Bantams Revel In The Absence of Pressure

The highest Valley Parade attendance since the opening day of the season saw a wonderful atmosphere around the ground. Whilst there was still a mathematical chance of making the playoffs the reality was that this was a meaningless game (and Dagenham’s victory at Notts County proved that). And so the pressure was off.

However, in years to come we may look back on this afternoon and see it as far from meaningless but in fact pivotal in the future of Bradford City. Plenty has been said, and more written, about Stuart McCall’s two year tenure at the helm of his beloved club but the voices of negativity were nowhere to be heard for 90 minutes yesterday afternoon. And it was glorious. If he is not for turning then no matter but if we’ve swayed him how crucial could that be?

We still don’t know what Stuart is feeling but it was clear that at full time last week we were almost guaranteed another summer of instability as we looked for someone unlikely to have a love for Bradford City flowing through their veins. But a week of ‘humbling and embarrassing’ (Stuart’s words) support laid the foundations for yesterday’s match.

A match without pressure but with a huge amount riding on it then. Boy from Brazil answers the question on the lips of the fans with another, to ask we, the fans, can’t create such an ‘atmosphere of inexorable victory’ every week.

Michael Wood has a point. From the moment the whistle blew there was an infectious optimism and pride around the ground. And it flowed onto the pitch. A bright start brought an early goal. Dean Furman half volleyed the ball at goal and the net bulged. Rotherham’s keeper Andy Warrington and his defence were incensed. I couldn’t work out why and was left even more puzzled when the tannoy credited it to Peter Thorne. This morning’s Championship showed it to flick off him and into the net. The Millers might have had a point.

Still, with goals awarded against us and not credited to us when things should have gone differently perhaps it was time we got the rub of the green. Although it could have happened a few weeks ago! And from that stroke of luck the Bantams kicked on. Twenty minutes later Nicky Law crafted a second of real quality. A surging run down the right flank followed by a sublime cross to Peter Thorne and he happily moved onto 198 career goals to make it 2-0 to the hosts.

A hattrick should have followed as the dangerous and impressive Steve Jones produced a beautiful cross but Thorney struck it at Andy Warrington when he could have picked any other spot in the goal. And that story continued after half time as the veteran between the sticks again thwarted the veteran leading the line.

And he wasn’t only keeping Peter Thorne at bay, Kyle Nix, making a good impression on a very rare appearance this year saw a speculative effort test the keeper before his withdrawal for Joe Colbeck on 57 minutes.

Joe has come in for a significant amount of criticism in recent weeks but with the threatened reduction in the playing budget it is Bradford lads like him that next season’s success (or otherwise) rests. I never understand the stick he gets, based as it is on the fact he doesn’t hide from at least trying to do something different and when his beautiful pass over the top was collected by Steve Jones the Burnley loanee powered it throught the goalkeeper and into the net to make it 3-0.

Rotherham threatened in patches but this was a comprehensive home performance. At the back there was none of the uncertainty that seems to have been generated by the Graeme Lee-Matt Clarke axis and Zesh Rehman is surely going to be one of Stuart’s first signings of the summer. Mark Bower’s introduction towards the end speaks of a rehabilitation for the club’s longest serving player which must raise questions for next term. On the flanks Paul Arnison and Luke O’Brien played well with the Player of the Year in particular regularly getting forward to support his colleagues.

In the middle of the park Stuart’s diamond formation worked. Dean Furman was the link between defence and attack sitting deep to take possession off the defenders before distributing it. Kyle Nix, Nicky Law and Lee Bullock played fluidly and kept things narrow whilst enjoying the width offered by overlapping full backs and Steve Jones whose support role to Peter Thorne saw him cover pretty much the entire final third.

The introduction of Joe Colbeck saw Nicky Law move to the middle and the Sheffield United loanee was awarded the man of the match. His parent club are on the verge of Premiership football and should that happen perhaps he could be persuaded to drop down for another season at Valley Parade. Dean Furman, by contrast, is likely to find himself in the first team at Rangers next year.

A number of our squad can leave because we haven’t been promoted, a number of our squad will leave because they don’t belong to us. Should Stuart go his successor will have a smaller playing budget, a smaller squad and nowhere near the legendary status our current gaffer enjoys amongst the fans.

But before they all get off on their summer holidays (earned more by some than others), there’s next week’s game at Chesterfield. Play like we did today and we’ll really feel frustrated at missing out on the playoffs by the smallest of margins.

Just as well we don’t support simply because of success isn’t it?