Bradford City (h) - League - 26th February 2005

[philthesaddler]

Interesting to see the piece on merson on itv this morning. Especially the bit where he says "if wracky doesn't improve, we'll have him off"

This meant one of two things. 1 merson thought he was performing crap, or 2, he picked up his injury in the first half, and tried to carry on in to the second, but couldnt.

Still wouldn't have taken surman off though, even though the idea was clearly to play a diamond, i though surman was our best first half midfielder and we ended up losing him and wrack for the second half.

[Shad]

AC_Loyalist- were you sitting behind the goal in purple lower and the owner of a 4 Curl shirt? If so I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!! :D

[Exile]

Murphy...Looked confident for 89 minutes of the 90, but made a total dog's dinner of the kick that cost us two points. Does he trust the wall, or is he too lazy to listen for the ref's whistle so he's not ready when the ball is kicked. Could we put a player on the line to help in these situations?

Zigor...Good game from the gloved one. Now see where he gets the abuse - he's told to do too much. Improved with Taylor (D) in front of him.

Roper...Plain vanilla defence - just what you need

Emblem...Good goal, well taken - can he coach?

Wright...Worked very hard, got better as the game went on. My MOTM

Wrack...was he hurt? Looked like he hid. hardly noticed him on the pitch

Standing...Worked hard, not MOM quality though (did he get that because he played for Bradford?)

Osborn....I never realised he was so short. Short in stature, short on instruction, short on ideas. Not one of his best games, and on that showing, understand why he gets some stick

Surnam...Good first half, why was he subbed?

Jorge...Very high work rate. Wish he had a better first touch though.

Fryatt...Could and should have been on the score sheet, but not often getting into position

Merson...Very obviously the best player on the pitch, but sprayed the ball around as much as the rest.

D.Taylor...Started terribly, a big bunch of nerves, recovered well.

Bradford - Poor

Referee - Obviously trained with the blind netball squad.

Not sure what formation we were supposed to be playing, as there was no substance to midfield, who were too often really narrow and lacking any movement.

Very impressed with the Purple Stand & facilities. Not so impressed with the moaners at the club, some of whom obviously turn up just to abuse the players rather than watch the football and support the team. One bloke just behind me was moaning at Zigor for being out of position, then moaning at him for not taking the ball up to the opposition box. Taylor (D) got some awful stick when he made a mess of his first couple of touches, rather the support and encouragement you'd expect to be given a youngster with limited match experience. To those that gave Ozbourne stick, look at the rest of the side too - they made as many mistakes. Cheer them when they do well, don't swear at them for 90 minutes.

Cheers all,
Exile

[Magic Man Fan]

Sorry I missed you visit Exile. I was a bit worse for wear after the NMFE night at the races and forgot all about your visit. I was only reminded about 10 minutes before kick off by Dave Roe.

I was also disappointed with some of the moaning yesterday. Its not as if crucial points are at stake. Lets Merson make the changes he feels are necessary to get a winning team for next season. I think he's trying to get the players used to playing without him which they're going to have to get used to quickly.

I'm hoping Kris Taylor was injured because he didn't deserve to get dropped. I assume he was on the bench because we had no one else? Does anyone know what happened to Surman? I also hope he was injured as he wasn't the one who needed taking off.

Just a special mention for Jorge and Fryatt who I thought were both ineffective just as they were earlier in the season when they had no one fit to put pressure on them. Jorge didn't look interested half the time and is more intent on diving than staying on his feet and scoring. Fryatt was far too selfish and will never get signed if scouts are watching him play like that each week.. The ironic thing is that on the few occasions he passed, he should have shot!

[Neil Ravenscroft]

My main disappointment is that he didn't do that. I thought he should have tried to let the 4 4 2 work a bit longer. The one thing I thought was noticable is that, however they were playing, the individuals looked more comfortable. I jusy wish we hadn't been so narrow still, even with a 4 4 2!

[Magic Man Fan]

PS - The most entertaining moment of the game was Cals a Saddler falling over in a drunken moment. :lol:

[cal's a saddler]

At least I managed to stay to the end MMF!
And btw I slipped gracefully :oops:

[ws4saddler]

Another average performance which should have resulted in a win. If we had won the last three home games against poor teams we would be just behind the playoff places.What a missed opportunity. We must have had more of the ball and chances. I agree Matty was a little selfish with the shots straight at the goal keeper when a pass across the goal was a better option. He could also do with some speed training as I thought he was a little short of pace. I also agree that a priority for next season is to find a big striker in the same mould as Rambo. We ended last season with a side that scored few goals and it looks the same this season. Could any body from the Purple stand who was right behind the fee kick tell me if it was a great free kick, or was there no wall ,or should Murphy have made more effort ?

[ucow]

i know MMF at least she had 2 pints this time as when we went to cardiff she had one little stubby of beer and was smashed! she was even out drunk by her 14 year old daughter!

[Magic Man Fan]

At least I managed to stay to the end MMF!
And btw I slipped gracefully :oops:

Oi! I always stay to the end...of the second half anyway. I sometimes nip down early in the first half to beat the queues at the refreshments though.

ws4 - On TV it looked a good free kick but once again I still feel Murphy should have done better. The thing that annoys me is that we seem to have a habit of conceding goals like this and it costs nothing to have someone on the post or even on both. The goal would then easily have been prevented.

[Stu]

However the problem with having a man on the line is the issue of their strikers then standing on the 6yd line and blocking his view of the ball, increasing the risk of a deflection or then pouncing on the loose ball if the keeper only parries the ball or the defender can't get a good enough clearance.

[Magic Man Fan]

As a keeper you should be the best one to speak on this Stu but the way Murphy has let them in from distance I think I'd rather have one of their strikers following up a parried clearance off the line than Murphy letting the ball go past him while he and everyone else watches. Some free kicks and long range shots are unstoppable but I don't think any of the ones that Muprhy has conceded are in that category.

[tinned]

The Albion fans at work are all bemused by my complaints on fatty Murphy. They all still rate him. One of the cheeky buggers even said that we must have brought him down to our standard :x