Match Report 2002-2003

Monday 05 August, 2002, Friendly

Middlesbrough at Valley Parade

City look ready

1-1 draw with Boro as Bantams gear up

Out of the summer of nothingness emerged a Bradford City side that looked prepared for the season ahead. These Bantams do not look like world beaters but they look ready to scrap like a team who wants to beat the world.

Paul Evans, now there is a guy who would want in your side. Months ago he left as captain as Brentford and turned up wanting to play for City. He has not been paid anymore than the trialists £200 a week max but he has performed like a man worth much more. He is a little tank in the middle of midfield and although he can not slip into the boots of one Stuart McCall, he gives us a similar bite.

Tom Kearney wears McCall's boots and wears them well.

City were the better of the two sides in this 1-1 draw at Valley Parade although the visitors did look a week off fitness. City made much of the running in the first half and got just reward when Ashley Ward turned a Andy Gray pass back into the path of the former Leeds and Forest winger who bent the ball past Mark Schwartzer. So far for Gray, so very impressive.

Not that the same can be said for Ashley Ward who looks like a guy not so much short on confidence but short on ability. He no longer looks like a good player who could not buy a goal, he looks like a poor player. I'm sure that Barnsley, Crewe and Norwich fans would shriek at the suggestion but it is the case that Ward chasers nothing, wins nothing and has no confidence to hit a shot. He does not look like a centreforward anymore. He need to either get back his abilities or get off the pay role although I am certain that the former would happen before the latter.

City's forward line is a problem. Danny Cadamarteri is not the goalscorer we would want him to be but has his uses and poises enough problems for defences. Andy Gray is lively on the right hand side but the whole thing lacks an end product at in any division, that is worrying.

At the back City look solid. The pairing of David Wetherall and Andy Myers impressed for the first time as a partnership tonight. Mark Bower looked good when he came on and had City not suffered an injury to Andy Tod that caused Gus Uhlenbeek to move inside of the back four the Bantams would have probably gone forward to win the game. As it was Dean Windass turned Uhlenbeek a few ways before firing home with a couple of minutes on the clock.

So what is this City? Solid yes. Half decent perhaps. There is a long way before this time starts to be talked about alongside others at Valley Parade in the last decade but considering how far we came this summer, it is doing very nicely thank you.

Bradford City

Gary Walsh, Gus Uhlenbeek, David Wetherall, Andy Myers, Lewis Emanuel, Andy Gray, Paul Evans, Tom Kearney, Jamie Lawrence, Danny Cadamarteri, Ashley Ward.