Poty awards

I would say that in a 2 man midfield playing a 523 system you need at least one runner who gets up and down the pitch. Gillead ticks that box perfectly. He’s good at running with the ball, he’s a tidy passer (nothing spectacular but retains possession) and can put a tackle in and win the ball back. I have no issue with him in midfield.

The issue for me is the player alongside him. If you have a runner like Gillead than you need a good quality ball player alongside him. Smallwood shows glimpses of this but not as consistently as I expected. McDonald has also shown in patches what a good ball player he is at this level but apparently isn’t fit enough to sustain it in a full season. So that is the role I’d be more focussed on addressing in the summer.

I’m not saying Gillead is perfect but in L2 I think he does the job well and if we can get a partner alongside him who can pass forward with a bit of incision then I think it can work.

 

The midfield has been truly abysmal since we lost Doyle and Jones…never had a midfielder live up to their presence since

 

According to everything I can find and across various sites so may not be fully accurate he has 7 goals and 6 assists across the 200 appearances.

That's a goal involvement every 15.38 games (or 3 a season) and considering half of those 200 appearances came in an attacking role I think those statistics are especially poor.

Having said that, I do still think there's a regular role for Gillead in the squad but he'd have to oust Halliday to claim it.

 

It's also important for those on here wanting Cook out.

It's all very well getting a mobile front 3 but if the goals we'd lose from Cook aren't replaced and more besides then we're no better off than now.

Apart from Jamie Walker, who can't play a full season anyway when was the last time that we had a winger or midfielder that looked like getting anywhere near double figures?

Jack Payne had a brief spell of looking excellent but after that I'm struggling unless you go all the way back to Dave Syers, and then Eoin Jess.

 

Email I got from Shippers this evening....

Hi all,



We have heard from the club about the End of Season Dinner and they are asking for numbers before they put it out to the general public.



It's going to be hosted on Tuesday 23rd April at the Cedar Court Hotel, Bradford City's Hotel partner.

A date of Wednesday 24th April as been reserved in case any more games are postponed.



As always a 3 course meal will be served during the evenings presentations.


The cost of a seat is £65 per head, however as always we can offer to fully paid up members of the Shipley Bantams a seat for £55.



If you are interested please reply asap as the event is to be advertised very soon.

 

He didn't go last year but has been once after Rahic got the boot.

 

It's a bit odd that POTY is at the Cedar Court and not City this year. The price increase is also huge. It was £30 last time including a discount as a Shippers member (subsidised by Shipley Bantams, not the club).

 

How much is it this time? Last one i went to was the Stuart McCall speech one and if i remember it was £35

edit. Just seen the post above.

 

£65 to celebrate mediocrity, bargin.

 

There shouldn’t be a POTY !

 

Halliday undoubtedly before he moves to pastures new.

 

Stupid decision really. Why hire a hotel, let them take a big cut of the cost and all the drinks profit when we have our own space with a bar and catering ?

 

My sister in law works at Cedar Court so I wouldn't attend this is even if they paid me £65 to come, picked me up in a limo and gave me a free room full of hookers (that paid me) for the night.

 

You don't want much do you.

 

Just avoiding that witch of a sister in law will do.

 

It's a Bantam thing!

 

It will likely clash with an event already booked in at City that day. Otherwise as you say its a crazy decision unless its in the sponsorship agreement of course.

 

I wouldn't dispute this over the whole period generally, but for 18 months I think the midfield pairings of Cullen and Lee Evans and then Cullen and Vincelot would disagree!

What we'd give for players of their quality now.

We should've pulled out all the stops to sign Evans when we had him. Exactly the type of investment to make and build our team around at that time. Cullen too would've been nice but completely unrealistic.