Match Report 2002-2003

Saturday 14 September, 2002, Division One

Walsall away

Getting it right

I'm not as much of a Town fan as I could be. I mean I'm not a home and away guy. I don't have a season ticket and only get to about 15 games a season but nevertheless I am a Town fan and I've been charged with writing this report.

The question I'm asking is "Are Bradford City going to get their comeuppance?"

Most of the league cannot wait for you to get it. I mean, you were never loved cause you never won the First Division three years running and your stay in the Premiership just served to piss people off for one reason or another. Add to that Geoffrey Richmond and Gordon Watson and Town are not the only club who would like to see you hanging around the basement of division three in a few years.

The fall from, erm, grace(?) in the summer seemed to have knocked the features out of your ridiculous plumage, I'm here to see if you have learned your lesson.

Walsall are offering a tiny number of tickets to away fans cause of work being done on the ground by they all seemed to be filled. After all that sweat in the summer it is good to see that you can take the drive down the motorway on a Saturday afternoon.

So what's on the field? I've been told that your team is a mixture of freebies who work socks off and well paid lugs who amble around the field. Ashley Ward is the most readily accused of this but to be honest I have always rated the guy and nothing I saw today changed my mind on him. With Ward you get a player who can play in a certain way, why play him if you are not going to play that way. The other striker [Michael Proctor] does the line leading, Ward drops off and that seems to work. Proctor looks good too but he is not yours anyway.

Nor is Stephen Warnock. He played left back in his first game on loan from Liverpool. He looks good, assured and capable. He is not one of those players who is on a loan with a view to permanent move, he is an Anfield keeper.

The back four looked solid. Keeper Davison played well and showed little signs of the errors that have his name cursed by Bantams in my presence. Robert Molenaar is a class act and should be in the Premiership. Mark Bower needs work, Gus Uhlenbeek is "interesting". As a unit it looks like it works, this was probably because of Peter Atherton sitting on top of it so well. I had no idea that Atherton was capable of anything other that blasting Des Walker after another goal slipped into the Sheffield Wednesday net. He certainly sorted out the lightweight Walsall side that attacked with the strength of a twig blowing in the breeze.

Andy Gray got your goal in the second half after Ward and Proctor had combined well and frankly if you got one you were always going to win because Walsall could have had the ball all 90 minutes and not scored. They threw on a variety of oddly named players with curious passports and hairstyles but never got a cutting edge.

Are Bradford City going to get their comeuppance? To be honest I think you already have. Your boss may look and act a little bit too much like Doctor Evil but he is doing things right. Your player work like dogs and will be knackered by March but they will also probably be safe by then too.

You've learn your lesson. You're getting in hard working guys who don't get paid much and your high paid guys who are still at the club are also hard workers. You get rid of Benito Carbone and Stan Collymore and keep Peter Atherton, that says it all. Walsall clearly haven't learned the lessons you are giving out. The ludicrous Junior and the likes of Jorge Leiato tell you that. We laughed when you got rid of your workers and replaced them with "fancy dans" for your second season in the Premiership, to see Walsall doing it at the bottom of the First Division is just tragic.

It seems to me that Bradford City are going in the right direction, either that or you have stabilised which is something we long for at The Mac where we just seem to drift backwards, and in these troubled times treating water is a decent achievement.

Man of the Match

Peter Atherton

Turned me around.

Bradford City Team

BfB thanks...

David Billingham, Town fan, for stepping in with the match report.