Tuesday 28th Feb

[Cas]

My iFollow has gone weird. Keeps repeating the same 30 seconds over and over...

 

[WilsdenBantam]

Cook just retired the Gillingham defence there.

 

[Cas]

Of course I miss a goal. Cheers, iFollow.

 

[F!RTHY]

…that’s why Cook plays ahead of Vadaine Oliver.

But at least Ehmer beats Cook in the air, eh.

 

[THE LAST WALTZ]

Of course I miss a goal. Cheers, iFollow.

It was a cracker as well

 

[Cas]

It was a cracker as well

Just saw it on Twitter. Great goal. 21 for the season and some of our fans were wanting him gone pre-season!

 

[Sestonpoolie]

Just saw it on Twitter. Great goal. 21 for the season and some of our fans were wanting him gone pre-season!

Some of your fans reckoned Cook would end up at Pools earlier in the season.
If only.

 

[Cas]

Some of your fans reckoned Cook would end up at Pools earlier in the season.
If only.

The classic combo of big Cook and little Cooke!

Twenty minutes to go. Please don't mess it up, City.

 

[WilsdenBantam]

We have started doing our famous tactic of well we’re winning so it doesn’t matter if we keep giving the ball away.

 

[Conker]

Three more goals for Cook and he equals Gillingham goal scoring.

Can be no complaints from Gillingham, nothing really in the game but they switched off twice and Bradford took advantage with a bit of quality for a deserved victory.

 

[WilsdenBantam]

Comfortable in the end once we went to 5 at the back, not an easy game against an inform team on a crap pitch had to mix our play up and did it well especially second half. I’m sure Gillingham will end comfortably mid table and have more about them than the likes of Tranmere and Doncaster in recent weeks.

Need to sort our home form out now.

 

[Cas]

Really impressed with Stubbs again. Also, Smallwood has been much, much better since Clayton came in. Costelloe looks incredibly raw, but I think I like the look of him - always positive.

 

[THE LAST WALTZ]

Professional away performance from Bradford and Cook gave them that bit of quality we lack.
This season is just about staying up for us then a re-build in the summer.
Two poor goals from a defensive point of view but Cook’s finish was class.
Oh well, we go again Saturday.

 

[LS Bantam]

Not convinced by Costello, raw is complementary but he’s not better than Banks and he’s not better than Walker if he was to play further up.

Massive massive win though, Doncaster’s home form was excellent and we’ve comfortably won there on Saturday, Gills top of the form league and we’ve done the same tonight. Big worry is we’re back at home on Saturday where we’re absolutely bab most of the time.

 

[Cas]

Not convinced by Costello, raw is complementary but he’s not better than Banks and he’s not better than Walker if he was to play further up.

Massive massive win though, Doncaster’s home form was excellent and we’ve comfortably won there on Saturday, Gills top of the form league and we’ve done the same tonight. Big worry is we’re back at home on Saturday where we’re absolutely bab most of the time.

You make it sound like we're expecting a bumper crowd because of a cheap ticket offer, and we're playing a bogey side...

Oh shit.

 

[hellogregory]

That is a big big win for Stevenage

 

[Kauto Star]

Not convinced by Costello, raw is complementary but he’s not better than Banks and he’s not better than Walker if he was to play further up.

Massive massive win though, Doncaster’s home form was excellent and we’ve comfortably won there on Saturday, Gills top of the form league and we’ve done the same tonight. Big worry is we’re back at home on Saturday where we’re absolutely bab most of the time.

Costelloe is improving with every game and played well tonight. His movement is very good and linking up well with Walker and Cook. He does need to improve on his finishing though

 

[Chief Rocka]

Good old Tranmere, feet up on Saturday!

 

[PuB]

Bradford won the midfield and managed the game pretty well, thought Cook’s goal was a very good finish and we couldn’t find a way back in after that. We made a few half chances but none that really stood out, shite ref again.

Oh well, more important game from our perspective against Harrogate at the weekend. Hope Dieng is back as we really missed him tonight in the middle.

 

[Brox]

3-2 win away at Wimbledon, massive win for us that. Huge improvement in the second half, was much needed after a really underwhelming first half.

Wimbledon were the better side in the first 45, they pressed us incredibly well and made life very uncomfortable for us. They limited us to very few openings, rarely did we even get into attacking areas let alone work the keeper. It really did look like we were going to slump to another win-less performance, compounded by an atrocious bit of goalkeeping that resulted in the Wimbledon opening goal. Savin had made a couple of decent saves to keep it at 0-0 but all that good work was undone by a poor decision to come for a deep cross into the box, he got absolutely nowhere near the ball and it just ricocheted off Al-Hamadi into the net for 1-0.

3 subs at half time made the world of difference, much better performance from us second half. We had a couple of half chances before a short corner routine led to Piergianni heading home for our equaliser. The game really opened after that with both sides trading blows before a counter attack from a Wimbledon free kick led to Norris forcing an effort towards goal, the keeper made a save but could only fumble the ball into the path of a bundle of players and it looked like one of the Wimbledon defenders inadvertently knocked it over the line to give us the lead on the hour mark.

