Match Thread Cheltenham Town v Bradford City FA Cup 1st Round - Sat 1 Nov 2025 3pm

I agree with your comment about Cook being brought on later in the game certainty until he sustain 90 minutes or so, but I thought yesterday's game was an ideal chance for him to get much needed game time, we (including Cook) had enough chances to win the game we didn't take one and it cost us the game, its not the first time Barnsley a good example even with their wonder goal we had enough chances to have put the game to bed.

 

Hmmm. I don’t think I’ve actually blamed Cook though have I?

 

I think that is right he is now 36 and recovering from an injury that can finish players Career and the first time he has played at this level. He still has a lot to offer but I think it should be from the bench at the moment

 

Cookie would fit perfectly into our system if the wide men would cross the bloody ball instead of feigning to cross and pass the ball backwards for it to go to the other wing, and the same thing happens all over again

 

Its the FA Cup. Shock horror, team from league below beats team above them. We've done it to other teams and this time its our turn to go home empty handed. We've been great this season so far and still second in League 1, despite the recent blips. Time to concentrate on the Burton game and 3 points to keep us up there. Yesterday just was one of those days that happens in this beautiful game

 

I stand corrected

 

I'd suggest this is pretty damning about the lad "Sadly, Cook needs moving on in January. He’s a busted flush" suggesting he has no future at the club after the one start.

 

https://bantamtalk.com/index.php?threads/cheltenham-town-v-bradford-city-fa-cup-1st-round-sat-1-nov-2025-3pm.9586/page-7#post-1023414

Bad start but plenty of time to get ourselves sorted and beat this lot.

 

Flinging crosses endlessly into the area for Cook to get on the end of one will produce goals for Cook at the expense of anyone else scoring. I'd rather we play the attacking football we've been playing at the start of this season than just servicing Cook and making sure we sling enough crosses in so that he can get his 1:2 ratio.

 

These type of games are helped by making use of "set piece coach " and hopefully City can come up with a goal from from one to break them down.

 

We scored a nice one against Barnsley

 

If we go back to our slick passing game and keep the ball on the grass we will do better than the hoof ball and big hopeful headers we’ve played of late.

 

The "league 2" type games don't suit us at all. We seem to get dragged into long hit and hope balls, rather than the short intricate passing game that brought us success early in the season. 8 changes doesn't help either, but that's a consequence of having such a big squad. I don't believe the injured are as bad as Alexander makes out, only that he has to be fair to the others and is giving them a 3 or 4 game run in the team to keep them happy. The problem is we stopped playing our best football, and our strongest 11. We need a win sooner rather than later, with a return to the 7 or so regular starters. Enough with the 6+ changes every other game. The ratings from Parker had mainly 5's and 6's. That's not good enough for those knocking on Alexander's door wanting a start.

 

He's 35 (just) and has played over 50 times at league one level.

But yeah, other that that I suppose there might be something you actually got correct.

 

What about when we just smash it forward like against Stevenage and Lincoln though?

I do agree with the point to an extent but we don't generally play lovely silky football for the majority and our most effective tactic seems to be to get the ball wide, very quickly and then get it across the box.

I accept Cook has limitations but we're also seeing that none of the other centre forwards are particularly the first name on the team sheet either so perhaps that needs to change before it can truly be judged which centre forward (perhaps it'll be a new one in January) actually fits our team shape best.

 

Why folk are going on about the Ref ?????
We all know the majority are fooking poor we just hope every so ofter we get the odd good one

 

We've scored 5 goals from set pieces so far in L1, which puts is in a big block of teams in the same boat on 5 SPGs, Cardiff sit 12th in that list on 4, so we're above the middle. Stevenage are currently top on 8 goals so far from set pieces. We've conceded 4 from set pieces which has us 13th in that list, again middle of the pack. Blackpool have conceded 10 SPGs in 14 games, if you count penalties they've conceded 13 from dead balls in 14 games.

I'm sure it was this time last season-ish that GA said something in the press around us not making the most of our set pieces? Certainly rings a bell. We win a lot of headers, only Stevenage and Vale win more aerials than us per game this season and only Bolton average more shots than us per game, so we do tick the boxes but it's just not really landing too often so far.

 

Did i dream that we are using a set piece consultant?