Most liked posts in thread: Bradford City Breaking The SAFC Trend.

No coincidence, you happen to have played a rejuvenated Bradford City at the stadium of light. We were worth a point all day long, at Rochdale we were 4-1 to win with some bookies, that was like printing money. Don’t get me wrong, Rochdale weren’t great, we didn’t allow them to be. But now i don’t fear us against any team in the division as there is no stand out teams in the division this season. We would have been competing for the playoffs had we managed to get rid of the clueless ego maniac running our club at the end of last season. We are thankful for small mercies though, he has now gone and we be safe this season as long as we keep our best players fit and at the club.

 

It was a total mismatch they looked fresh as daisy and we looked poor, tired and overawed. I work in Reading and I really disliked their fans during and after that match.

 

@Lost Mackem - get over yourself!

 

I didn’t attend ‘our biggest game of the season’

I am very disappointed that our young fans misbehaved themselves, obviously for them they haven’t been to SOL so may well have that kind of mentality, but Boxing Day fixtures normally draw a big crowd regardless of who is playing.

Sorry but I get a bit twitchy when ppl start pulling stats and making assumptions based on one set of data and then anecdotal evidence to shore up the stats. Our fans might have misbehaved, but our team were treating it as another match to get a result. Obviously I wouldn’t know about your team, my primary focus is with my own team. There could be a number of reasons as to why teams appear to lose after playing at your place. If you wish to continue with your research, what might be easier if you looked at the club’s who didn’t lose, and correlation factors that are similar or the same, that may or may not fit your hypothesis, but you can always change it. Always good to have a working hypothesis so you can make adjustments

Often teams who come down to league one are surprised at the standards and some take time to settle down. Nevertheless ex PL/Championship teams always have an incredible resource advantage that helps their endeavours. It is no wonder fans and players alike feel that this isn’t where we belong, we ‘deserve’ to be higher, as the whole system is set up to accommodate that premise.

You have to admire teams who have grafted their way to promotion, rather than those that have had a helping hand, but obviously that is just my view.

 

We are a good team simples. I realise Sunderland are your team, but I haven’t been overly impressed with them given their resources, you really ought to be smashing this league. As Tarty states we are not frightened of any team in this Division; if we had a good start we would be pushing for autos. Plus we not only deserved a point at your place,we could have all three if the officials had matched up to the professionalism of the football.

I think you need to dig deeper to test your hypothesis, you would need to know if the same players were playing in the next game, distance between games ie recovery time and to look at the teams who went onto win to see if they match some of the correlations you may discovery. There is also whether the team raised their game at the Stadium of Light, plus were they in form when they came to you or off it.

Lots to consider before you can say that teams are treating a visit to your place like it is their ‘cup final’ good luck.

 

I can't agree with regards the Reading game mate, for me Steve Clarke got his tactics bang on at Valley Parade, he'd seen what we could do against teams that wanted to play football. Reading came with the intention of getting a replay ( unless they could catch us on the break) and got just that and after the first 10 minutes of the replay it was game over.
Although we tried to kid ourselves by chanting to the Reading fans "we'veI been 2-0 down before" unfortunatly on the night we were second best.

 

It's an interesting point and something that I think we have also felt being one of if not the biggest club in the league. Certainly when we were in league 2 the same was said, would be interesting if the same has happened to us in the past.

With regards to us v Sunderland it may be different. Whilst it is obviously the 'biggest' game of the season it's less likely to affect us. We've played in bigger games in recent years, Chelsea away, Wembley etc. We're used to playing in front of relatively big crowds each week. For me it didn't feel like a massive game, it felt like the sort of match we should be playing in on a regular basis in a higher division. The fact that we took a similar a number of fans to Rochdale away a couple of days later kind of shows that too.

The Sunderland game was probably our worst performance this month (not that we were particularly bad mind) we could never really get our high pressing game going. We defended well and Sunderland didn't really create much either, only scoring after a mistake from our goalie. If the ref had got some of the major calls right we would have walked away with all 3, let alone a point.

Good luck to Sunderland, I initially thought you might struggle this season and finish mid table but some good business just before the start of the season has righted the wrongs at the SOL and put you in contention. Probably the best placed team to strengthen in Jan and push for top 2, but I wouldn't go for Payne if I were you. No chance of him being good enough

 

Sunderland fans obviously consider Bradford City to be an “important game” hence your highest home attendance this season. I personally don’t think we played as well as we have recently, but we were at a bit of a disadvantage not have 12 men on the pitch.

 

Portsmouth are a fit and physical side from what i remember. They didn’t stand our as impressive but play to their strengths. They remind me of the set up Parky had us playing. As for Rahic, if he learns anything from his spell at our club it’s that you concentrate on what you are good at and employ others that are good at the other roles. It seems ironic now that Rahic brought Hopkin on board but he was never going to let him manage the way he is now. Thats not the reason Rahic came over here. Shame because we now look to have a manager who can make us progress.

 

Morning @Lost Mackem,
Its something you as a club will have to live with, you're a big club compared with most in this league.
I know we have the cheap ticket offer but apart from yourselves us and Pompey there aren't many who can get 20,000 for a home game.
We had a similar situation after our Cup exploits in the Capital One Cup and after our run that season we beat Chelsea and some other Premiership team in the FA Cup, everyone wants to beat you and rather than a crowd of 18/20,000 putting the opposition off many play far better on the day, so my friend its something you and your club will have to live with untill your back in the Championship at least.

 

Did you intentionally not include Sunderland in there @Bronco out if politeness.

 

It doesn’t. I think you are meeting each other half way. They step up you step down a bit. The amount of fans you bring too away games, these too are an occasion for a ‘smaller’ side but your away form is excellent. I personally love seeing your club turn it around. Proper football club with passionate fans

 

Lost credibility at that point mate

 

I think "after the Lord's mayor's show" is the term used when a smaller club plays a big club and gets a result.

At this level there is a disparency between genuinely "big" clubs down on their luck swimming in a small pond and the traditionally "small" clubs will always look to beat them.If they do get a result they often lose a next winnable game because they did play above normal levels.

In our FA cup run we were finding a level above ourselves which is why after the Chelsea game we beat you too,because you were another premier team.I think we were not up for the Reading game in the same way,them being a so so championship side.It's all about the incentive to raise your game.Players should always play to their potential but it doesn't happen.The manager who could get the best from his players every game would be a marvel indeed.

 

It all sounds a bit like when you used to go to big clubs like Middlesbrough and Newcastle.

 

and still no doubt

 

A fair assessment Bronco,going down to ten men probably sealed it but when deflections go in as well then you know it's not your night.

 

Quite right. I felt for once we came up against a manager who instead of thinking we are better than them, he fully respected us and came up with a game plan. He out parkinsoned us