Match Thread Home V Stevenage Tue 17th Aug @ 7.45pm

Nope , keep up

 

Very impressed with us tonight. Been waiting for Cook to deliver like that this term. Another point to prove at Mansfield.

Vernan class too. We look so much more dangerous with him in the team. Competition for places starting to hot up now.

 

Great game good all round performance a good turnout again naughty corner blasting out.
Tomorrow I’m going to The National Football Museum I’ll wear my City colours with pride.

 

Absolutely

 

Not enjoyed a 90 minutes like that for a while.
Just so pleased we showed the few doubters from Saturday that we can play with pace,power and a purpose.
Think Cook chasing the defender to the byline with 4 or 5 minutes left and us already coasting summed his performance up.He could have easily just let it run out and got back in position.
AK said in his post match comments that people had told him when he signed that we could have a gem in Vernam.
Think he showed tonight that he might be right. So direct and running in to the box at pace is always going to create fear in defenders.
Shout out to Watt as well who looked so much better tonight when he had a bit more time.

 

Get to bed.

 

Yeah but don't we all miss A O'Connor passing it across the back line umpteen times..?

 

Interesting hearing Adams dig about young up and coming managers wanting to pass 200 times in their own half, in a play station sort of way. WOAP hint it could have been aimed at Ravell, but it could quite easily have been aimed at Trueman and Sellars last season. AOC typified this approach when forever looking to pass backwards or sideways, but he wasn’t alone in doing this. It must have been encouraged by the dynamic duo. Possession based football with no end product seems to have been the mantra for not only T&S but also an experienced manager in McCall too.

I can certainly see why Adams has been a success. His style of play, set up, demeanour and mentality is so reminiscent of the Parky way that brought us so much success. Bring me dour all day long if last night was anything to go by.

 

Nothing dour about last night.

 

I’d like those who are complaining about FCDs distribution to watch the highlights, watch his 45 yard pass which is absolutely on the money for Cooks 3rd goal and maybe cut him some slack?
After watching that again, Adam’s will be hoping FCDs distribution stays that bad for the rest of the season!!

 

The difference is that now we have so many outlets when playing from defence. Last season on the rare occasions a midfielder came to receive the ball from a CB or FB he passed it straight back to the defender. Last night we had players comfortable receiving the ball all over the pitch

 

And all this without our first choice right back and key centre midfielder.

That said, I think FCD has shown enough so far as a deputy right back we can call upon. Pleased for him.

 

So everybody wondered where the goals were coming from this season. I think we know now!

 

McCall? Ignoring that season we got to the play off final of course. Passing with purpose as opposed to just for the sake of it. You need the players to do it as opposed to just imprinting that style on whoever

 

Anyone else worried we’ll go back to the same old rubbish on Saturday? Haha, oh how lovely it is to be an ingrained City fan!

 

During his tenure we were likened to Arsenal, in that we passed and kept possession but were reluctant to shoot from distance, instead opting to try and walk the ball in. Very rarely did we give anyone a good spanking. Don’t get me wrong, it was pleasing on the eye but the ‘up and at em’ approach is far more exciting in my opinion.

 

Sometimes clubs have traditional ways and styles of play that are synonymous to them, the West ham way or the Arsenal way to name a couple of examples.
To a much lesser extent last nights performance was akin to long gone successful City era's.
We've had success under Parky, however last nights performance took me back to Jewell's era.
The way Ridehalgh stormed forward to support Vernam ( Beags/Jacobs)
The mobility and effectiveness of Angol and Cook ( Mills/Blake)
Watt Cooke ( whalley/Macca)
The difference in class isn't the same, however the spine, the partnerships, the methodology very similar.
That's what it reminded me of...

And as Graham Taylor once said about us when we'd beat his Watford 2:0
"Bradford don't play possession football, but when they have it, they hurt you"

That was last night, long may it continue.
Long time since I felt as content as last night leaving the ground

 

There's no right or wrong regarding possession football, some have short memories when talking about McCalls nearly seasons the tactics he employed so nearly worked. I must admit though I have never been an advocate of just passing round the back four for the sake of it. Being successful is all about scoring goals and the more efforts you have give you a greater chance of scoring. Remember when we were in the playoff spots under Bowyer yet we were only creating a couple of chances a game? If you understand football you know that sort of stat will not get you promoted, Adams approach of efforts on goal with the possession you have is the most likely to bring you success especially in league 2 where players passing limitations are more evident.

 

Agree Dave, and as the game went on the players knew it!

 

I'm really surprised at those possession figures. It felt like we had much more possession than Stevenage. At the start of the second half they hardly touched the ball for quarter of an hour.