Port Vale 2 Bradford 2 - Post Match Comments

[Hagrid]

Another interesting stat.

 

Since Page took over, we've only won 2 of the 10 games Pope has played in (Barnsley and Yeovil).

 

Pope's appearances conveniently sandwich the run of games when we flew up the table, with widespread talk of a play-off push.

 

Who was our striker for them games? Williamson.

 

Edit: We won 7 out of 14 games with Williamson up front.

[JYVALE]

Williamson is slated on here because he isn't 6"5 and from Stoke-on-Trent, but people cannot argue with the fact that, even when performances have been poor, we won games with Williamson.

 

He scored 3 in 5 over Christmas and into January, and we won all of those games 2-1.

 

Strange, isn't it?

 

He's slated because he has no composure and is incredibly average. Campion-ey!

[kevin_struggles]

Another interesting stat.

 

Since Page took over, we've only won 2 of the 10 games Pope has played in (Barnsley and Yeovil).

 

Pope's appearances conveniently sandwich the run of games when we flew up the table, with widespread talk of a play-off push.

 

Who was our striker for them games? Williamson.

 

Edit: We won 7 out of 14 games with Williamson up front.

 

Dont forget Dodds ;) his inclusion allowed us to play a different way, a more effective way. As soon as Pope came back we stopped playing the ball through the midfield and started lumping the ball up to Pope even though we dont have anyone up there to play off him. Madness?

[bookworm]

You must be gutted we got a point yesterday after you predicted a pointless February !

 

quite pleased actually,didn't expect a point but at least we kept going for the equaliser.

[Santa]

The Bradford goalkeeper has had his red card rescinded and is playing tonight.

 

W T F? It was dogso, a nailed on red.

[soothsayer]

I see Bradford beat MKD tonight so perhaps a point on Saturday wasn't a bad point after all.

[Warren]

Our players tried hard throughout the game, kept going to the end and were rewarded with a point. I thought Bradford had a more balanced team and tactics.

 

In the first half our downside was playing too much direct to Pope with insufficient support and crossing too near to the keeper or with insufficient men in the box. At the back we were good most of the time, but we seem to always be struggling in the left back area. It seems like there is constant last ditch defending from us when the ball is in that area, but is that because we don't have enough cover of Dickinson and colleagues are not positioning well? Dickinson also needs better distribution, but to be fair he has to pump it up the line if we are playing direct. It seemed like Bradford marked up to let him be the man on the ball. I hope he can sort the issues because he tries hard enough.

 

The sub at half time of Campion was key to scoring. Without the extra body with the scoring instinct yet another attack would have been defended easily. Their second goal had some controversy about whether Neal was held down, on balance I thought it was just a ruck. A very well taken penalty under pressure for the draw and well done Birchall and Pope to get the ball in to a dangerous position in the final seconds.

 

I thought fans near me were too critical of the players. Bradford are a good side and it was never easy. Vale players tried their best and even with frustrations it was nonetheless an entertaining game.