Match Thread Bury FC v Bradford City AFC Saturday 8 July 2023 3pm

Like the BBC weather forecast then !

 

Ditto Didier Deschamps. The Water Carrier.

 

We have a holding midfielder in Smallwood. If we need Gillead to do Smallwoods job then why do we need Smallwood?

 

To cover for injuries obviously.

 

"Why can't you have both?"

*uses example of premier league player while we're in league two*

Oh ffs....

 

When they were both playing in the same starting line up?

We're talking past tense here, not the future when, hopefully, Gillead doesn't feature much.

 

Just because it's an example from the Premier League doesn't mean it's not applicable in league 2

 

Wasn’t that the role Smallwood was brought in to do? Passing to a more technical player who will hopefully do something creative with it, rather than pass it back to him or one of centre half’s. It’s either or for me, not both, and as Smallwood has the better stats it surely has to be him.

 

All this focus on Gillead when it was the 3 players in front of the two deeper CMs that were the issue. Banks, Chapman, Walker, Eisa etc all had their chances in the 3 forward positions behind Cook and all were underwhelming.

In my opinion our failure to get promoted is due to the lack of goals outside of Cook and those 3 positions are where the bulk of those extra goals should have come from.

 

People who think Gilly won’t start the majority of games are mad, he has the number 11 shirt, he started the majority of games last season, Hughsey absolutely loves him. I’d bet good money that as long as he’s not injured he will start nearly every game.

 

If you are correct which I hope you aren't, we can forget about promotion.

 

I like the lad but I think he’s behind 4 others at the moment. Bench warmer then available when Walker and Pattison are tiring?

 

Interesting to see how we line up with the new recruits in the squad. If fit I'd expect MacDonald, Smallwood and Pattison to start along with Andy Cook up front. See what jigsaw pieces are missing and then slot in the likes of Walker, Smith, Chapman, Gilliead, Odour, East, dependant on the formation.

 

I'll have you a £25 Burns unit bet he doesn't start 30+ league games if you like? We can add it to the friendly bet thread.

 

Not a chance he will Dave. I think on first glance , that ship has sailed. I can’t see a place other than in the warm seats and on the grass for the last 20.

 

Yea go on then mate, all for a good cause. It's gonna end up with me rooting for him to start aint it, never thought id see the day hahaha

@Administrative could you add this to the bet thread please?

 

Haha, top man.

@king karl , should I add this bet to the old thread or will there be a new sticky for this season's friendly bets?

 

5451 fans welcomed Bury back to competitive football at Gigg Lane yesterday as they got their season off to a fine start with a 5-1 victory over Glossop.

Good luck to them.

 

Thanks for that @Idlebantam as I said to our resident Bury fan I and many more Bradford City fans will be watching their results but I didn't reailise their season kicked off this weekend, great start to their campaign and a very good attendance.