Overall Performance Grade: C- (5/10)
Manager Graham Alexander: C (6/10)
First of all forgive me for using the old grading system, from A to G, with U (Ungraded) only used in the worse possible circumstances, I will be doing a report every seven or eight league games as the season progresses. So starting with the first seven league games it is fair to say that it is still too early to really be able to tell whether or not we are any better off than last season and for that reason it is too close to call whether Bradford City will finally find a way out of League Two. At this stage of the season, If I was to provide a grade, it would be a C-, anything higher would be stretching the realms of credibility and another lower would perhaps be too pessimistic a position to take at this stage.
Has Much Changed from Last Season?
But there are warning signs for sure that very little has changed and once again many of the claims about how much stronger we are than seasons gone by are perhaps just words we have become so accustomed to hearing but seeing very little hard evidence of. Having said that there have been a number of takeaways so far from our start to the 2024/25 season that fans can rightly get behind, and in this article I will avoid talking about the EFL Trophy, because we cannot really give an accurate appraisal that can be compared to League Two football in terms of the team we put out and those of the opposition. I will just say that Jay Benn is probably worth keeping an eye on because his low crosses are surely something that will give Graham Alexander food for thought as Brad Halliday isn’t quite hitting the heights of last season yet. But remember, Tyler Smith was a world beater last season in that competition and has failed to replicate that in the league for the Bantams.
The 0-0 draw with AFC Wimbledon at Valley Parade is a great match to use as an example of how the season is so far. The match was very much a case of glass half full or glass half empty depending on which way you view things. And neither is wrong in their interpretation even if Jason McKeown from Width of a Post was unfairly targeted from those who see the glass as half full for his appraisal of the match, which it could be said he saw more as glass half empty.
He felt the need to apologise on X for his viewpoint after a bit of a backlash to it, but aside from his belief that Richie Smallwood’s challenge might have deserved a red card rather than a yellow, which in fairness, due to the reaction to it, could have convinced another referee on a different day to conclude the same thing, nothing he said was unfair.
But these things happen when you hit that glass half full or half empty performance, and that is why at this stage of proceedings in the season, that is where we are exactly. In the next part, where we will have played the clubs we should be expecting to beat if we are seeing anything different from the seasons gone by, we will have a much better idea of whether the AFC Wimbledon match was a sign of better things to come, or a hint that nothing has changed from seasons gone by, and we can expect by May 2025, we will be preparing for yet another season of League Two football.
As things stand we are currently in 8th place and very much in contact with the top three, only four points adrift on 11 points, which could easily be 13 points had it not been for a perfectly valid goal ruled out against Salford City. As nice as it would be to pretend we got three points from that match, we didn’t and that’s just football.
MK Dons 1-2 Bradford City (EFL League Two)
On the opening day of the season we were 2-0 up in 5 minutes against highly fancied MK Dons and went on to win 2-1 in a match most of us would have been more than happy to draw. But you have to also take into account that MK Dons struggled in their first few fixtures and you could argue we caught them at just the right time. However, overall, there were many positive to be taken from that match, one of which is our game management.
Team Performance Rating: 8/10
Manager Graham Alexander Rating: 8/10
Grimsby Town 1-1 Bradford City (Carabao Cup)
After a bright start in the Carabao Cup away to Grimsby Town, where we were definitely a better side than them on paper and from a tactical point of view, we found ourselves 1-0 down very much against the run of play. We did end up technically drawing the match 1-1 with a goal from Andy Cook (another thing we definitely wanted to see early in the season), which would see us go out on penalties. Richie Smallwood had a starring role in missing a penalty that would most likely have put is through in normal time, but he did bravely step up to take a penalty and convert it in the shoot-out. However, a small question mark over the ordering and choice of penalty takers in that shoot-out has to be flagged, with Andy Cook going at the back-end of the takers, and Jake Young not even being among the first 5. On the injury front, Vadaine Oliver looked visibly gutted to be taken off injured as the concussion protocol not only putting him out of the next match, but preventing him from having a longer run in this match to build confidence in selecting him for the league.
Team Performance Rating: 5/10
Manager Graham Alexander Rating: 5/10
Bradford City 0-0 Salford City (EFL League Two)
Another goalless start for Bradford City at Valley Parade, but we did have a perfectly legitimate goal ruled out, so technically a win, but given that Salford City aren’t exactly the force they were supposed to be a few years ago, you could also argue that the quality of the opposition maybe more fairly reflected where we currently stand when it comes to the quality of our team and that maybe the draw might be a hint of where Bradford City are going to be come what May.
