Match Thread Most liked posts in thread: EFL Cup 2nd Round - Bradford City vs Blackburn Rovers Tuesday 23 August @ 7:45pm

Actually there weren't that many spare seats in the lower main stand and in the end they opened the upper tier.
We got there at about 7.25 and managed to get seats together but by about 7.40 there weren't many spare. I saw some heated arguments between several supporters and a senior steward.
The club either issue tickets with numbered seats or tickets that say unreserved. If unreserved there must be sufficient room.

 

One strange thing (in the kop) was that they had a turnstile for physical printed tickets and another for online/ QR tickets, which caused a bit of an issue. People in the wrong queue, no clear signage etc.

We got into the upper tier and looking down the bottom tier was pretty much full apart from the Bantams Bar seats, at least 500 in the upper tier as well.

A very good crowd all in all.

Blackburn are a very good team, and there is no shame in that loss at all. Remember being battered by Lincoln & Preston at home in the early rounds ? Hughes is making progress and in the period around us scoring it looked like we had really clicked, plus we really went for it in the last ten minutes.

 

A very difficult game to judge him. His mobility and pace were a threat for the period we were actually in the game. I'd keep him in.

 

Spot on. We weren't beaten by the formation, we were beaten by a very very good championship side with quality oozing all over the pitch. We actually ended the match playing a near 424 but, hey let's blame trying to win on losing.

You are bang right @Fordy117 they were just too good for us. A very impressive effort from our lads though.

 

Arrived at 7.15 no issues getting in. The stadium was practically empty.
It amazes me how many people rock up 10 to 15 mins before kick off and expect to just walk in without a queue.
Or should the club pay for every turnstile to be open, with the staff sat there doing nothing right until nearly kick off.
It always feels to me that people are too ready to blame the club, rather than accept a little responsibility.
There are far worse things going on in life currently.

 

I think it’ll be more appropriate to judge on a league start tbh, despite the score line I felt we were well beat other than having a final go last 10 minutes. He was quiet for most of the game but I can’t criticise any of the players last night as Blackburn were as good as I’ve seen at VP for years. Lewis was rightfully man of the match or it could have been a cricket score. All that sad Kian did nearly make it 2-0 and it would have been a different game, but it was still well against the run of play.

 

I wandered into C block shortly before kickoff. It was packed. By sheer chance, my usual ST seat was vacant. It did feel weird sitting in my normal seat without all the usual suspects around me.

Excellent game though. Thoroughly entertaining. No complaints about the result, despite the possibility of handball in the build up to their winner. The way they pinged the ball about at pace was mightily impressive. Something for us to aspire to

 

Enjoyed last night despite the defeat.

Entertaining game from start to finish and our players give their all on the night.

Hats off to the Blackburn team who were excellent on the night and without sounding disloyal, a joy to watch. The pace, movement and trickery from their players was superb on the night and different class to what we will see from league 2 opponents. They were just far too good on the night, yet, if Harratt had have scored instead of hitting the post, could have turned our completely different

Wouldn't it be great if we could get back to the Championship in the not too distant future and see that type of football every week in front of 20,000 passionate fans.

I'm sure MH took a lot of positives from the performance and equally a lot to think about in how we can improve going forward.

 

Can't see it personally... Fleetwood v Everton, Crawley v Fulham, Colchester v Brentford, Bolton v Villa, Tranmere v Newcastle stand out well before our tie

 

8 goals without conceding, beat Swansea away 3-0, shut out QPR at home, and just drilled Hartlepool 4-0...

We're going to have our work cut out with this one!

 

How is the League Cup a Mickey Mouse cup?

 

According to Scott Banks Mark Hughes has shown the squad clips of the 2013 cup run.
Who will ever forget the "it's only a cup" chant during those cold winter evenings?

 

I hear what you’re saying, but I don’t think the numbers are that poor. I’ll monitor sales throughout the day and try and update a little nearer towards KO, but it’s entirely probable a large surge will purchase today/this evening.

 

will that get us through to the next round?

 

Aha a big clamour for 442 and as soon as it’s deficiency’s are exposed the mood turns

 

With players like Dack in the team with a team flying in the championship it was always going to be a big ask

 

Pretty much my take on the game. For the first 15 minutes I thought they'd tear us a new one. But we grew into the game and got a good goal. BR a good team and played some very good football. I think we gave a very good account of ourselves. As MH said pre-match; it was a free hit, so no shame in losing.
I thought the ref was a bit inept but that actually added to the game. Instead of blowing up for every challenge he let a fair few go and that 2 minute spell where it could of got a bit tasty added rather than detracted to the atmosphere. Fantastic support from Rovers too. I know its just over the border but 1500 is a great turnout.
We weren't overawed by BR and we should take lot of positives from this into Saturday's game against Crewe.

 

I agree with Hughes that our players having been exposed to Blackburns quality could be a great learning exercise. I'm terms of playing approach, both sides have the same philosophy and approach, they're just able to execute it more effectively and much quicker because they have better players. If we can get just a bit more cohesive and quicker in our approach, we'll have too much for most L2 sides.