Match Report 2001-2002

Saturday 13 April, 2002, Division One

West Brom At Valley Parade

McCall goes as the romance fades

Romance is the glue that holds football together. It is a lie of course, we know that on the whole the last think we would want would be to share a pint or break bread with our sporting heroes, that said heroes would and do abandon us for a few extra quid a week, we know this but romance tells us to believe otherwise.

Without romance football really is 22 men kicking a bit of leather around a field for ninety minutes.

Stuart McCall's story is built of romance: The hair as fiery red as his play, the man who returned with "unfinished business". As it happens McCall is the sort of guy that you would share a pint with and be happy to do so. Everyone thinks the best of Stuart, everyone wants to think the best of him.

This defeat at the hands of promotion chasing West Brom was Stuart's final appearance for Bradford City at Valley Parade in a competitive game. It was a game that typified Stuart and his twenty odd years in and around the City cause. McCall and his apprentice Tom Kearney spent the afternoon fighting a rearguard action on top of David Wetherall and Mark Bower in a solid defensive unit. Romance told us Stuart would range forward, would fire in free kicks from the edge of the box.

The truth was Stuart playing a more perfunctory role breaking up attacks as he has done for the past two decades. Perhaps this is how Stuart would prefer to be remembered. We tag his goals: Final game against Ipswich, two in the FA Cup final, one against Sweden, vs Spurs and Arsenal in the Premiership, but the City skipper contribution to the cause has always been more in the midfield than the forward line. The highlight of Stuart McCall's playing career is probably a sliding tackle 60 yards from his own goal that denied some club a break once. Romance again.

City are a team in need of a shot of realism, something that Nicky Law is bringing in his own way. To be honest we have been daydreaming since the second the final whistle went at Wolves in May 1999. There were plans in place but no there was belief in the reality of the situation. We stay in the Premiership on guts, believed that the same qualities would bring us back. They did not or if they did we did not show enough of them during Jim Jefferies time at Valley Parade.

West Bromich Albion will probably go on from this win to the Premiership. After the game you wanted to grab a Baggie by the shoulders and shake the dreams out of them: "Listen pal," you would say, "Forget it. You're not good enough, not by a long stretch. You think that the squad you have, the players you can attract, you think these will be enough! Wake up!". You do not of course because if a Wolves fan had done similar to in you May 1999 you would have laughed at him.

West Brom are a team almost totally devoid of romance. They are a cynical team. Every counter attack is broken up not with a McCallesque slide tackle 60 yards out but with a handball at a similar location or a bundling off the ball in the midfield. They are irritating to watch if you are not in blue and white stripes. They kill the game with petty fouling and slight handballs. It is not hard to see how the so called Battle of Bramell Lane against Sheffield United in the abandoned game earlier in the season started. A fitting Stuart McCall send off would have been him being sent off for chunking their number 23 high in the air. Said player was incredibly fortunate to get away with a vicious lunge at Alan Combe as the City keeper raced out of his goal to make a clearance. This after the same player had spend 45 minutes batting down any attack City tried to muster.

Former City promotion stalwart Darren Moore, henceforth known as Big Dave, was lucky to get away with a yellow card for bundling over Ashley Ward. Perhaps because it was Ward the referee did not think that City were denied a goal scoring opportunity.

Moore's presence in the West Brom team that seeks to emulate his achievements with City provided a point of comparison. Our heart's burst with pride after promotion. Part of the reason for this I had always thought was that we had done it with some style. Peter Beagrie and Jamie Lawrence with attacking flair and all that. We were a naive team though, Huddersfield exploited this, so did QPR that year. That was part of our charm. I cannot honestly say that West Brom are like that. Promotion is of paramount importance of course, as is beating Wolves, but the cynical way the Baggies went about their season would take the sheen off the achievement if I was a Hawthorns regular. Winning without romance is killing football.

Winning without romance is a good description of the Albion penalty in the 90th minute. Veteran Bob Taylor stepped into and Andy Myers challenge and went down for an age to eat up any injury time that may come after the penalty. Igor Balis put the ball in from the spot and you felt bad somehow. Not cheated, but conned. To paraphrase Wilde in romance are the good not supposed to end happily and the bad unhappy? It is very difficult to put Gary Megson's side in the ranks of the good.

None of which mattered at the final whistle of course. Stuart McCall returned to the field and took a standing ovation from Valley Parade and the City squad. Not really the exit romance would have given us for the greatest player to play in claret and amber, but today romance was in short supply.

Man of the Match

Alan Combe

Who made a save down to his right and onto the bar form a diving header in the second half which was the equal of Gordon Banks from Pele in 1970. Scotland's number one.

City Team:

Combe
Jorgensen Wetherall Bower Jacobs
Juanjo McCall Kearney Jess
Ward Cadamarteri

Subs: Lewis Emanuel for Jess