Some might think this is unfair, but Salford City aren’t a bad measurement for our club in terms of budget and underachievement, even if our fan bases are very different in size. The fact is if we have ambitions for promotion Salford City are one of those teams we should definitely be beating, and the disallowed goal in reality should be the difference between winning 1-0 instead of 2-0. On top of that you have to take into consideration that later in the game Salford City would be much more satisfied with a point that we were, which would have meant them having to attack us more than they actually did in this fixture. So we were never in major danger of conceding. Had the game opened up more with Salford City trailing the match in need of a goal to get a point it would have changed the course of the game, either providing more opportunities for us to score as they left spaces at the back, or, show up any hidden frailties in our defence, leading to them scoring an equaliser.
But on paper it is a clean sheet and a draw, points wise it is another point, and a fairly comfortable one at that. But it is still a draw, with the question being whether those two extra points will become a talking point later in the season.
Team Performance Rating: 6/10
Manager Graham Alexander Rating: 6/10
Bradford City 3-1 Bromley (EFL League Two)
Billed as a “must win” game, mainly because it was a good opportunity to gauge where Bradford City are in the grand scheme of things in League Two, even though we won convincingly, it was a bit of a let down for those wanting to use it as a barometer. A home fixture with newly promoted Bromley who had got off to a good start to life in the EFL, but in reality, Valley Parade absolutely should be where this positive start ends for them, and that’s exactly what happened. The scoreline looks on paper pretty much as it should be for us, but in our heart of hearts we all know that losing a Ashley Charles to a red card so early in the match was a game changer and the result was never really in doubt. Had the score stayed at 3-0 we certainly would have had more in that glass to take it above half full, but we conceded a sloppy goal, something we shouldn’t have been doing when on cruise control against them. It was very much the red flag to accompany a plain sailing performance and take the shine off of such a comfortable scoreline.
You could argue that had Charles not been sent off, with us 1-0 up instead of his handball, Bromley would have been a different beast with 11 men on the pitch trailing an early goal. We have watched Bradford City too many times before to know that we can’t always rely on being 1-0 up to get us over the line against teams we should really be beating comfortably. And so, we could have expected an expansive Bromley to take the game too us in search of an equaliser, rather than switch to damage limitation mode to contain a Bantams side that were exploiting the extra man advantage.
Something to mention in this match is the boos that Richie Smallwood was subjected when he took hold of the ball to take that penalty that put us 1-0 up. They were frankly a disgrace and I hope those fans who did that have reflected on what they did and regret it, because there is a reason we are called football supporters. He scored his penalty and Andy Cook got his goal, and to add to that it was great to see Bobby Pointon getting himself on the scoresheet too. So although it was hard to measure that game in terms of where it puts us in the grander scheme of things, there were many positives we could take away from it.
Team Performance Rating: 7*/10
Manager Graham Alexander Rating: 7/10
* Based on performance against 10 men for the majority of the match.
Grimsby Town 2-1 Bradford City (EFL League Two)
And then came the visit to Blundell Park where we were awful and deserved nothing from the match. Nobody could argue with the result, with Grimsby Town being much better than a team that mostly looked out of ideas. It could be said that the early injury to Aiden Baldwin disrupted our flow, with Jack Sheppard looking unprepared when he replaced him. But Grimsby opened the scoring on the 28th minute through Danny Rose and never looked like losing. Adding insult to injury was the manner they added a second goal straight after the break when we were hoping things might have changed after the break.
It was also a very frustrating day again for Calum Kavanagh who the harder he seemed to try to put mistakes right, the more seemed to go wrong for him. He was replaced by Fulham loanee Olly Sanderson at half-time to round off what has been a difficult start to the season for him, and he must have known he wouldn’t be starting the next match when his replacement scored the Bantams ill deserved consolation in the 78th minute.
Although Grimsby Town fans didn’t like Korban Raynor pointing it out, and they somewhat missed his point, the fact is that if Bradford City are supposed to be stronger than last season, and we are serious contenders for promotion, we should be beating teams like them when we are on the road. But instead having failed to beat them twice in as many weeks, it shows signs of major costly frailties that might be telling us once again our optimism is misplaced.
