Matchday thread: Bradford City v Port Vale

[KingRay]

What an encouraging start to the season. A very competitive game which I watched from the East Stand and therefore probably have a slightly different perspective than most Vale fans. Before discussing individual performances, the organisation of the team the team from back to front was as good as I've seen it since the days of Freddie Steele. Every player knew his role and performed it , both when we had the ball and when we didn't. As a result, Bradford were reduced in the second half to lumping hopeful balls into our box - which Streete and Smith just gobbled up. Despite several long range efforts that whistled narrowly wide, Alnwick had very little to do. I think Bruno deserves a lot of praise for the way we were organised against a very competitive Bradford - even the substitutes knew their roles and slotted in when they came on.

 

The back four were very, very solid. Streete won many great headers and one clearance for a corner from a dangerous cross in the first half was as good as it gets. 10 out of 10 for me. Smith was equally good and had the unenviable task of marking Hanson, who despite having his hands all over Smith and never being penalised by the referee, got very little change. Smith also has a mean streak and I liked the way he put Low into my lap in the stand with one very heavy late touchline challenge. The language from the Bradford player was unprintable. Knops also won several important headers and moved into the centre to cover Streete and Smith when they went up for corners and free kicks. I think we have a very competent player there who reads the game well. Despite playing out of position he certainly wasn't a weak link.

 

In midfield Grant ran his socks off for the full 90 minutes. At times he worried me with his tendancy to hang on to the ball when the last man. However he didn't get caught out - this time. Foley also stood out with a very workman like performance. Tavares was very creative with his ability to go past people and pray long accurate passes forward. He has a footballers brain and seems to see and play the dangerous pass. Will be a key player this season and provides a creativity in midfield that we haven't seen for years. He is no shrinking violet and put in lots of meaty challenges - so much so that the referee ended up booking him.

 

Upfront Cecilia caused the Bradford back line all kinds of problems. He won nearly every long ball in the air - all to little avail as he was completely isolated. However, when the ball was played to feet he held off his defenders well until support arrived from midfield. an encouraging start for the lad. We didn't half miss him when he went off with what looked like a head injury. I thought Mbamba knew his role well when he came on and got himself into very dangerous positions on a couple of times - in fact had his leg been a couple of inches longer he would have bagged all 3 points late on.

 

To summarise. We have a very good tactician as a manager and are very strong defensively and in mid field. We will be difficult to score against and if we manage to get that elusive forward could be in for a cracking season. See you all at Carlisle on Tuesday night.

[Walka003]

Cecilia needs someone along side him, awful yesterday because he was isolated.

 

Defence I agreed with previous posters had an answer for everything Bradford came up with all 4 player immense.

 

Grant foley and taveras all have terrific engines and were brilliant in the middle.

 

Thomas very good and direct when he got the ball, De Freitas did ok but I don't think that is his natural position.

[onestepatatime]

Agree with post 244 from King Ray.

 

I'm appy!

 

Grant mercurial. Foley has better engine than my hero Lofty. Smith was fantastic. Knopps ,although allegedly not a full back was superb. He headed us out of trouble more than any full back I've seen in many a year. Tavares will become one of our heroes once he fully acclimatises to English Football. The set up and tactics from Bruno(what a refreshing change from Page) were spot on.

 

Some Vale fans felt we "may" have got a severe beating at Bradford with all our inexperienced Continentals BUT hey we were a solid match for a poor Bantam outfit. To see them resort to pumping long hopeful balls to out of touch Hanson was testament to the hard work done by the entire team in negating the opponents to speculative long shots.

 

Appy, appy yes. Good solid start. The foundation is there to see that Bruno will have us known as a good footballing Team, hard to beat. A fast winger who can deliver telling crosses to a dangerous centre forward are all we require to turn us into serious challengers in Division 1.

 

Well done Smurf and Bruno/Brown. You are putting appy back into Valiants lives.

[Conrad]

What an encouraging start to the season. A very competitive game which I watched from the East Stand and therefore probably have a slightly different perspective than most Vale fans. Before discussing individual performances, the organisation of the team the team from back to front was as good as I've seen it since the days of Freddie Steele. Every player knew his role and performed it , both when we had the ball and when we didn't. As a result, Bradford were reduced in the second half to lumping hopeful balls into our box - which Streete and Smith just gobbled up. Despite several long range efforts that whistled narrowly wide, Alnwick had very little to do. I think Bruno deserves a lot of praise for the way we were organised against a very competitive Bradford - even the substitutes knew their roles and slotted in when they came on.

