Bradford City (H) League One Sat 5th Oct 3pm

[DarkoMavak]

Just missing a bit of killer instinct/natural goal scorer. I think our players know this too. Sometimes when we get to the final third they instantly go backwards/sideways anyways but goal wards!!

It's also pretty funny when some fans shoot, when there is no way we could get a shot off!

[WFC_Rob]

Agree regarding Hewitt - the service he has had has been non-existent recently so can't really blame him.

I disagree with this take on things. If he made himself available for the ball, held it up, and allowed those around him to get up the pitch and give us numbers in and around the box, we'd score more goals. The problem is, he's not doing any of that at the moment, which is why we struggle to create anything other than opportunist half chances. It's naive to say Hewitt is blameless.

[Neuromantic]

Agree regarding Hewitt - the service he has had has been non-existent recently so can't really blame him.

I disagree with this take on things. If he made himself available for the ball, held it up, and allowed those around him to get up the pitch and give us numbers in and around the box, we'd score more goals. The problem is, he's not doing any of that at the moment, which is why we struggle to cate anything other than opportunist half chances. It's naive to say Hewitt is blameless.

Exactly my point. I concur!

[Cully]

Players ..............We're not very good, they were a lot better.
Tactics...............We're not very good, they were a lot better
Fans..................We're not very good, they were a lot better

[Graydon48]

We need a fudge goalscorer. End of. I'm pissed and its obvious as fudge.

Smith Out.

[Cully]

Tippy tappy pissy passy woopsy do 5 a-side fudge about football.

No wingers, no crossing, no strikers, arrogant manager, thinks he's the old Barcelona manager mossive angry bowl head.

I'm afraid some of our fans think we are gods gift to football, from what I've seen this season, we're not sexy and we never were.

[clawtheolder]

If Swindon are moaning about being bullied, god help Walsall as Notts County, Preston, Rotherham, and Bradrord have all muscled us out of the games,
what we need is a Rambo to take some of the pressure of the little one's and until then god help us.

[Sadders]

We need a Jabo style striker. Lalkovic to the bench for impact appearances (where he's looked okay) and Bax/Sawyers starting every week. We are just an 'average' side who are organised and capable of picking some good results up. We play some okay if sometimes frustrating football. Anyone who expects us to win every week especially in a period where we've played 5 of the top 6 in a row is clueless. We have the 23rd worst budget in the division, we have a young group of free's who could come good, or could stagnate in they're progress. Smith aint going to work miracles with free's every year and we can't expect him to.

Good start the season, some great results, some not so good. A new forward and a bit attacking vigour at home and we are fine. I've seen league 2 football this season and we are a stark big step above it.

[ToeJoe Jnr]

Agree regarding Hewitt - the service he has had has been non-existent recently so can't really blame him.

I disagree with this take on things. If he made himself available for the ball, held it up, and allowed those around him to get up the pitch and give us numbers in and around the box, we'd score more goals. The problem is, he's not doing any of that at the moment, which is why we struggle to cate anything other than opportunist half chances. It's naive to say Hewitt is blameless.

It's okay saying that but when we are hoofing aimless balls at him at head height we can't expect him to control it, bring it down, hold it up then lay it off! Secondly he would have to hold onto it for 45 minutes to allow our pedestrian paced style of play to catch up with him! I personally felt sorry for him today as he was given nothing.

Lalkovic on the other hand, very disappointed by his contribution so far this season! If Paterson can't get in the Forest team this guy is going nowhere in football as he is a fraction of the player Paterson was.

[WFC_Rob]

Agree regarding Hewitt - the service he has had has been non-existent recently so can't really blame him.

I disagree with this take on things. If he made himself available for the ball, held it up, and allowed those around him to get up the pitch and give us numbers in and around the box, we'd score more goals. The problem is, he's not doing any of that at the moment, which is why we struggle to cate anything other than opportunist half chances. It's naive to say Hewitt is blameless.

It's okay saying that but when we are hoofing aimless balls at him at head height we can't expect him to control it, bring it down, hold it up then lay it off! Secondly he would have to hold onto it for 45 minutes to allow our pedestrian paced style of play to catch up with him! I personally felt sorry for him today as he was given nothing.

I appreciate we're probably not giving him the service he'd ideally like, but there's a lot he should be doing better.