A quick note about the midweek fixture in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy Ollie Sanderson was on the scoresheet again and Jay Benn stood out in a 2-2 draw with Newcastle United’s U21’s.
Team Performance Rating: 4/10
Manager Graham Alexander Rating: 6/10
Bradford City 2-1 Carlisle United (EFL League Two)
Two goals from Andy Cook at home to struggling League Two promotion hopeful’s Carlisle United was just the tonic we needed on the back of the Grimsby Town result. A calamitous error from keeper Sam Walker, who in fairness has been quite solid since he arrived to replace the man now in goal for the visitors was certainly unfortunate timing for him personally, and probably gave Harry Lewis a bit of a lift at the same time. Had the match stayed 1-1, there might have been a bit more focus on the recent performances of our number one, but for Andy Cook who is “leaner and meaner” than seasons gone by, suggest he could be on for a record breaking season if past seasons are anything to go by. His winner in the 70th minute put the game beyond the visitors, and Walker gave away his gloves that “don’t work” to a grateful fan. Overall the performance was exactly the reaction the fans and the manager were looking for, and they delivered.
Still there are question marks over some of our summer signings, mainly the permanent ones, with Callum Johnson sidelined until at least January, Tyreik Wright failing in his defensive duties at left-wing back and not being as positive going forward as he was in his first spell with the club. Neil Byrne is fast looking like an upgrade on Ash Taylor rather than Matty Platt, and Antonie Sarcevic out of action for the foreseeable.
Also we have to ask ourselves whether Carlisle United are the real deal or whether instead of being promotion contenders they are destined to struggle to finish mid-table this season. So another one on paper that looks like a good result, but with a few minor question marks hanging over it about the quality of the opposition. Although, in fairness, in League Two, there isn’t a lot of quality full stop, which makes our long stay in this division even more frustrating.
Team Performance Rating: 7/10
Manager Graham Alexander Rating: 8/10
Walsall 2-1 Bradford City (EFL League Two)
Maybe we got the answer at the Poundland Bescot Stadium, home of Walsall FC. One of those questions starting to be about whether Stefan Rupp had delivered on his promised investment in the first team, or whether in reality our summer shopping has been more, well Poundland than anything else.
This one felt like de-ja-vu, Grimsby Town all over again. Even down to Jack Shepard having to fill in again, this time replacing Neil Byrne, who in hindsight should have left the pitch the moment he pulled up injured but instead was unable to prevent an attack by Walsall that Richie Smallwood came to the rescue for, only to find the referee had awarded a penalty for what was in fact a well timed fair tackle. But regardless Walsall put the penalty away to go 1-0 up and outplayed us for the vast majority of the first half, and as much as some commentators would have you believe, much of the second too.
Yes we did rally in the second half, having lost another key figure in defence through injury, this time Cairan Kelly, which left us having to shift to a 4-4-2 as we had run out of natural replacements at centre back, add that to Aiden Baldwin, and Calum Johnson, questions are rightly being asked about our recruitment and more to the point our medical department. After all it is worth reminding you one of the few points that actually counted as a strategy in the BBC West Yorkshire Sports “Fans Forum”, Ryan Sparks talked proudly about wanting to make sure the Bantams were bottom of the “injury league” and one of the important parts of this was not signing players who were a high injury risk. Which looking back he was referring to the reason we didn’t sign Charlie Wyke in January, but now just looks like a convenient excuse for, well not signing Charlie Wyke in January.
Once again it was Ollie Sanderson who stood out with his goal against the run of play before half-time, but that didn’t prevent us from throwing the barely earned point away to concede in the the 88th minute.
Back briefly to the Bristol Street Motors Trophy fixture, which saw us in complete control of League One Mansfield Town from start to finish with a 3-0 victory, a scoreline that didn’t flatter us. Vadaine Oliver who has had a terrible time at Bradford City since joining us scored the opening goal after only three minutes, and by the time Bobby Pointon put us 2-0 up the result was never really in doubt. Deep into injury time, Clark Odour made up for the sitter he missed at Walsall with his tidy strike to make the final score 3-0 to the Bantams.
