Upcoming opponents - Bradford City

[Shade]

Bradford City come to Town on Tuesday night, following a top 7 clash with Gillingham at Valley Parade on Saturday. Before that game, Bradford sit 7th in League Two, just 3 points off top spot, 8 points above us, and having scored only 2 more goals than us. However, as with most opposition, their defence is the difference, having conceded 11 goals in 11 games, compared to our 19. They have 5 wins, 3 draws and 3 defeats, and have won their last two games, 3-1 at home to Newport, and 0-2 at Tranmere. Before that, they drew 1-1 at lowly Morecambe, and lost 2-1 at Harrogate, so the potential for poor away results is certainly there. In terms of stats, recently they have had more possession and passes during a game, but less or equal shots as the opposition.

Currently managed by Graham Alexander, the Bantams top scorer so far, as per the last 4 seasons, is Andy Cook, with 7 in 11 appearances.

Players of note:
Aden Baldwin - on loan with us from Bristol City for the first half of the 2018/19 season. Joined Bradford in the summer.
Jack Shepherd - on loan with us from Barnsley in League 1 last season, now on loan with Bradford in League Two...
Corry Evans - 34yo, originally from M** U**'s youth academy, spent most of his career at Blackburn, with Hull and Sunderland his other permanent clubs. Bradford signed him on a free on 6th October.
Antoni Sarcevic - 32yo, one of the chief tormentors at Plymouth and Bolton in recent years, before helping Stockport win L2 last season.
Andy Cook - 34yo who has played most of his career in League Two after coming through at Carlisle. Barrow, Grimsby, Tranmere, Walsall and Mansfield are his previous clubs, showing what kind of level he's always been playing at. Has settled at Bradford, though, and has been their top scorer for the past 4 seasons with tallies ranging from 8 to 28. It's also his birthday today (18th October). Whoo.
Vadaine Oliver - 32yo and another striker we've plenty of times, most notably in that horrendous 2020 play-off semi second leg v Northampton.

Recent results:
CTFC 0-2 BCFC, L2, 20 Feb '21
BCFC 1-2 CTFC, L2, 01 Dec '20
BCFC 1-1 CTFC, L2, 28 Jan '20
CTFC 3-2 BCFC, L2, 17 Sep '19
CTFC 0-1 BCFC, FLT, 17 Jan '17

Overall: 5 wins, 4 draw, 6 defeats. 24 goals for, 22 against.

Interesting things:
- The overall record between the clubs is quite even, as you can see. Who'd have thought that we'd have played them 14 times in EFL action back in the year 2000 when they were in the PL, let alone more or less matched them over the course of 18 years.
- Two results stand out between the clubs, both at Whaddon Road. The crazy 4-5 defeat in August 2009, when it was 2-2 after 12 minutes, Allen (surprised, aren't you) made two subs in the 14th minute, and it was 3-3 at half time. Unfortunately Bradford went 3-5 up before a late Justin Richards goal made injury time interesting. The other result was the 4-0 thrashing we handed out on 28th December 2010, with the highlight undoubtedly being Marlon Pack dancing in the snow after bagging the second.
- Current loanee Sam Stubbs will, of course, be unavailable against his parent club for this one. I'll let you guys pop any other players to have played for both clubs below as always! I'm struggling...

[Jerry St Clair]

Jamie O’Connor takes charge of, gulp, his first EVER football league game as far as I can make out. He's only been reffing in the National League since April 2023 so has only done a season and a bit at that level. That's a meteoric promotion onto the EFL list.

Let’s hope that means he’s good.

[Fuller]

Played for both:-
George Miller has had two loan spells at Bradford City.
Craig Armstrong had a short spell at Bradford before he joined us.
Matt Taylor (now Bristol Rovers manager) was at Bradford before joining us.
Sure there are a few more.

[Jerry St Clair]

Bradford have sold around 500 for this one. A very respectable number but such a shame it’s a Tuesday night on TV. I’m sure they’d have pretty much filled the Hazlewoods on a Saturday.

Expecting plenty of season ticket holders to stay home in the warmth and watch it on the box as well.

Announced crowd - 4250
Actual crowd - 3000

[WhaddonIrregular]

Played for both:-
George Miller has had two loan spells at Bradford City.
Craig Armstrong had a short spell at Bradford before he joined us.
Matt Taylor (now Bristol Rovers manager) was at Bradford before joining us.
Sure there are a few more.

Shane Duff of course played for both

[Artemis]

Michael (and Rory) Boulding.....I'll leave it at that....

[Broadway Brian]

I’m guessing Stubbs is ineligible tonight. Ignore if I’ve missed this elsewhere.

[Jerry St Clair]

I’m guessing Stubbs is ineligible tonight. Ignore if I’ve missed this elsewhere.

Correct, and that's a nice segue into tonight.

They say never change a winning team, but Flynn's got no choice tonight. Straight swap for Laing/Bakare or does he do a bit more tinkering with other positions and the formation?

[longmover]

I’m guessing Stubbs is ineligible tonight. Ignore if I’ve missed this elsewhere.

This ruling or 'agreement' needs to end, across the board.