There was one instance in the first half where Butler had the ball at his feet and needed an out ball, with the midfielders in front of him all marked. Rather than making a run, Hewitt stood still, happy to be marked. Butler lumped it forward to him and we lost it, so Butler then gave him an earful, and rightly so. There were other times when he flicked the ball on with his head, despite knowing full well he was our most advanced player. Some will say its good play because he won the header, but what he's actually doing is just giving the ball away too easily.

Control it with your back to goal, pass it to someone else, and get yourself in a dangerous position - the concept isn't a difficult one. I'm not expecting a Walsall striker to play like a Black Country van Persie every week, but there are certain basics I'd expect. Don't get me wrong, I really want him to succeed at Walsall, but all this feeling sorry for him and blaming the quality of service to him completely ignores the contribution he could and should be making.

[sid swifty]

Stop complaining, just enjoy the football.or would you rather go back to the type of football that drove me away,we are and always will be a 1st division club with the odd visit to the championship,I still look back with fondness on the football Alan Buckleys teams played,we didn't win anything but i will always remember the performances,up the saddlers..... :wink:

[Exile]

An unsurprising end to a shocker set of fixtures. The season starts now!

[Andy_Petterson]

It wasn't that bad today, just a bit unlucky to come up against a team of well organised, very fit monsters. If said monsters then score a great goal, you are going to be up against it.

Disagree with those who say we overpassed it. I'm not sure what success any alternative strategy would have had. Long ball/crosses would have been child's play to Bradford.

Indeed one of the positives to take out of the game was that we did create chances. Keep the faith with deano I say.

Oh and has there every been a manager who yapped and moaned more than Phil Parkinson?

[IHTC.]

It wasn't that bad today, just a bit unlucky to come up against a team of well organised, very fit monsters. If said monsters then score a great goal, you are going to be up against it.

Disagree with those who say we overpassed it. I'm not sure what success any alternative strategy would have had. Long ball/crosses would have been child's play to Bradford.

Indeed one of the positives to take out of the game was that we did create chances. Keep the faith with deano I say.

Oh and has there every been a manager who yapped and moaned more than Phil Parkinson?

The one decent cross we put in their box today from Westcarr caused afew problems with the keeper not knowing whether to come for it or not and the defender heading it not so cleverly away, surely that should have been a signal to the players and management that we needed to start crossing the ball alot more rather than trying to walk it in the bloody net because it aye working!

[rogerem]

Clawtheolder is right.....A bit of rambo Rammell type would do it. Not a bad return of points though considering who we have played lately. Our next ten fixtures should give us a return of 22-25pts if big IF we get a big bad striker in on loan. Surely you don't want it ALL do you Jeff?

[Cowshed]

I think we have to give Bradford credit today

They have got the right formula to do well in the lower divisions. Four giants at the back, two grafters in midfield who are bald, skillful wingers who can cross and shoot and a big man upfront,

Brings back memories of Roper, Rammell and wrack

We struggle to break teams down at home because by and large we have been Sussed out. They know that they only have to defend deep, crowd the box and concede possession in the middle because even though we have the ball we are not going anywhere,

You would have to be stupid to see we have no teeth upfront. I was not happy to hear Dean smith on radio wm say that we do not have a striker problem because he feels we are creating chances. In my mind there are two aspects to a goal, they need to be both created and converted . Strikers that create but not convert are not cutting it.

[Salop Saddler]

Ar. Smithy needs to reassess things regarding our performance in the final third (despite his after match comments). Once that's put right we won't be too far away.

[clawtheolder]

If he gets people to believe that, he doesn't have to spend, and as long as we're not in the bottom four everyone is happy.

[Exile]

If he gets people to believe that, he doesn't have to spend, and as long as we're not in the bottom four everyone is happy.

We're heading in the right direction. If we can continue with the young/hungry strategy instead of failures, castoffs and journeymen with dodgy knees it's an improvement. That we got good money for players last season will help continue this improvement. All we need now is a decent cup run!

I am not worried - after playing the strongest teams in this division in the last six games we're still top ten, and to be fair we've only failed to score in three games this season. That's a far cry from recent times!

[PT]

Really enjoyed the game. It was always going to be a tight one between two good sides. First half looked like a nil-nil first half. We had one wonder strike from Mantom that the keeper just managed to get a finger tip to. They had one wonder strike that went in. That was the only difference.

In such a tight game, their second goal was criminal. Three of the back four culpable, Downing in particular.