But again, this is why I don’t want to dwell on the Bristol Street Motors Trophy, because although Ryan Sparks might want to desperately see us win it so he can add it to his CV and claim we have had a successful season if we once again fail to go up, that match was followed by a dull 0-0 at Valley Parade which brings us right up to date.
The facts are this, regardless of whether you think we deserved a penalty or two, they had at least 2 goalscoring opportunities themselves, something we didn’t manage. Sure, you can choose to look at the stats and tell yourself that AFC Wimbledon didn’t manage a single shot on target, but had two of their 7 shots been on target the stats would most certainly say shots on target 2, goals 2, make no bones about it. Had the wind been blowing in their direction the shot that hit the post and rolled along the line onto the other post was a very close call in deed.
Team Performance Rating: 4/10
Manager Graham Alexander Rating: 5/10
Bradford City 0-0 AFC Wimbledon (EFL League Two)
AFC Wimbledon on the flip side have been on good form, so a 0-0 at home to them is no big deal, it is neither a terrible result that we all have to start worrying about, but neither is it a result we should be pleased with. The fact is that we lost yet another defender to injury in Lewis Richards, granted not serious, but Tyriek Wright is not a left-back, in fact, once again he failed to give the AFC Wimbledon defence anything to think about. And we had a penalty appeal turned down which lead to Richard’s replacement loanee Joe Adams being substituted as he picked up an injury which could put him out of action for some time.
Whilst the statistics ultimately make it look like we limited AFC Wimbledon to zero shots on target, this didn’t tell the real story. The visitors had at least two glorious chances to score and a goal ruled out. James Tilley fired over the bar from close range. In fairness to Bradford City, Cheick Diabate had a similar opportunity saved by AFC Wimbledon keeper Goodman. Tyreik Wright then showed the all too familiar frailties in his defending when his mistake lead to a goal from Matt Stevens. This time the assistant referee was on hand to spare the blushes of Wright, and the rest of the defence which was also in a mess with his flag cutting short the visitors celebrations.
Then came the penalty appeal, whether it was a good shout is debatable and it is hard not to see why the referee waived the appeals away when a slip by an AFC Wimbledon defender lead to the injury of Joe Adams. It did lead to a move however that ended up with the goalkeeper making a save from Richie Smallwood’s shot from distance.
It wasn’t long after that when Myles Hippolyte thought he had scored the winner having seen his low shot beat Sam Walker only to hit the post and roll along the Bradford City goal line, much to the relief of most fans inside Valley Parade.
But that wasn’t the last big chance for AFC Wimbledon when Walker tipped over a header by Piggott on the edge of the six yard box from a long throw. It wasn’t recorded as a shot on target but most certainly was.
Not only that they had a goal disallowed for offside and one that hit the post and rolled along the goal line. So it was a 0-0 draw, but again, worryingly with a number of concerning moments that could have significantly changed the scoreline for the opposition.
So it is fair to say that AFC Wimbledon had very good reason to feel disappointed at not coming away from Valley Parade with all three points, and quite rightly there are Bradford City fans who have noticed we rode our luck a little in getting that point.
Admittedly AFC Wimbledon have been on good form and look like one of the better sides in League Two, so a point is respectable at least. But it could have been so different had they been more clinical with their finishing or for a few inches of difference in where a ball travelled across the line, or one of their players had been placed when they did put the ball in the net.
Team Performance Rating: 5/10
Manager Graham Alexander Rating: 5/10
Overall Thoughts & Points On The Season So Far
So to end where we started, this match depending on how you choose to look at things sums up the season so far entirely, either glass half full or glass half empty. In the next part we have some crucial games that we should expect to win if we are serious about being in the promotion mix this season. That starts with a visit to Harrogate Town and Morecambe, with a home fixture against Newport County. The latter two at least are among the favourites to go down and coming away from those games with anything less than six points will start to paint a very different picture to where the fans see the season going. Because if we cannot beat teams like those, we have to start asking whether there is more to our unconvincing start, albeit satisfactory, than we initially thought.