[Si Robin]

Why? It takes away any controversy. Maybe not at this point of the season, but if we were playing Bradford with 3 games to go, perfectly safe in mid-table whilst they're battling for automatic promotion, then they score a goal following a howler from Stubbs, then it looks decidedly dodgy.

This avoids that completely.

The issue is loans being allowed between clubs in the same division.

[Ihearye]

Why? It takes away any controversy. Maybe not at this point of the season, but if we were playing Bradford with 3 games to go, perfectly safe in mid-table whilst they're battling for automatic promotion, then they score a goal following a howler from Stubbs, then it looks decidedly dodgy.

This avoids that completely.

The issue is loans being allowed between clubs in the same division.

In that situation, they could look back at our defensive performances over the season and rightly come to the conclusion that nothing to see here

[Si Robin]

[horlickfanclub]

Why? It takes away any controversy. Maybe not at this point of the season, but if we were playing Bradford with 3 games to go, perfectly safe in mid-table whilst they're battling for automatic promotion, then they score a goal following a howler from Stubbs, then it looks decidedly dodgy.

This avoids that completely.

The issue is loans being allowed between clubs in the same division.

I agree with that . We entered in to a same division loan knowing we would be without a first choice player for two games . No excuses about having to change the team Mr Flynn.

[Si Robin]

Amazing how you turned that into a dig at the manager. We get it, you love the board but hate Michael Flynn.

[longmover]

Why? It takes away any controversy. Maybe not at this point of the season, but if we were playing Bradford with 3 games to go, perfectly safe in mid-table whilst they're battling for automatic promotion, then they score a goal following a howler from Stubbs, then it looks decidedly dodgy.

This avoids that completely.

The issue is loans being allowed between clubs in the same division.

avoid controversy? Then we may as well not bother playing professional football at all if we want to avoid controversy. There's enough bent officiating, playing, boardroom shenanigans going on I'm pretty sure playing a loaned player against the team loaned from is hardly going to be a drop in the ocean of controversy.

[horlickfanclub]

Amazing how you turned that into a dig at the manager. We get it, you love the board but hate Michael Flynn.

I don't hate anyone. This thread is about the upcoming opponents and developed in to lack of availability of a loan player .I stated the obvious that we chose this situation.The Managers comments about changing the side are freely published. Pointing out inconsistencies is nothing about hate. Not sure where the Board comes in to this. I did not mention them.

[Ihearye]

Amazing how you turned that into a dig at the manager. We get it, you love the board but hate Michael Flynn.

I think Oldun has two accounts

[Jerry St Clair]

Why? It takes away any controversy. Maybe not at this point of the season, but if we were playing Bradford with 3 games to go, perfectly safe in mid-table whilst they're battling for automatic promotion, then they score a goal following a howler from Stubbs, then it looks decidedly dodgy.

This avoids that completely.

The issue is loans being allowed between clubs in the same division.

avoid controversy? Then we may as well not bother playing professional football at all if we want to avoid controversy. There's enough bent officiating, playing, boardroom shenanigans going on I'm pretty sure playing a loaned player against the team loaned from is hardly going to be a drop in the ocean of controversy.

Blimey. There’s a huge difference between some fairly vague, broad sweep gripes about conduct across the game, and a specific arrangement to prevent a player playing in a game where he has a direct conflict of interest.

[Shade]

I’m guessing Stubbs is ineligible tonight. Ignore if I’ve missed this elsewhere.

Good to know you read my report right to the end

[tunnelvision]

I’m guessing Stubbs is ineligible tonight. Ignore if I’ve missed this elsewhere.

This ruling or 'agreement' needs to end, across the board.

No, we need to keep it!

Many years ago, when I lived in Watford we were in a relegation battle and had a player on loan from Hull, also fighting against relegation, I think. During the second half, with the ball nowhere near, the loanee punched a Hull player in the penalty area. He was sent off and a penalty awarded. So had to play with 10 men and lost the game 2-1!

[Shade]

Jamie O’Connor takes charge of, gulp, his first EVER football league game as far as I can make out. He's only been reffing in the National League since April 2023 so has only done a season and a bit at that level. That's a meteoric promotion onto the EFL list.

Let’s hope that means he’s good.

Completely out of his depth.

[Jerry St Clair]

Precisely the phrase I was going to use Shade.

He was a bystander. Trying to work out who was worse - the ref or the lino on the CF side.

[Shade]

Not sure whether the big offside calls were correct? Looked tight from my angle. They both seemed to miss the obvious handball in the area in the first half, though. Or just bottled it.

[Shade]

I've just read Flynn said he's watched it back and Miller was onside for the disallowed goal and it should have been a penalty for handball as defenders arm was in an unnatural position.

[Ihearye]

Jamie O’Connor takes charge of, gulp, his first EVER football league game as far as I can make out. He's only been reffing in the National League since April 2023 so has only done a season and a bit at that level. That's a meteoric promotion onto the EFL list.

Let’s hope that means he’s good.

Not usually one to comment, but he was p!## poor. Much like the lino on CF side

[Si Robin]

I'm not one for getting at refs either, but as I've seen elsewere, this bloke may as well have been wearing a Bradford kit.

Some of the times Archer was thrown to the ground was akin to the abuse George Lloyd was getting last season.