Walsall vs Bradford

[LS Bantam]

No thread yet for the biggest fixture of the weekend?? Not expecting great things, McCall to tinker again with the attack and maybe see Gillead and or Alex Jones come in from the start, Charlie Wyke's still not fully ready.
I'm going, which normally results in us losing or a dull low scoring/0-0 draw, which sounds about right for today's prediction.

 

[F!RTHY]

Don't care.

 

[WilsdenBantam]

Well that was fucking pathetic, shocking to change formation at 3-0 up bring on negative subs. I'm sure McCall will be excused by some though, what a player, my absolute idol. But as a manager, no thanks. No doubt we still need a couple more players, but to throw away a 3 goal lead with 35 minutes left is disgraceful.

 

[Robert Molenaar]

McCall threw that game away for us making those changes. Wouldn't have minded 3-0 with 15 mins to go, but to do it that early is unacceptable.

 

[finley]

We desperately desperately need a centre Half

 

[LS Bantam]

Beyond words how crap we were. I can't think of three worse subs than the ones made today in the time I've been watching City.

 

[WilsdenBantam]

Beyond words how crap we were. I can't think of three worse subs than the ones made today in the time I've been watching City.

Same. Say what you want about Parkinson, but I can't remember us throwing points away from that position under him. Reminded of the period between 2001-2011, no guts or fight. We need a quality defender in asap, always made me laugh when people called Meredith overrated the lad was a different class and has proven to be impossible to replace at this level. McArdle shouldn't be as difficult but we haven't even brought anyone in yet to compare. Hows it go? Build from the back, oops.

 

[Jockney]

Meredith's ace! But it seems premature to be talking about McCall in fatal terms. Last season he improved on your position playing better football. This season you have seven points from your opening four games, which is solid. The league looks stronger this year, too.

 

[LS Bantam]

Meredith's ace! But it seems premature to be talking about McCall in fatal terms. Last season he improved on your position playing better football. This season you have seven points from your opening four games, which is solid. The league looks stronger this year, too.

While we finished one(?) spot higher and one step further in the PO's, the irony of that improvement was the lack of conviction that saw us gift a very achievable second spot to Bolton with a catalogue of draws and an inability to turn just a few of those into wins. Those lack of goals, tactics and habit of faltering in the bigger games all played their part in failing to go up. The football is better (at least it was to begin with, which wasn't hard after so much long ball) than life under Parkinson but that has slowly drifted and this season we haven't kept the ball at all, in a game and a half that Charlie Wyke has played (not 100% fit) we've hoofed it as much as we did to Hanson.
Behind the scenes things don't look well at all, recruitment has been horrific as the newish owners push cheap kids to sell on and we're lacking all over the pitch - in interviews McCall is often negative on most subjects and having nearly left last summer things don't seem any rosier now and I've no idea what kept him here but he doesn't seem comfortable in the set up. The players he had to pick from yesterday were largely signed by the board, but yesterday's subs were truly baffling, two development squad players and a loanee full back we rejected on trial a few years back who we'd only loaned the other day; the pressure caused by such weak subs gifted Walsall back into the game, helped immensely by some shocking defending, another area not addressed.
So not every blame lies at McCall's door, there's issues all over the shop, but as things stand we're a long long way from getting anywhere near our position last season.

 

[WilsdenBantam]

Meredith's ace! But it seems premature to be talking about McCall in fatal terms. Last season he improved on your position playing better football. This season you have seven points from your opening four games, which is solid. The league looks stronger this year, too.

Good to hear Mezza is doing well, embarrassing that some of our fans thought he wouldn't be a miss.

I can see what you're saying, and as an outsider the comments probably look strange as our points hall so far isn't bad. But something just hasn't been right. Maybe it's scars from his first spell in charge, but since February from a personal point of view my faith in him has diminished back to how it was towards his first spell in charge. Fleetwood, Bolton and Scunthorpe we all led at one point and were on top, maybe it's because he's a good bloke and one of the lads to a degree but his teams have always seemed to have a soft underbelly. We should have won all 3 of them which would have seen us get autos. When that didn't happen we had a chance at Wembley, 0-0 after around 65 minutes, instead of bringing on another winger in Gilliead we bring on a defensive mid and start to see the tide of the game change, like yesterday. Different personnel, same results.

Of course it isn't all on McCall, the recruitment hasn't been good enough imo hopefully I'll be proved wrong. But he doesn't help himself.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Well what an enjoyable game that was overall.

Felt like a win at full time so my match report may be slightly blinded by the overall result, rather than the entire 90 minutes. Anyway, I didn't think Bradford deserved to be 2 or 3-0 up when they actually were, it was a very even game with both sides playing some neat and tidy, if unthreatening football. Was impressed by Wyke drawing as many fouls as he did, clever target man. Horrendous defending for the Bradford 1st, just allowing the midfielder to run 30-40 yards right down the centre of the pitch as everyone ran away and left responsibility to each other. Great ball across from Wyke to the back post, most forwards would have tried a shot from that angle. Nicely taken second goal from Poleon, not much to be done about the own goal really - although the amount of stupid, niggly fouls we gave away in threatening areas, when we suffer at set pieces was just mind blowingly dumb really.

We didn't give up though and from the second we got 1 back, Bradford just seemed to fold, when out of possession was hassled it back, then when we had it - we looked for a combination of direct attacking play, width and then a mix of some neat football too. The lad that scored the 1st goal was taken off, he looked lively and from then on in - Bradford had nobody to hold the ball up, or give them an out and slow things down in midfield. It just meant that every single time the ball was cleared, we were allowed to rebuild attack after attack in waves. We can moan at Whitney for being a physio, but for the last 20 minutes Bradford looked out for the count, whilst we looked at full fitness. It's a long time since I've seen us dominate and pin a team in for an entire half down the Bescot. I've seen Doyle get some stick on your forum, but to be honest - apart from 1 slight blunder he dealt with high balls superbly and looked assured all afternoon. Brillant headers from Leahy (who looks very impressive going forward) and Roberts - who looks like he is going to be superb.

Great celebrations for the equaliser and to be honest, we should have won it with all but the last kick. Devlin was in down the right hand side after Oztumer stole the ball, all he had to do was square to bakayoko, who was completely unmarked in acres of space with effectively what would have been an open goal - that would have been some moment.

All in all, a fair result in a game that we edged on the basis of the dominance in the second half. Bradford looked 'okay' but didn't create or make the keeper make a save bar the goals. Wyke was impressive and the small lad with slick hair who scored the 1st was lively and creative. I had forgotten Kilgallon was still playing, injuries have taken it out of him over the years. Great result and hopefully some momentum for us considering where we were after 48 minutes and the opening day defeat to Bury.