 

The back four were very, very solid. Streete won many great headers and one clearance for a corner from a dangerous cross in the first half was as good as it gets. 10 out of 10 for me. Smith was equally good and had the unenviable task of marking Hanson, who despite having his hands all over Smith and never being penalised by the referee, got very little change. Smith also has a mean streak and I liked the way he put Low into my lap in the stand with one very heavy late touchline challenge. The language from the Bradford player was unprintable. Knops also won several important headers and moved into the centre to cover Streete and Smith when they went up for corners and free kicks. I think we have a very competent player there who reads the game well. Despite playing out of position he certainly wasn't a weak link.

 

In midfield Grant ran his socks off for the full 90 minutes. At times he worried me with his tendancy to hang on to the ball when the last man. However he didn't get caught out - this time. Foley also stood out with a very workman like performance. Tavares was very creative with his ability to go past people and pray long accurate passes forward. He has a footballers brain and seems to see and play the dangerous pass. Will be a key player this season and provides a creativity in midfield that we haven't seen for years. He is no shrinking violet and put in lots of meaty challenges - so much so that the referee ended up booking him.

 

Upfront Cecilia caused the Bradford back line all kinds of problems. He won nearly every long ball in the air - all to little avail as he was completely isolated. However, when the ball was played to feet he held off his defenders well until support arrived from midfield. an encouraging start for the lad. We didn't half miss him when he went off with what looked like a head injury. I thought Mbamba knew his role well when he came on and got himself into very dangerous positions on a couple of times - in fact had his leg been a couple of inches longer he would have bagged all 3 points late on.

 

To summarise. We have a very good tactician as a manager and are very strong defensively and in mid field. We will be difficult to score against and if we manage to get that elusive forward could be in for a cracking season. See you all at Carlisle on Tuesday night.

 

Great summary Ray, us fans can have our view on the game but the view of ex professionals carry more weight for me.

[Emile]

Just a quick mention of Bradford. Won't be going anywhere this season without a striker. Average mid table team.

 

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[valeblue]

Can't see why Bradford are promotion favourites , very average!

[Andyregs]

do you think / reckon bruno see's a prospect in him? like's the confidence he shows on the pitch.

for an eighteen year old, espiecially playing against james hanson how he did, he showed real quality didnt he.

 

I sometimes think you must try to read something different to what I actually said, just so you can get angry. My point was that it was great smith played, and should have played, but he probably wouldn't have if Adams or page were in charge. I expect Duffy would probably have resigned or someone else would have been brought in ahead of him.

[Warren]

I thought we were very good defensively and had resilience which got us a point I don't think we would have got last year. Grant gave a 12/10 performance. Going forward we lost posession a lot in the final third and only occasionally threatened. I feel 433 was giving us resilience but when attacking we didn't having anyone wide to spread the play or to cross. I thought Cicilla did alright and showed some good skill in the first 30 minutes but faded. However as a big guy he needs some crosses and he didn't get many and the one he did get I remember second half was thigh high which he directed goal wards but wide. The players are technically better than last year and better organized - we even managed the game well slowing the pace in the heat and we were 5% fitter in the last 10 and could have knicked one. Pleased overall.

 

Apparently we played 4231, which I guess we did on reflection. Anyway it worked well defensively.

 

I think we should avoid giving too much stick to anyone yesterday. Only 4 of that side played regularly last season and 1 played occasionally. Then the rest have had to come to England, fit in, play a league 1 game for the first time, deal with Bradford away on the opening day in front of 18,500 crowd. So overall an excellent result. It is a big step up fro losing 5-0 at home to Walsall last game in 15/16.

[beasty77]

Biggest gate in L1, 18,558 against Bolton v Blades a mere 17,050.

 

You cant deny Bradfords fan base is really good for league 1.

As for the match, Vales back 5 were outstanding, really impressed with knopps.Grant is just different gravy, he really is. We need do all we can keep him, though on yesturdays performance i really cant see Vale keeping him, as a few scouts watching his performance were no doubt rubbing their hands.

We got lucky a couple of times in the first half, but should of won it at the death. Draw fair and good result.

[queenybantam07]

Just a quick mention of Bradford. Won't be going anywhere this season without a striker. Average mid table team.

 

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Can't see why Bradford are promotion favourites , very average!

 

Morning,

 

I thought I'd give me views on yesterday's game.

 

Firstly, a response to the posts I have quoted.

 

When I saw our line up yesterday for the first time, I was adamant I would see a defeat. It was incredibly weak. We had last years midfielder playing at right-back. We had a CM playing CB (Vincelot), and a youth prospect making his first senior debut in midfield, even though the games he's featured in-in pre-season, he played at LB. Our better striking option wasn't fit enough to start the game (Hiwula), and most of yesterday's starting XI hadn't seen much game time. It meant that we were missing 5 players, from what I would deem our strongest starting XI.

