Match Thread Bradford City v Grimsby Town EFL (Vertu) Trophy Tue 2 Sep 2025 7.30pm

Thanks Rod, proves a point nicely. They were very poor , even taking into account both sides fielded “ squad / fringe” players getting minutes.
It’s tremendously difficult to get through 9 mannequins camped on the edge of the 18 yard line .

Artell fools no one .

 

You could not have made a story in an all action boys comic , Roy of the Rovers style . Fans would think they are fantasists ?

“Cook of the Chickens”

 

It will be outstanding Dave.. Window / Contract steps over 2-3 windows yet tbh. An excellent start at window 1 for sure.

 

He's 100% going down as a City legend. He needs 6 goals to be 2nd in the all time scorer list, no doubt in my mind whatsoever that he can notch 6 more by the end of the season. He needs 13 goals to hit a century for City......... maybe?

Bobby score 143 in 320 games, Cook is sat at 87 from 193, the ratio isn't far off to be fair. I cant find a minutes played stat for Campbell but given there weren't many subs back in his day, he probably played 90 far more often than Cook, has who has played 90 minutes in 102 of his 193 apps for City. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Cook actually scores more goals per minutes at City than Campbell did.

 

Id forgotton about 316’s

You Tube is you best bet.

 

Maybe a couple of pints of bitter and 10 fags before the game would help Cook up the ante?

 

He's so far had 25 shots in a City shirt, 13 of those were on target, and just the 1 goal which was his open net 1 yard out tap in. He's played 490 mins for us, so 25 shots makes it a shot every 19.6 minutes which should be more than enough to make an impact.

This is kinda what i mean before when I've said he drifts too wide or shoots in "wide man" positions rather than a central striker position. This image is his shot map in L1 football so far this season, 20 shots in L1 and the goal is the little ball symbol that's about a yard out. Look at the areas he's shooting from, they are so wide! Loads of efforts far too wide or an angle, or from 20+ yards out and as he cant hit them with venom, they don't cause much issue. He's only been in the poaching CF position for the ball in for 4 efforts, sort of around than penalty spot or 6 yard box.




This image shows his main problem which a lot have said, he just cant finish. Of his shots that are on target, they are all straight at the keeper. Only twice has he put an effort on goal which is anywhere near out of a keepers standing area. He hits it far too centrally.

 

Disagree they defended really well against the odds and probably deserved something from the game

 

Good work @Jordan

 

Opinions…Have you looked at the stats?

 

Re open the Belle Vue

 

Happy days.

 

The stats don't always show the full picture. We had a lot of the ball as they allowed us to have the ball and 16 of our 25 shots were outside the area, if you want to look at xG they restricted us to less than 2.

Stats don't show the context of their team which has been heavily hit by injuries, international call ups and Oduor was ineligible. 2 of their back 4 were making their first ever senior appearance and another 2 player who were making his first senior start. In contrast our team wouldn't look out of place if that was our starting 11 in the league. For all of the 1st half we were by far the 2nd best.
I can understand why Artell was proud of his players and thought they played well and if we were in their position I think we would think the same in their position. Ultimately it took us 2 good crosses and 2 perfect headers to beat them, if we don't have a player like Cook coming off the bench we don't look like winning that.

 

I wouldn't say they were 'by far' the better side first half but were the better side. Not that i cared for the result as i'd only gone to see Andy Cook comeback. As for the ref, a shocker of a red card. As for the foul throw the officials missed lol...

 

Agree they were certainly trying to hold onto their lead and who could blame them down to 10 men and were never going to be a threat going forward but for all the bluster from our players prior to him coming on it looked very much like they might achieve their goal, but two decent crosses for Cookie and the rest is history, no better player at the club for attacking an arial ball, the mans fearless very much like the late Tony Leighton and of course the great Bobby Campbell, you had to be brave to challenge those guys to a cross into the box.

 

@Jordan is the @The Voice and I claim my £20 Bantam Talk voucher.

 

Its clear as day when watching, he's happier running at goal than with his back to goal and he naturally likes to drift to the left to cut in for a shot. He's not a box player.

 

Down to 12 men...

They should have been all over us!