The three substitutions made a real difference and if we could have converted one of those volleys from Downing or Hemmings you'd have fancied us for a point.

We're really close to being a really good side at this level. Our home form is as it is because we are too narrow. The midfield three make us tight and compact without the ball but make us restricted when we do have the ball. The last half an hour yesterday demonstrated how a home side should play. You should take the game to the opposition not go out there and kind of see what happens. The other thing that would make us a great side at the level would be the kind of centre-forward Bradford had yesterday. Our centre-halves had a real battle whereas theirs had the first hour off. We really miss Will Grigg.

I think we have all the personnel we need except one. We just need to find that Kevin Davies-type centre forward. Julian Gray would have been far better than Lalkovic yesterday and Sawyers needs to be given an extended run.

As for Smith's after match comments - they were obviously comments for the dressing room. If you start to rank our manager on what he says to Radio WM then Paul Merson must be your favourite Walsall manager ever. He'd have destroyed Troy Hewett in his after match comments and no doubt mentioned something about the "Dog and Duck". Franksy would have been glowing in how refreshing it was to have a manager who was so honest and that sentiment would have been echoed on here. Thank God Paul Merson isn't our manager and thank God Dean Smith is.

Yesterday was a good game of football that we came second in. There's some very changeable things that means that we could have been better which is good and we have some money that might enable us to fill the one big hole in the squad which is also good. Things are good - calm down.

[Graydon48]

We missed Paterson today . Someone who can do what Reid did and produce a wonder goal out of nothing. You can't turn the clock back but I wish we had the balls to have told Paterson your under contract till the summer. I remember last year Moles saying we are not in a position were we have to sell players.

[aaaae]

Really enjoyed the game. It was always going to be a tight one between two good sides. First half looked like a nil-nil first half. We had one wonder strike from Mantom that the keeper just managed to get a finger tip to. They had one wonder strike that went in. That was the only difference.

In such a tight game, their second goal was criminal. Three of the back four culpable, Downing in particular.

The three substitutions made a real difference and if we could have converted one of those volleys from Downing or Hemmings you'd have fancied us for a point.

We're really close to being a really good side at this level. Our home form is as it is because we are too narrow. The midfield three make us tight and compact without the ball but make us restricted when we do have the ball. The last half an hour yesterday demonstrated how a home side should play. You should take the game to the opposition not go out there and kind of see what happens. The other thing that would make us a great side at the level would be the kind of centre-forward Bradford had yesterday. Our centre-halves had a real battle whereas theirs had the first hour off. We really miss Will Grigg.

I think we have all the personnel we need except one. We just need to find that Kevin Davies-type centre forward. Julian Gray would have been far better than Lalkovic yesterday and Sawyers needs to be given an extended run.

As for Smith's after match comments - they were obviously comments for the dressing room. If you start to rank our manager on what he says to Radio WM then Paul Merson must be your favourite Walsall manager ever. He'd have destroyed Troy Hewett in his after match comments and no doubt mentioned something about the "Dog and Duck". Franksy would have been glowing in how refreshing it was to have a manager who was so honest and that sentiment would have been echoed on here. Thank God Paul Merson isn't our manager and thank God Dean Smith is.

Yesterday was a good game of football that we came second in. There's some very changeable things that means that we could have been better which is good and we have some money that might enable us to fill the one big hole in the squad which is also good. Things are good - calm down.

The voice of reason.

If Gray comes back in with something approaching the form he showed last time he was with us and we can get a centre forward with a bit of presence (my mind keeps saying Ali Brown :mrgreen: but obviously Andy Rammell would be the template) I think we will be in with a real chance of the play offs. To do this with our budget would be outrageous.

[Sadsfan]

Unfortunately our sexy football has the sex life of an 18 year old virgin: unsure of what to do, fumbling and lacking penetration. Too often we go backwards or sides rather than forward and we slow the game down. The first goal was conceded because chambers went sideways instead of forwards.

[saddler_nic]

For me, Sawyers must start at home, in his favoured position and we need to go back to the 4-2-3-1. The shape we played yesterday seemed like a flat five across the middle. It's served us so well away from home, making us difficult to break down and a threat on the break. At home though, the onus is on us to break the opposition down. Without that fluidity in the formation, we just look one dimensional, and it's so easy to play against.

