Most liked posts in thread: Harrogate Town (A)

Well, being on holiday in Yorkshire I left the family shopping in Harrogate and walked up to the ground.

I thought it would be good to see Bradford City play .............. errhh - no.

What is all this rubbish about the pitch? It's absolutely fine - nothing like the old plastic pitches - it plays well, is "soft" on the ankles and knees and, for me, is no more likely to lead to injuries than a proper grass pitch.

So what was the point of sending a team out that would not compete with a team a couple of leagues below The Conference? The Bradford players were outplayed all across the pitch, Harrogate were scoring for fun (and some really good goals as well) and the Bradford fans were less than happy. I do hope for your sakes that none of that team were anywhere close to being in the Bradford first XI. It almost borders on being insulting - both to Harrogate Town and the Bradford fans that came across to see the game.

I've not come on here to "lay into" your club but B.C.A.F.C. did not give a good account of themselves. Demoralising for your players and I would have thought it was largely a waste of the club's time and effort. Poor. Very poor.

 

For what it’s worth

Didn’t go... too far away
Wouldn’t have gone if I lived in Bradford... it was “flagged” as a Bradford City X1. (If one cannot suss what that means you are naive)

We play a team of established adult footballers
We play with a team heavily populated by what we used to call the “ Reserves” and predominantly Northern Intermediate team ie juniors
In a nutshell players who don’t even train with the first team let alone play with them or very very unlikely to represent BCAFC in L1

Recall that silly cup we play in... where world class Premier League sides are represented by kids. That didn’t go to plan did it... the kids got tanked by adult sides!

The pitch was said to be extremely hard therefore potential for injuries
Does one think that if our coaching team ignored the conditions and played the first team squad which resulted in 4 injuries they would have been absolutely pilloried?
Someone suggests the coaches couldn’t be bothered to show without any evidence whatsoever

It just shows how stupid this has all become. Grasping at the result of such an innocuous football match as being the fore teller of the season ahead, the merits of our First team squad, our transfer activity, our coaching staff and the odd dig at our owners thrown in.

Some actually believe this rubbish

It’s pretty pathetic

Our kids got beat by adults....SO WHAT!

 

City seem set to name a similar side to the one that played at Avenue. Collins appears a bit reluctant to go stronger due to the artificial pitch at Harrogate, which begs the question, why agree to play them, didn't they know about the pitch there?

 

Totally agree. With a couple of weeks left to the start of the season, we have played what could be perceived as the 1st eleven for 45minutes against the blades. Shouldn’t the last 3 friendly games be about the team getting to know each other? Don’t be surprised if the defence is all over the place for the first 2 or 3 games.

 

It puts into context the ‘strength’ of our so called development team.

At our level, it’s a concept that doesn’t work. We should do no more than have 3-4 young players on the fringes of the first team. Put the rest of the money spent on it to bring more players like scannell and Payne in.

 

So the obvious question is, given it necessarily MUST be cheaper to promote our own youngsters from our own youth system which is already in place, in what possible sense do these discarded 'young' players from all over the country benefit us?

I mean, even remotely?

They cannot compete with a brand new National League side, who will probably struggle this season (I mean, I hope not, but they probably will), not only can they not give them a competitive game, they actually got humiliated - which, in turn, is humiliating for Bradford City.

Why in God's name are they at this club, who scouted them, who signed them, who is paying them, and WHY?

 

Either make a point, or don't post.

Just simply being tired of criticism doesn't make the criticism invalid.

 

We've only got one game left and most of the squad have barley played 90 mins all pre season! Not the best start

 

I wouldn't park in York for a game in Harrogate mate... its a bloody long walk to the ground.

 

It might show Rahic the folly of the development squad.

It looks as though lessons have been learned with regard player recruitment - spend less on fees and more on wages, to get better players.

The likes of Hudson, Gunner, Patrick, Clare, Pybus - for that cost I’d rather take a single, strong first team player.

 

Not really sure why we were worried about playing on a 4G pitch. Harrogate play on it every other week, they are FA approved and aren’t anything like the old artificial pitches.
All this has done is dent the confidence of the young lads and shown they aren’t good enough for men’s football.

 

Its a week before the start of the season. More important to get game time for the first team starters than the development squad.

 

You are missing the point Kevin.

Why did they agree to this fixture played on an artificial pitch when they had no intention of sending first team players.

Surely, with the season just 2 weeks away, we should have arranged a friendly that the first team players should have been participating in, instead of training at Apperley Bridge

I suspect that they didn't realise Harrogate had an artificial pitch until it was too late. Very poor planning on the club's part.

I understand as a result they have hastily arranged a behind closed doors match on Tuesday against somebody

 

The development squad is a waste of time, that friendly was only worthwhile as an exercise in illustrating how bad the assembled players really are, and how the pipe dream of signing rejects, magically improving them somehow, then selling them for millions is just that - an immature pipe dream.

The only people linking this result to the season ahead appear to be the eternally outraged and indignant folk who defend the club against attacks I'm not actually sure anyone has made.

Save your sabre rattling for another time.

The point is the development squad is crap, this fixture was not sufficiently marketed as a development squad game until a day or two before, and the fact its Bradford City fielding these sorts of players against semi pro sides and getting utterly humiliated is unacceptable.

Play that shit behind closed doors in future.

 

They don't even know each other

 

Our pre season fixtures have been planned poorly. Not enough competitive games for first team players - and Collins can’t afford a poor start. He needs his players sharp, ready to hit the ground running . I’d be tempted to try and organise another midweek friendly.

 

Apparently scannell has asked if there is a 14 day cooling off period in the contract.