Match Thread Away v Harrogate Town - Sat 17 April 2021 12:30 pm kick off

More important than ever after a season and half with no fans in ground. Many people didn’t renew this season and it won’t be an easy sell to get them back. There’ll also be fair weather fans who have found other pastimes on a Saturday and won’t be back. We need positive vibes from the club that next season won’t just be another ‘mid table budget’ team where we need to punch above our weight just to make the top 7. The aim should be to win the league but 3rd place as absolute minimum

 

Agree. You show the winger down the line. I don't understand what backing off and allowing the attacker on his favourite foot is going to achieve barring him shooting.

Also watch Sutton doing an assault on one of their players and Evans just jogging back thinking about how he sucked Bradford City into boosting his retirement fund. Our midfield is a joke!

 

Yeah not seen the game, but it sounds like that

1. Niall canavan is a sound signing and we missed him today.
2. We still need some more signings in the summer.

Hopefully we can continue our early form next season and go up!

 

Three crap performances in a row when we had a lot to fight for sums up this half of the season.

No leadership present in the team. No GK should be captain unless they have an immense personality and influence in the dressing room and can translate that onto the pitch. How many times has the armband been passed around?

A lot needs looking at but midfield first please.

 

Remember they are youth team coaches usually up against youth team coaches in the youth games, They are now in the big boys league and need to step up to first team football and learn fast and get team selection and tactics right, They look like they have hit their limit so need to go through the barrier and prove their worth and are capable of competing at this level

 

they have done that already they achieved what they where employed to do

 

There are 4 or 5 of that Harrogate team who would improve on what we currently have and that sums up where we are as a squad.

 

So what happens next ?
Is that it kept us in this league and missed an excellent chance of a play off spot
Job Done !!!
Bit negative and lacking in ambition for you is that
Rest assured this will be a very different league next season we have missed a very good opportunity

 

Agree
It also sums us up as a club when you look at the promotion/play off contenders
With respect and we have no given right we shouldn't be behind the likes of Forest Green Newport Salford Cambridge etc
On and off the pitch lots of improvement required or a long stay in the khazi league awaits

 

I thought when we scored, we were going to win it. There came a rather exciting ten mins after that, with Donaldo going close. I have to admit, I was more excited about the £75 I was going to win if we scored (halftime/full time bet) than the actual game, but it spurred me on to thinking that we'd get something. Crushed as always, but was as expected, because we were just clueless in midfield, toothless in attack and all over the place in defence. Watching that game, with the camera angle so low, and the pitch so bad, and the stadium so non league, just made me realise what we've become. Five mins into the game, I was thinking "uuu, I wonder if the town of Harrogate are excited they have BRADFORD CITY playing at Wetherby Road today?" Shortly followed by the realisation that they could very well do the double on us, and it's the famous Bradford City that look over run in midfield, even when Harrogate went down to ten men at one point, they were bursting through the middle.

I'm beginning to think that T&S are too nice. Not suprising considering their age and experience, but what is really needed after the last couple of matches, is a real dressing down, rocket up the arse type of talking to the players. I think they've got it too easy. Evans was just jogging round the pitch, Rowe was off having a fag leaning on a fence by the corner flag, Clarke obviously thought he'd been given the day off.

Not good enough all round.

 

As Sparks alludes to you have to earn that right to gain promotion and it starts at the very top. In truth we had no intention of gaining promotion, merely hoping to get through with what was a unique situation due to the corona virus. This lack of ambition from Rhodes tied with the recruitment of McCall basically wrote the season off before it had even started. The fact we are even near the playoffs is testament to Sparks response to what could easily have been another relegation season. Next season will really show where this clubs ambitions lie, it won't be lacking from Sparks. But how much of that ambition is in Stefan Rupp remains to be seen.

 

Why will it be a very different league next year. We are told that every year. The fact is despite what some people say league two is what it always is the fourth tier of football and the standard will be exactly the same next year

 

Verdict out for me so far on Mr Sparks acknowledging he had a task and a half lifting the club after Mr Rhodes had departed the "bar" was not that high for improvement to be honest
Still think we have missed a glorious opportunity this season many many clubs were prepared to " tread water" this season and those with ambition decided this was the best chance to get out of the league take Bolton Cambridge Salford as an example
Even after our diasterous start we were in a position to achieve the play offs
Think Mr Rupp will fund the club till he is in a position to get his investment back (good luck with that one ) and disappear as fast as he can

 

No
Lots of clubs (us included) decided survival was the aim due to covid
We won't be the only team deciding that next season is the one for promotion so will be a very different league
We had it within our grasp but in usual Bradford City style fell at the last hurdle we have both seen it on more than one occasion

 

I am struggling with that one too. Losing 2 of Grimsby, Southend and Colchester and being replaced by the mighty Sutton and possibly Hartlepool perhaps, dont think so

Even losing the likes of perhaps Bolton, Cheltenham, Cambridge and Tranmere for Rochdale, Northampton, Swindon and Bristol Rovers is hardly going to make the league that much better

 

Substitute Sutton and Hartlepool with our record against Harrogate and Salford and you may have the answer

 

We missed out at the last hurdle because we were catching up from a very low base and unlike many of the teams above us who are slipping in the run in we don’t have the points in the bag already to fall back on

 

As well as Jamie Raynor, Simon Parker also gave the MOTM to FCD, funny how people see things so differently. I didnt watch the game so cannot give my opinion

 

The only reasonable candidate for MOTM was Crankshaw and he was only on the pitch for 20 mins. FCD was probably no worse than most, but he gets an easy ride because he's home grown. You don't really need to watch the game - just watch the second goal and see how much time and space FCD gives their lad to cut inside and hit a shot. MOTM? Deary me...

 

Strange how folk see things, i've seen people blaming ROD for the second goal when really he's left with no chance because FCD allows the attacker the inside, its one of the most common methods of scoring these days as your keeper is completely exposed.