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

I’m like you , not too fussed tbh . Yes great to win, but the money spinner at Newcastle was this seasons monetary bonus. Makes a change from not having a decent money spinner for many seasons.We have one focus this season , consolidate our promotion.

 

I'd argue lower division clubs are better set up to defend set pieces

 

We stopped playing our best football and strongest 11 due to injuries and thats out of GAs hands

Had the squad been fully fit like last season when we hit our dodgy spells then i doubt e would be having this convo.

A fully fit Humphries ( who was picking up ) a fully fit Pointon and Patto the same ..........it was always going to cause us major problems along with our defence................we get them all back fit and we will be flying again im sure of it

 

I agree. I did say somewhere before Cook was injured and this summer on here we need a quality striker. Yes the other lads have done brilliantly in keeping the scoring going, but we need a proven striker. I know Humps was brought in, but he has not proved prolific and is probably better behind a striker.

I don’t see why Cook cannot play our current formation. Yes he is not a silky player, but his instinct for a goal is second to none, we can accommodate him and play like we have, he needs to sit back a bit and wait for the ball to get in his area. He is a good defender and good at holding the ball up which is great but in my view if he is always down the other defending then he is being wasted. The one attribute he doesn’t have is pace, so trying to run down the other end to get into a goal scoring position is a bit of a waste. Andy Cook is a team player, and wants to help out all over the pitch. If he gets in the grove and starts knocking them in for fun, the younger pacy lads will not mind one jot.

 

'The one attribute he doesn't have is pace.' And since we play a highly mobile high press that's why he can't play in our system.

 

I think a big majority of sides will have a go ..........i know Lincoln sat in but on another day with a bit of calm we would have beaten a well drilled team.............others may try and do the same but unless they are of the standard of Lincoln then i can see us putting them away easily.

 

But we can't always play a high press if the opposition don't keep possession.

It's still horses for courses for me unless we can bring in someone more rounded than the 4 we have and I'm not sure we've got the financial power to do that.

 

I'm sure that the thinking in the summer was that Swan and Humphrys would be the two competing for the central striker role, but, despite a promising start for each of them, neither now looks what we need. If we're serious about going for promotion this year then we need better in January, perhaps a premier league loan. If we're just thinking of consolidation then what we have should see us fine.
The worry for me at the moment is GA's love-in with Kavanagh. How Lapslie must feel after being overlooked at Stevenage I can't imagine.

 

I would add Tyreik Wright to that love-in too Dubois.

 

It was mentioned somewhere earlier this season.

 

"Bradford City AFC has a dedicated Set-Piece Analyst, Stuart Reid, as part of the first-team backroom staff."

 

You may well be right but at least he could say that Tyreik is a natural backup to Pointon. On the other side Lapslie was supposed to be backup to Sarcevic but when he's injured GA played Kavanagh on the left and Tyreik on the right. The inevitable result was that we were pretty toothless all game. I'm not privy to what goes on in training and I like GA an awful lot but he risks sowing seeds of discontent if he's perceived as having favourites.

 

You are right we don't have the financial clout hence the forwards in our ranks.
It's easy to comment after the set of results of late, but let's be honest none of our current forward line are big hitters and that includes an ageing forward who's injury nearly ended his career.
Are we in a false position? hence the unexpected early results. I'm not sure but the last couple of games have brought me down to earth with a bang.

 

Has Humphries not got 3 goals and a couple assists in his last two games before injury ????

 

I don't necessarily agree with that last bit. The draws don't concern me because I was happy with the performances. If we'd played sh*t, then yes I'd be 'back down to earth'. We played well against Barnsley and Lincoln was about average but there's nothing to suggest the wheels have come off.

As for the forward line not being big hitters, does it matter if we are scoring 2 a game. I know I've laboured the point but if we're scoring 2 a game I'm not bothered about whether we have a 20 goal a season man. I'd be happier scoring more goals even if those goals are coming from 5 or 6 different players.

Having said that, the draws will be viewed within the context of the next few games. We've got a run of winnable games on paper up until Xmas. Vale, Plymouth, Reading etc all struggling. If we can get another 12 points before the Xmas period, we're in a great position.

Obviously injuries are a massive factor. If we can keep Pointon, Humphrys, Swan, Sarc, Pattison out of the physios room then there's no reason why we can't make progress.

 

We're 2nd in Div 1 FFS

 

I hate looking at what would have been but if we won on Saturday it would have been a home draw against Buxton which makes Saturday even more annoying

 

I'd need to watch our goals from this season back but I'm sure most of our goals come from spells of attack where we have 4 or 5 bodies in and around the box working a shooting opportunity and then one of our attackers being alive to a rebound or ricochet. I feel like we've scored quite a lot from those type of scenarios.

Cook is easily our best finisher, he is our biggest goal threat but I do wonder how much he detracts from the opportunities that other players get to be in scoring positions and feeding off each other. I don't want to go over old ground again but I don't think we'd have scored the goals we did early season with him in the side because our mentality would shift back to supplying him with the chances.

I don't subscribe to the view that having Cook in the side would mean we would've scored those goals and added Cook's contribution on top. In the few games where we've struggled to score this season there'd be the comments that if Cook had been playing he'd have put those same chances away. Maybe, but I don't think we'd have created as many chances in the first place.

For what it's worth, my front three would be Humphrys, Pointon and Sarcevic with Swan / Kav (sorry) and Cook as a very capable plan b and c depending on the opponent and the way the game has panned out.

 

Two of which were against Everton U-21s