Match Report 2001-2002

Sunday 24 February, 2002, Division One

Gillingham Away

The long and winding road away from Kent

Four goal drubbings of Gillingham aside, City's season continues to be something of a limbo.

At times you get a glimpse of what this team could and should be. We pay people £40,000, £18,000, figures like that. Sometimes they look like they are worth it. Sometimes this season we have been irresistible, just as the Gills found out at Valley Parade in September. Sometimes we are wretched beyond belief. 12 point Stockport County's only win on the road this year is still the 4-2 night at Valley Parade.

Today was the former. It was City as irresistible force of will against the eminently movable object of the Gillingham back four. Chief propeller being new signing Danny Cadamarteri, the homecoming king who scored one, set another up and could claim something of a presence in the first of four. As far as first games for City go it ranks up there.

In Nicky Law's world we need a Danny Cadamarteri. His tactics are not that dissimilar to Jim Jefferies. They both like 442 but where as Jefferies needed tall guys to hit a ball high to, Law prefers at least one fast guy to chase the ball into channels with, pushing the opposition back four towards their own goal for fear of being burned for pace.

Gareth Grant did this job, Danny Cadamarteri does it well. From the first whistle to the last the Gills defence bristled when Cadamarteri was near. They tried standing back, he went around them, they tried stepping up, he went past them. In terms of suitability for this role Cadamarteri is to Law what Stan Collymore was to Chris Hutchings side.

As good as Cadamarteri was, and he put in an excellent performance, this was a city team display. The midfield four of Gareth Whalley, Eoin Jess, Stuart McCall and Jamie Lawrence enjoyed the extra room they had from a less compressed game and made good. The backline coped well, primarily because of the fact that when they came under any real pressure City were 3-0 up. When games are already won, mistakes are less costly thus there is less pressure on and less chance of making errors. At 3-0 even Andy Tod can be allowed a blooper.

At 0-0 though the last thing you want one of your back four to do is to help the ball into his own goal. Mark Patterson turned a fairly innocuous looking lose ball into a goal for City after Ashley Ward had climbed higher than Vince Bartrum in the Gillingham goal for a deep cross, the kind of cross that can be deep if the back four is pressed back to cope with the pace of a Cadamarteri.

Gillingham of course know this well and have Marlon King, one of the better players in the division who used the strength and pace that will get him a move to bigger and better in the Summer to get a cross to tem mate Paul Shaw to head just wide. Knowing about pace is one thing, coping with it another.

Cadamarteri burst down the channel once, got tripped, did it again, got a cross in and Ashley Ward poked home for his 11th in 20th games and perhaps his last. The £18,000 a week man is supposed to be talking over a move to Barnsley this week, although the Tykes being able to afford to pay him similar is debateable. He will be missed, but his drain on the budget will not and Marlon King is at least as good and probably gets paid a third of Ward's weekly.

Gillingham looked like thy would hold out to half time and maybe make a game of it in the second half with the conditions going more in there favour but a smart 30 odd yard chip over Bartrum from Jamie Lawrence on the whistle put pay to that. It was a sweet strike. If Lawrence puts in a good game it's a fair bet that City are playing well, like Eoin Jess, he only starts to play after the right to play has been won. Credit to the likes of McCall, Ward and Cadamarteri for winning it, credit more to Nicky Law for having the plan to follow.

Danny Cadamarteri scored his goal midway through the second half. It was as richly deserved as any City have recorded this season. Like Stan Collymore City's striker has a point to prove. Like Collymore his debut is already written into Bradford folklore. There were 200 or so in the cold and snow. Expect that figure to rise in line with Cadamarteri's star at Bradford City. Collymore was pushing 30 and only stayed for a few months. Cadamarteri is just past 22.

It is a long way back from Kent, but with the road ahead as open and endless as the career of City's latest bright young thing, a journey flies by.

Man of the Match

Danny Cadamarteri

So far, so good

City Team:

Combe
Greyson Tod Myers Jacobs
Lawrence McCall Jess Whalley
Ward Cadamarteri