Match Report 2002-2003
Saturday 07 December, 2002, Division One
Gillingham At Valley Parade
What is to be done about the woeful Bantams?
Wallace 1-3
Seven defeats in a row tell their own story. City are woefuly. We look poor in every way.
We are weak at the back, we have no creativity in midfield and we lack any punch up front. We have a team that has no spirit on the field, no heart. It is ironic that the great spirit at the club, and there is a good feeling about overcoming the off the field problems, seems so easily shaken on the field.
The loss against Gillingham, City's seventh in a row, came after City had built a lead akin to a house of cards. The Bantams took the lead after having the majority of the game. Lewis Emanuel put a ball into the sliding Andy Gray. Up to the hour City held the lead, once that was lost City went to pieces.
The way that City lost the lead, a penalty when the offside Mamady Sidibe was bundled over by Robert Molenaar. Molenaar got an elbow in the face in the process but that did nothing to the nerve of Marlon King who stroked home. City's nerve was shot.
The Bantams seemed to look up the field as if it were Everest. Delroy Facey had already missed a one on one with the Gills keeper Jason Brown and screwed a decent chance wide in the first half. Goals seem Herculean effort at the moment.
Not for King, he looks like 80% of Thierry Henry. He spun off his defender, ran protecting the ball and curled a shot into the far corner of Aidan Davison's goal. Impressive? I should say.
City had lost. Rod Wallace added a third in injury time after Facey had been booed off and City had barely managed to muster a punt at goal in the last twenty minutes.
So what is to be done? City need more nerve, more spirit, they need to have self belief but to what end? Would self believe can a team that lacks a striker worthy of the name have? David Wetherall returned to action and was quickly put into attacking action alongside Gray and Mark Danks. We cannot believe that everything will be alright when Ashley Ward or Andy Tod are back.
Most likely though City will get a break when someone turns up and messes up. City will take the win, get the moral boost and start to win a few. The question is when. When in terms of how quickly before relegation goes from worry to certainty?