Some thoughts in general on what we have seen, starting with Bobby Pointon who the calls for him to start in every match have somewhat died down. Bobby Pointon, albeit young and raw and with plenty of potential is too one footed to be out on the wing, with his creativity best suited to a number ten role, where we have many players competing. On the bright side the early signs from
On the bright side, our loanee signings look promising, Cheick Diabate looks like he is pretty solid and not afraid to get things moving forward. But he did have one game that was poor, so it could go either way as things stand. Jay Benn will hopefully get opportunities to change games and see more action as the season progresses. And hopefully Olly Sanderson is the answer to our over-reliance on Andy Cook for goals. And that’s another positive, Andy Cook is still scoring goals. Richie Smallwood looks much more positive but when he has a bad game it tends to coincide with the whole team playing badly, and there’s also the issue of there being no natural cover for him, regardless of what Graham Alexander might claim about Clark Odour and Alex Pattison being it. Smallwood is being asked to play a lot of games this season if you consider the cups and this could impact his form as the season wears on.
Sadly from a recruitment point of view, it is starting to look like nothing has changed. The one out one in policy Graham Alexander has been forced to work to due to a lack of available budget, something that can be blamed squarely on Mark Hughes doesn’t seem to have been alleviated by the promised investment from Stefan Rupp, otherwise there would have been no need to wait for outgoings before signing players. The signing of Callum Johnson is an instant red flag as he was a high injury risk, of the type Ryan Sparks had spoke of the types of risks that the club are no longer prepared to take in order to sign quality players and pay less than their market value for. Again it is another hint that this was more of a needs must signing born out of a lack of money.
Neil Byrne far from being an upgrade on Matty Platt who we couldn’t convince to stay at Bradford City, has so far turned out to be barely an upgrade on Ash Taylor. And Callum Kavanagh signed in January from Middlesborough is clearly having a crisis of confidence. Antoni Sarcevic what could be called our big signing of the summer had been underwhelming in his early games, but that could be down to the injury he was carrying that has put him out of action for the next few months. The signing permanently of Tyreik Wright is another one that boggles the mind. With all of the evidence pointing to Ryan Sparks and Stephen Gent deciding that what Graham Alexander needed was another winger when we were struggling to broker a deal to pay-off loanee Tulloch, it understandably smacked of another PR stunt by the CEO. But having seen him disappoint in his second spell on loan with the Bantams it was a big surprise to see him return. Especially when we still weren’t playing with natural wingers and what we needed was some quality defensive competition for Lewis Richards. So far Tyreik Wright has failed to deliver on either an attacking, let alone defensive level.
And add to that the injury to Aiden Baldwin, it just seems we aren’t getting that much bang for whatever buck it is we are spending. Instead we are developing players for other clubs to benefit from.
And this brings us on to another worryingly re-occurring feature to this season, the injury crisis. Is there a reason for this or are we just unlucky? We have made changes in the departments that are tasked with fitness and conditioning, yet things seem to have got worse.
It is hard not to think that the glass is half-empty when there are so fewer positives than negatives to grab hold of. But there is just enough to feel that when we get over our injury issues, if we do, things will improve. As long as Alex Pattison can stay fit, we do have some real game changers, and it is worth remembering that Jamie Walker is a game changer too. Bobby Pointon needs game time to keep his development going in the right direction and with the right coaching to improve his game could hit yet better form than we saw last season. And in Sam Walker we have an excellent goalkeeper and his clanger against Carlisle United was just an exception to the rule. Andy Cook is without doubt one of, if not the best striker in League Two, and is guaranteed to get at least 15 goals this season, and Olly Sanderson looks like another that has a good eye for goal too.
Brad Halliday is already one of the best right-back/right wing backs in League Two and you would imagine will improve as the season goes on, as is how it tends to be with him. But we have Jay Benn as backup who will be at the very least worth throwing into the action when we are trailing matches or trying to break down a very stubborn defence.
So there are lots of reasons to feel positive. And although he wasn’t Ryan Spark’s first choice manager, Graham Alexander is the closest manager we’ve had to Phil Pakinson, who given the time, of which he will need at least another summer transfer window since Mark Hughes and his preference for three year deals has put the Bantams back two seasons, has shown signs that he could be the man who is capable of getting Bradford City out of League Two.
But there are a lot of if’s, especially when it comes to the manager. We know managers don’t last at Bradford City, so in reality we could expect to see him sacked by February. But if he isn’t, that will probably be because we are still in contention for the play-off’s, so here’s hoping history doesn’t repeat itself again.
Overall the grade is C-, with the – possibly being a bit on the tight side, but it is probably the fairest appraisal, and you have to consider the wins against MK Dons and Carlisle United to offset the disappointing results and performances.