We saw that when we made the changes and went back to 4-2-3-1, it started to stick up front more, players were swapping roles and we looked like we might get back into the game. Maybe it's partially to do with Bradford sitting deeper to protect the score though.

Sawyers is a bit of a luxury player, but he's ideal to play off the main striker. He's got a great eye for a pass and always seems to have yards of space around him. He's the one to unlock the tight defence. He's a bit like Ladesma in the sense he's an important luxury to have at home, but in away games won't really make the defensive contribution that we need. Switching between home and away games, you can swap him for Featherstone and play that flat five again

[Cully]

Really enjoyed the game. It was always going to be a tight one between two good sides. First half looked like a nil-nil first half. We had one wonder strike from Mantom that the keeper just managed to get a finger tip to. They had one wonder strike that went in. That was the only difference.

In such a tight game, their second goal was criminal. Three of the back four culpable, Downing in particular.

The three substitutions made a real difference and if we could have converted one of those volleys from Downing or Hemmings you'd have fancied us for a point.

We're really close to being a really good side at this level. Our home form is as it is because we are too narrow. The midfield three make us tight and compact without the ball but make us restricted when we do have the ball. The last half an hour yesterday demonstrated how a home side should play. You should take the game to the opposition not go out there and kind of see what happens. The other thing that would make us a great side at the level would be the kind of centre-forward Bradford had yesterday. Our centre-halves had a real battle whereas theirs had the first hour off. We really miss Will Grigg.

I think we have all the personnel we need except one. We just need to find that Kevin Davies-type centre forward. Julian Gray would have been far better than Lalkovic yesterday and Sawyers needs to be given an extended run.

As for Smith's after match comments - they were obviously comments for the dressing room. If you start to rank our manager on what he says to Radio WM then Paul Merson must be your favourite Walsall manager ever. He'd have destroyed Troy Hewett in his after match comments and no doubt mentioned something about the "Dog and Duck". Franksy would have been glowing in how refreshing it was to have a manager who was so honest and that sentiment would have been echoed on here. Thank God Paul Merson isn't our manager and thank God Dean Smith is.

Yesterday was a good game of football that we came second in. There's some very changeable things that means that we could have been better which is good and we have some money that might enable us to fill the one big hole in the squad which is also good. Things are good - calm down.

Gloriously optimistic and I'm almost afraid to say unrealistically positive report there PT. What I saw and what I believe happened yesterday was a complete out manoeuvre by both the Bradford manager and a team who looked far more 'capable' to succeed at this level. Those that think we are some sort of reincarnation of Barcelona or one player short of a championship team just because we haven't got Will Grigg or more bizarrely a large lump of ageing flesh like Kevin Davies must be continually surprised that the opposition either plays better than us, scores more goals than us or has better players than us with the consequence that we are exactly where we deserve to be in the table.
I didn't enjoy the game, we played poorly, were unexciting and rather predictable. My team looked clueless and apart from Westcarr and Manton no one looked capable of creating any chances which may have led to a bit of excitement.

Roll on the next game, I'm sure we will do better................................ :D

[Sadders]

I don't understand all the negativity to be honest. If I looked down at our 10 fixtures and saw 15 points next to it I'd have been well happy. We've played some solid sides and are still 9th - what's the issue? Home form isn't great but like I said before we are a mid-table said who are a proper centre forward and a traditional winger who offers pace and width away from a play-off finish. If Smith can find the right formula superb, if he can't and we finish mid-table we will still have out done our budget position by a good 10 or 12 places and given that this league 1 is far, far stronger than last season where we finished 9th - that would be a perfectly decent season.

I sometimes wonder whether some of our fans need to go back a few years to the beginning of the Tranmere home game under Hutchings, where we played a team similar to us in the league and lost 4-1, or the loss at Peterborough when Nicholls had put us infront, perhaps the home game against Notts County when we were 2-0 down after 10 minutes and sunk. This is a world away. Fair enough it's frustrating and slow-paced at times but It's so much better than those days. Football evens itself out over time, we had 3 seasons of struggle, 2 in mid-table and 1 9th finish place last year - chances are we are owed another season in the top half and another around mid-table. Smith IS NOT going to keep performing miracles on young lads who come in on cheap wages with no transfer fee, not even Sir Alex would. The fact is, whilst we are taking these players on and not signing 25 journeymen we will have a chance of some success...and that's good enough for me.