After that the game lost it's end to end nature, we sought to keep it at 2-1, Wimbledon kept probing without troubling us too much. They did find a leveller, the ball was worked out to their right back, he played a ball in behind the defence for a midfield runner, his effort was saved by Savin but he parried the loose ball into the path of Al-Hamadi who needed two attempts at scoring with an open goal, his first effort came back to him after striking the crossbar, unfortunately he made no mistake with the follow up to make it 2-2.

It felt like it could have gone either way at that point but we dug in and looked for the winner. 10 minutes from the end we won a free kick, out wide, 30/40 yards from goal, a cross into box flicked on to the back post found Norris totally unopposed and he smashed it back across the face of goal for the winner. We managed the game pretty well after that and held on to what could prove to be a massive 3 points.

I think Wimbledon can count themselves a bit unfortunate not to have got something from the game, on the balance of play they definitely deserved something. Feels like a big win for us after our recent run of results, hopefully this will prove to be a positive turning point in our season.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

Good game at our place against Salford. They're miles ahead of the other teams in the play-off running that we've played against recently.

They looked awful last season with that massive lump Smith up top, but he wasn't playing tonight and it was more about pace and skill. Louie Barry is way above this level.

Both of us had three or four chances to win it - we were probably hanging on at the end but also missed a couple of absolute sitters. Seven points from nine against sides above us, so it feels like we've turned a corner and will probably pick up a decent amount of points in the rest of the season without threatening the play-offs.

 

[Boz]

Started watching seeing as we're at Tranmere on Saturday,but turned it off after 30 mins.
Boring game & surprised at how poor Tranmere were,Crawley,slightly the better team.

Crawley can feel hard done to not to get anything out of that game. They were the better team in the first half and even after a central defender had found the net to put us ahead, they ballooned a penalty over the bar to give us all the points. Need a drastic improvement against you guys as I doubt we can be that lucky twice.

 

[BarraMatt]

Thought we were gonna get rinsed by Salford after 20 mins, however we battled back well to get a deserved point. They look a much better side when they keep that lump Smith on the bench, we couldn't get close to them at times with Barry being particularly impressive. Both sides squandered guilt edged chances to win it in an entertaining, end to end second half. 7 points from Bradford, Stockport and Salford is a good return for us.

 

[Reginald Fodstain]

Crawley can feel hard done to not to get anything out of that game. They were the better team in the first half and even after a central defender had found the net to put us ahead, they ballooned a penalty over the bar to give us all the points. Need a drastic improvement against you guys as I doubt we can be that lucky twice.

Terrible game, terrible atmosphere, insipid performance. Crawley had most of the better chances from what I remember, Joe Murphy made a couple of good saves and obviously the penalty miss was a shocker. Any talk of us making the playoffs is delusional though. 0-0 looks a decent bet against Hartlepool

 

[Cas]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1630685621508341760

Love the way he takes the ball and turns. Fantastic goal.

 

[RLC]

Crawley were the better side tonight and deserved to take something from the game. However, we are finally getting a bit of momentum, despite being without key players.

Mellon's substitutions won us the game, with Brad Walker in particular giving us the control in midfield we were lacking.

In contrast to the numpty element of our support, I think Mellon's doing a good job with a limited squad. It is remarkable to me that he has got results in the last two games when you consider the weakness of our starting eleven. The Crawley strikers who started tonight are both better than any of our forwards, with the possible exception of the injured Hemmings.

 

[AR27]

Echo my fellow Bantams. Comfortable and controlled victory I thought tonight with Cook's goal killing any chance Gillingham had in the second half.

 

[WilsdenBantam]

The goat

 

[F!RTHY]

Interesting reading the Gills forum, some of their lot thought Harry Lewis was our weak link along with our centre halves.

Must be something in the water down there.

 

[Reginald Fodstain]

Crawley were the better side tonight and deserved to take something from the game. However, we are finally getting a bit of momentum, despite being without key players.

Mellon's substitutions won us the game, with Brad Walker in particular giving us the control in midfield we were lacking.

In contrast to the numpty element of our support, I think Mellon's doing a good job with a limited squad. It is remarkable to me that he has got results in the last two games when you consider the weakness of our starting eleven. The Crawley strikers who started tonight are both better than any of our forwards, with the possible exception of the injured Hemmings.

Very worrying to be outplayed like that at home by a team second bottom of the league who haven't won away all season. I obviously accept that Morris and, despite underperforming all season, Hemmings have been missed and that our recruitment has left a lot to be desired going forward, but Mellon's failed to react positively all season. Whenever we've conceded first, that's generally been game over, and I couldn't see us getting anything if Crawley had deservedly snuck ahead at any point before Jordan Turnbull decided to take matters into his own hands. End of the season can't come quick enough.