 

Irrespective of our make-shift team, I felt disappointed not to have come away with 3 points, given our first half performance alone. You couldn't get near the ball for most of the game, and naturally, as the game wore on, fatigue hit our injury-stricken side, and you started to make the most of the game in the latter stages.

 

I applaud Vale for attempting to play football, but given a more direct approach in the second half, you actually looked more threatening when doing so.

 

In addition, I know you have a number of foreign players on your books, and to be honest, I'm not sure how many of them started yesterday, but, a lot of your players went down incredibly easily - and thankfully, the ref didn't fall for it (who had a decent game himself, I might add).

 

As a whole, that team we fielded yesterday is and probably will be our weekest we'll field all season - and it doesn't take off any gloss from your perspective on me saying this, either - as I saw enough for from your team to believe you'll stay up this season - as I recall you're one of the clubs favoured for the drop.

 

Lastly, decent attendance again - okay atmosphere. Good numbers from Vale, but I must say, I didn't hear much from my seat in the KOP.

[valeblue]

Look forward to hearing the 400 Bantems when they come to VP

[Emile]

Morning,

 

I thought I'd give me views on yesterday's game.

 

Firstly, a response to the posts I have quoted.

 

When I saw our line up yesterday for the first time, I was adamant I would see a defeat. It was incredibly weak. We had last years midfielder playing at right-back. We had a CM playing CB (Vincelot), and a youth prospect making his first senior debut in midfield, even though the games he's featured in-in pre-season, he played at LB. Our better striking option wasn't fit enough to start the game (Hiwula), and most of yesterday's starting XI hadn't seen much game time. It meant that we were missing 5 players, from what I would deem our strongest starting XI.

 

Irrespective of our make-shift team, I felt disappointed not to have come away with 3 points, given our first half performance alone. You couldn't get near the ball for most of the game, and naturally, as the game wore on, fatigue hit our injury-stricken side, and you started to make the most of the game in the latter stages.

 

I applaud Vale for attempting to play football, but given a more direct approach in the second half, you actually looked more threatening when doing so.

 

In addition, I know you have a number of foreign players on your books, and to be honest, I'm not sure how many of them started yesterday, but, a lot of your players went down incredibly easily - and thankfully, the ref didn't fall for it (who had a decent game himself, I might add).

 

As a whole, that team we fielded yesterday is and probably will be our weekest we'll field all season - and it doesn't take off any gloss from your perspective on me saying this, either - as I saw enough for from your team to believe you'll stay up this season - as I recall you're one of the clubs favoured for the drop.

 

Lastly, decent attendance again - okay atmosphere. Good numbers from Vale, but I must say, I didn't hear much from my seat in the KOP.

Think you need a striker and someone creative in midfield. Sure it's not your best side but id imagine you won't be in the playoffs this season again.

 

Thought the ref was pretty poor actually, considering the diving your players did in 2nd half.

 

 

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[Class personified]

Thanks for your insight of the game from the Bradford perspective. I think that Bradford fans deserve better based upon the level of their superb fan base. The Vale nullified Bradford's attack who throughout adopted only Plan A with aimless punts into the Vale half which our back four dealt with ease. If we have had been more adventurous going forward the game was there for the taking. An excellent result for a recently cobbled together team.

[queenybantam07]

To be honest, our followings to Vale aren't particular impressive, but we have managed a couple of 1,000+ followings in L1. We generally play you on Tues nights, or seemed to - hence the low followings. If we were at Vale yesterday for the opening game, we'd have taken 2,000.

 

McCall is well aware of what we need, and that's a ST, CM and LW.

 

I believe we're holding out on Nahki Wells' move to Burnley or Derby. £8m is being touted about. 20% clause in his contract means it's a tidy profit on the lad. In addition, Andre Wisdom could be moving to Celtic, of which currently, is our most lucrative windfall in the making.

[onestepatatime]

Queenybantam, we too had a side that most would have not recognised from last season. Lot of newbies in our squad so I would ask you to consider that other teams will also have "weaker" teams than some fans may expect to be fielded.

 

The ref actually was very poor and that is not a biased opinion from me. To allow Hanson to crawl, lean,sprawl and manhandle over our back four was frustrating to say the least.

 

You would expect Bradford as the home team to show more attacking intent, yes but did you really threaten? I have to say that in those last 10 minutes or so there was only ever going to be one team to nick the 3 points and it did look and hear like your fans were the most relieved to have appoint at the final whistle.