[PT]

Really enjoyed the game. It was always going to be a tight one between two good sides. First half looked like a nil-nil first half. We had one wonder strike from Mantom that the keeper just managed to get a finger tip to. They had one wonder strike that went in. That was the only difference.

In such a tight game, their second goal was criminal. Three of the back four culpable, Downing in particular.

The three substitutions made a real difference and if we could have converted one of those volleys from Downing or Hemmings you'd have fancied us for a point.

We're really close to being a really good side at this level. Our home form is as it is because we are too narrow. The midfield three make us tight and compact without the ball but make us restricted when we do have the ball. The last half an hour yesterday demonstrated how a home side should play. You should take the game to the opposition not go out there and kind of see what happens. The other thing that would make us a great side at the level would be the kind of centre-forward Bradford had yesterday. Our centre-halves had a real battle whereas theirs had the first hour off. We really miss Will Grigg.

I think we have all the personnel we need except one. We just need to find that Kevin Davies-type centre forward. Julian Gray would have been far better than Lalkovic yesterday and Sawyers needs to be given an extended run.

As for Smith's after match comments - they were obviously comments for the dressing room. If you start to rank our manager on what he says to Radio WM then Paul Merson must be your favourite Walsall manager ever. He'd have destroyed Troy Hewett in his after match comments and no doubt mentioned something about the "Dog and Duck". Franksy would have been glowing in how refreshing it was to have a manager who was so honest and that sentiment would have been echoed on here. Thank God Paul Merson isn't our manager and thank God Dean Smith is.

Yesterday was a good game of football that we came second in. There's some very changeable things that means that we could have been better which is good and we have some money that might enable us to fill the one big hole in the squad which is also good. Things are good - calm down.

Gloriously optimistic and I'm almost afraid to say unrealistically positive report there PT. What I saw and what I believe happened yesterday was a complete out manoeuvre by both the Bradford manager and a team who looked far more 'capable' to succeed at this level. Those that think we are some sort of reincarnation of Barcelona or one player short of a championship team just because we haven't got Will Grigg or more bizarrely a large lump of ageing flesh like Kevin Davies must be continually surprised that the opposition either plays better than us, scores more goals than us or has better players than us with the consequence that we are exactly where we deserve to be in the table.
I didn't enjoy the game, we played poorly, were unexciting and rather predictable. My team looked clueless and apart from Westcarr and Manton no one looked capable of creating any chances which may have led to a bit of excitement.

Roll on the next game, I'm sure we will do better................................ :D

"Gloriously optimistic" - If that ends up as my epitaph - I'll take it. :D

I agree that we are not the re-incarnation of Barcelona or indeed one player short of being a championship team. What I do believe is that our management team and playing squad has all the essential ingredients bar one to be a really good third division team. As for being continually surprised by the opposition playing better than us and scoring more goals - I'm never surprised when Walsall lose third division football matches (though whether three times out of ten is "continuously" I'm not sure).

I'm more surprised that others seem to take it as an affront and some kind of disaster. It has happened on a frequent basis for the best part of 125 years and certainly for most of the 39 years I've watched us. I think the reason that people get really down when we lose at the moment is that this regime has built an expectation that we can beat everyone and do it playing scintillating football. Now that is unrealistic on our crowds and budget.

My only expectation is that everyone who pulls on the shirt does their best and the only time my piss truly boils is when I don't think that is the case or that there is perseverance from the management with a player who is trying but obviously not good enough (e.g Taundry) or the board with a manager who is obviously not good enough (e.g Hutchings). There's only one player from yesterday that I have a doubt about in the effort category. Others made mistakes, as did the management. That is disappointing but fixable and between them they have enough credits in the bank to be given time to make the necessary tweaks (and that's all they are).

[aaaae]

Those that think we are some sort of reincarnation of Barcelona or one player short of a championship team just because we haven't got Will Grigg or more bizarrely a large lump of ageing flesh like Kevin Davies must be continually surprised that the opposition either plays better than us, scores more goals than us or has better players than us with the consequence that we are exactly where we deserve to be in the table.

Has anyone really said this? A couple of players short of a miraculous 6th place finish, isn't the same thing.

Yow've gorra birrof a cob on, ay ya? :mrgreen:

[latviancheese]

Really enjoyed the game. .

:?

Each to their own :D

[aaaae]

Really enjoyed the game. .

:?

Each to their own :D

Maybe he's a masochist? :mrgreen: