A 7 hour coach trip down on the Friday, leaving at 7am and not arriving into the South of Wales until 3pm, one which cost a substantial amount for a lacklustre performance.
Stuart McCalls Bradford City faced Newport County, who were being managed by Michael Flynn, a former tough-tackling City midfielder who was managed under McCall in the Scotsman’s first tenure in charge of the Bantams. The pair were actually spotted reconciling before the game; proving that no love was lost.
In his pre-match interviews with the media, McCall demanded desire and drive, saying “It will be a tough game, particularly with the difficult surface we are expecting.
“Football is about winning and, in these kind of games, you have to make sure you do everything you can to try and do that.” Clayton Donaldson would return to the team and make an instant impact, putting City ahead with a looping header after an enticing ball from Connor Wood entered the box in the 26th minute.
However, within the next 7 minutes the entire game would be flipped- following a quickfire fightback from Newport.
A horrific attempt at defending a corner meant that the Bantams would allow defender Ryan Inniss to be free just inside the box and his strike would be the equaliser for the Exiles. Inniss had an excellent game and proved to be a challenging competitor to an experienced City frontline.
And in the 33rd minute, Inniss’ centre-back partner Scot Bennett also capitalised on an embarrassing attempt of ‘defending’ as another corner was easily finished by an unmarked Bennett, silencing the City faithful who were astonished by such an effortless spell of play. Throughout the remainder of the game any visible Bradford second goal became less and less likely, squandering chances in the second half which would’ve been a certain goal had it been Swindon Town, Crewe Alexander or even Exeter City. But just like in the promotion race this season, City were second best to a Newport side who hadn’t won in their last four games, one game includes the Welsh side missing out on the huge opportunity to play at Wembley following a penalty shootout defeat to Salford City.
Evidently, the Bantams missed out on the chance to take advantage of a low in confidence Newport, and showed a lack of grit, heart and passion to fight for the badge which is required. The away curse goes on, with McCall’s men having not won away from home since a narrow victory over Morecambe back in early October. One stat from the game which particularly stood out to me was the fact that City made 62 passes in their own half- 24 more than Country, demonstrating that McCall’s football is beginning to be implemented into this Yorkshire club as he is known for wanting to play football on the ground, something which was missing during Gary Bowyer’s reign, and even David Hopkin’s before that.
On that note, the fans can hope and put their trust in McCall’s management skills and hope that they can continue to mesh with the club just like 2017 after the Bantams had an unbeaten home season and tragically lost out to an offside Millwall goal back in the play-off final (not salty whatsoever). This is despite the current relegation form City are in and McCall’s underwhelming first 4 points out of a possible 12, we can be confident he can reignite the fight of the club and get them pumping once more- even if it does mean a ten hour round journey down ti the South of another country.
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