Match Thread Home vs Colchester United, Wed 8/12/2021 @19:45

Bradford City haven't won any of their last 8 in any competition since a 3-1 win at Swindon on October 23. That means 0 wins in November, but December is a new month.

We have (unbelievably) scored precisely 1 goal per game in 9 of our last 10 outings across all competitions, with Swindon again the sole exception - that score was 3-1, with Lavery, Sutton and Robinson all scoring.

In reverse order, starting with the repeat trip to Exeter, here are our goalscorers:

Angol
Songo'o
Sutton
Vernam
Angol
Robinson
Robinson
Cook
Lavery, Sutton, Robinson
Paudie

Here is our league form:

DLDDD (4 points)

But it takes two to tango. Here's the lowdown on Colchester...

Colchester United have won 4 of their last 10 games across all competitions, although a win over Sudbury in the FA Cup and progression in the Football League Trophy fails to disguise mediocre league form. They lie 18th in the table, 3 points behind Bradford City, albeit with a game in hand. This season they have won 5 (same as us), drawn 6 and lost 7.

The goalscorers across their last 10 games across all competitions are as follows:

Chambers x2
Sears
Jasper, Chilvers, Sears
X
X
Sarpong-Wiredu, Sears, Jasper, McCoulskey
Sears, Dobra
Sears
X
Chilvers

Freddie Sears is the most in-form striker between the two squads, and has scored 7 league goals, the same number as Andy Cook.

Their league form is as follows:

DWLWL (7 points)

Under Hayden Mullins, they seem to be a bit more hit-and-miss than we are, as we are about as consistent as you can possibly get with the constant draws and 1-goal-only output. Their keeper Shamal George has recently been sidelined with a rib injury, meaning Newcastle loanee Jake Turner has deputised - he has kept only 1 clean sheet in 6 appearances this season, whereas George kept 4 clean sheets in 18 (O'Donnell has kept 3 clean sheets in 22 appearances).

Call me crazy, but it's almost impossible to look past a 1-1 draw with Sears for them, Angol or Sutton for us (unless Cook starts).

 

I foresee boos for a draw, and a post-match meltdown if we lose.

 

Looks like you're logged in to a Bradford City forum to me, mate

 

Wonder if anyone's ever done that mid-season, just put in some incentive pay to turn shit form round?

 

Give over @Park bantam what does our history have to do with where we are now and the potential this club has?

I don't give a toss where we were in the 60's, 70's, 80's, the fact is the infrastructure we have is the stuff of envy from most of the clubs in League Two, they are tiny little teams from small towns with capacities of less than 10,000 in the case of more than half the teams.

All those seasons before the Richmond era don't really count when we've had the kind of shot in the arm some of these clubs can, and will, only ever be able to dream about.

We're the privileged few who have been to the Premier League, we have been to a cup final lately, we have gone to massive Premier League sides and beaten them, those are the kinds of stories these clubs dream about to set them up for generations to come.

I'm not having it.

If people at the club are trying to convince us this club cannot be sold on it's own merits, they're as dumb as rocks. We are the best, cheapest option outside of a club that could be sold for £1 on the back of tens of millions of debt.

I get annoyed reading posts like this, people have posted this crap for years now, about how we're a proper lower league side - no, we WERE a proper lower league side, now we're a side who wouldn't need a penny of investment in any area of the club in order to be able to establish ourselves - COMFORTABLY - as a lower end Championship team. Don't get me wrong, if we got there, we'd soon need to turn our eye to the training facilities, which aren't good enough at THAT level, but they'll probably do us until we get there.

Our fans need to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and denigrating the club. Bolton do have better infrastructure than us, but they didn't struggle to find investment one bit and will be back in the Championship within five years. Where will we be? Still making excuses about why we're in L2.

 

I'm talking about the lower leagues, where we're supposedly 'based'.

In our division there's Swindon and Oldham.

There's a fair few in League One, granted, but there's a lot who have never been there or even come close.

We can't keep comparing ourselves to those sides and acting like it's okay that we're a division below Morecambe, Accrington, AFC Wimbledon, Fleetwood, Cheltenham, and several others.

It's not okay.

In the cases of Swindon and Oldham they simply weren't able to invest massively in their stadia, so there's little left to set them apart from any other League One/Two side. If they got to the Championship, they'd have to invest heavily.

I get your point, and wasn't trying to be aggressive to @Park bantam, who is a great poster, but let's be real about it. Cheap tickets isn't the perennial excuse to deny the potential this club has, even if some are desperate for Bradford City to be martyrs to a working class economy.

Screw that.

Tell me Blackpool is a much nicer, more privileged place than Bradford. Tell me Preston or Burnley are Northern Superpowers. Barnsley FFS. LUTON TOWN.

Not having it tonight, IB!