapt his game. He is winning a lot of headers, but to no-one, if we are playing to his head , the rest need to at least run off him.

Bowyer i think didnt want to gamble and lose but ended up losing anyway. We said it was difficult to pick one player to take off and swap which might change the game. Could possibly have gone mcarten for devine , given the way devine had the beating of the full back a few times i do wonder what ismail would have done over there with mccarten on the left.

To sum up a long post (apologies), a frustrating night but given we dominated the 2nd half conceding in the 93rd min with probably the only time the ball was in our box, and with so many men missing then i certainly arent seeing this as the end of the world

 

You may be right @Allotment Bantam I Iheard it was to do with him playing for Barrow in a friendly, if its the Lancashire Cup and he has signed for Barrow you wouldnt think it to be too difficult to say no he's aBarrow player or he's not.
We could do with the likes of Conolly and Pritchard back from injury soon.

 

I though the exicuson was quality and Brown did well with the shot.

 

We’ve played worse and gained points this season. On Saturday against Crawley we didn’t play any better and got a win. It will be like this nearly every week in this division, there is no standout side at this level. Had we had the starting eleven from the Swindon game available i would have expected us to win last night, hopefully one or both of Pritchard and Connolly are back.