Too many, the FA Cup has lost all of its appeal, we are a club that can get 20 thousand bums on seats fairly easily, but we only managed about 25% of a typical league game? Why? One reason was the opposition, no disrespect to Plymouth Argyle, but they and their players don’t have the pulling power for a neutral or someone at the other end of the country. No ex Premiership stars, no ex Championship goal machine or any household names that makes you think “Ah, I wouldn’t mind going to see him play” type of players. One main reason is, season ticket holders give up half of their weekends to attend matches, and when their club isn’t at home, as daft as it sounds, it is a weekend off. You can catch up with other things, actually relax without the hassle of travelling, and spend time with family/friends.
There’s been times during the seasons I’ve had a season ticket and I’ve been glad of the cup games, as much as the away games and it gives me chance to do other things. Don’t get me wrong, I am lost in the close season, but 20 plus weekends a year can be a bit of a chore for most supporters. Planning holidays/trips around fixtures as much as work. Also with the weekends leading up to Xmas, if you attended the FA Cup game, that would give season ticket holders only 2 Saturdays in the month of December to do their Xmas shopping, and no disrespect to the city of Bradford, but given the options of Leeds, Huddersfield or even Manchester, I know where else I would like to go for none football related days out.
So to many, a cup game, be it at home or away is a nice weekend off, and I use that term as if I was talking about work, even at the tempting entry fee of £10 (full adult price), but it’s just not tempting enough.
This is how it should have gone – part 2
Plymouth at home a couple of weeks ago was a kick in the teeth, but one we are so used to having, but for me, it was a fantastic reason to cast a bit of uncertainty on the tie giving the lower positioned team a chance of a result, and the home club not 100% certs to canter through to the 3rd round.
Romain Vincelot scored his first ever career FA Cup goal at the 10th attempt with his 6th club as the half time whistle was drawing near, and for me, a sigh of relief, as I know my club can boss a game, and in doing so, let one slip into our own net with egg on our faces. But that man again, Tony McMahon crossed the ball in for Vincelot to head in his 5th goal of the season. Nice to go into half time making the interval a bit more pleasant for McCall and the team. When the 2nd half whistle blew, it didn’t take long for City to double our lead, with yet another header, this time a corner delivered by Vincelot and knocked in by Nat Knight-Percival, his first FA Cup goal for 12 years to the weekend when Histon earned a draw away to Nuneaton on 3rd December 2005. This put City comfortable in the game until Graham Carey pulled 1 back for Argyle only 13 minutes later. Here we go I was thinking, I never enjoy a game when we concede when we are 2 to the good as I usually knows what will happen next. Thankfully this time I didn’t as Charlie Wyke slotted in from close range a minute later to put City 3-1 up on just after the hour mark which put’s the City forward just 1 shy now of hitting double figures in all competitions for the season.
Plymouth were more than worthy opponents, but on the day, job well done, McCall has guided us through to the 3rd round which I have to give him full credit after 2 potential banana skins, especially with how things stand in the league and how recent form has been, and nothing would make me happier to see him take on a big club as Parkinson has done on what felt like a million occasions. The draw is at 7pm Monday on both BT Sports 1 during the build up for the televised FA Cup match between Slough and Rochdale and also on BBC 2 on The FA Cup presented by Mark Chapman. We will all anticipate who we will get especially with some of the big clubs getting thrown into the hat, but true Bantam luck, we will get Notts Co away.
Result
Half Time City 1-0 Argyle
Vincelot (38)
Full Time City 3-1 Argyle
Knight-Percival (55), Carey (63), Wyke (64)
Card watch
No cards handed out.
Ref watch
Tony Harrington has been very card happy this season, this being his 19th game of the season with his stats reading 63 yellows and 3 reds, but surprisingly Harrington didn’t book a single player on either team on Saturday. Of the 19 games, only 4 have been in cup competitions now, 3 in the League cup, this FA Cup, the rest of the games in the Championship.
Attendance
4957
Line ups
Bradford City 4-3-3
Rouven Sattelmaier, Matt Kilgallon, Romain Vincelot, Nat Knight-Percival, Tony McMahon, Tyrell Robinson, Jake Reeves (66 Luke Hendrie), Nicky Law, Alex Gillead, Charlie Wyke, Paul Taylor (78 Dominic Poleon)
Unused Subs – Lukas Raeder, Adam Thompson, Shay McCartan, Jordan Gibson, Patrick Omari
Plymouth Argyle 4-1-4-1
Luke McCormick, Gary Sawyer (78 Lionel Ainsworth), Yann Songo’o (66 Ryan Taylor), Ryan Edwards, Sonny Bradley, Aaron Taylor-Sinclair, Graham Carey, Joel Grant (80 Antoni Sarcevic), David Fox, Toumani Diagouraga, Jake Jervis
Unused Subs – Max Childs, Gary Miller, Oscar Threlkeld, Nadir Ciftci
2017/18 City Scorers
9 – Charlie Wyke
5 – Alex Jones, Romain Vincelot
4 – Dominic Poleon
3 – Patrick Omari, Paul Taylor, Nathaniel Knight-Percival
2 – Matt Kilgallon
1 – Shay McCartan, Jacob Hanson, Tony McMahon, Adam Thompson, Alex Gillead, Tyrell Robinson
1- Own goals, Aristote Nsiala (Shrewsbury Town)
Upcoming fixtures
Oldham Athletic (H) Tues 5th Dec
Rochdale (H) Sat 9th Dec
Southend United (A) Sat 16th Dec
AFC Wimbledon (A) Sat 23rd Dec
Peterborough United (H) Tues 26th Dec
