A tie against one of the worst teams in the football league, a team not only struggle at full strength, but a club where the manager struggled to name a starting 11 let alone the bench. I’m not surprised if honest, knowing McCall’s record as a cup manager is in one word….terrible.
First time for a while
If I am honest, it was the first time for a couple of years and the first time under McCall in both of his spells as City manager that I was actually starting to feel excited about a cup run, I saw lowly Yeovil as a good opportunity to get to the 4th round and I loved it that they beat Port Vale in their replay as I fancied our chances more against the Glovers. But for all the positives in the past season and half under Stuart McCall, I still rate him as one of the worst cup managers about. I don’t know how a McCall inspired City can constantly lose to lower opposition, home or away, but I do take my hats off though to the Glovers and let’s not take anything away from their victory, they had a massive test of character and they beat us fair and square with a much more inferior squad.
If ever a manager can split opinion, it’s our Stuart
Unbeaten at home last season (in the league), best away record in League 1 again in the league, we finished in the play offs last season despite the distraction of a change of ownership and the poor management of our last manager on a public scale. We are 5th in league 1 at the moment and again gunning for promotion which on paper looks all too possible. But McCall when it comes to it, he just seems to struggle in some scenarios. The most obvious one I’ve pointed out previously is the start of the second half in games no matter who we play and how we played in the first half. We seem to be very very vulnerable after McCall’s chats, there really is something there, it happened again at the weekend, after quarter of an hour we concede the first goal. I’ve mentioned previously the number of games played and won/lost in both the League and FA Cups under McCall’s stewardship in both of his spells, but I really was praying he was proving me wrong this season, but having drawn 3 poor relegation threatened teams in the FA Cup, 2 of which in the division below us, fate really was begging too much for McCall form to strike, or should I say, fail to yet again. Maybe if you listened to many a City fan before the game, some had very little interest, and some even less optimism against an injury ravished, relegation threatened 4th division opponent. I felt deep down we wouldn’t progress, but my heart was really looking forward to the fixture and wanting a goal fest against an injured opponent.
Well done Yeovil
City named a decent team with the likes of leading scorer Wyke and fan favourite Gilliead in the starting 11. I wasn’t happy that our 3rd choice keeper, Raeder was starting, but with the line up, McCall had the intention of winning at Huish Park. So it really wasn’t a case of Yeovil got lucky against a 2nd string team. Half time the Glovers just edged possession and had more shots than their so called more illustrious opponents. If you didn’t know better from the stats, City were a Conference side at best and Yeovil were the league 1 side. But we hung in there till half time, keeping the score sheet blank. It isn’t often you hear me give a sigh of relief keeping a clean sheet against Yeovil’s 2nd string team. Come the 2nd half though, we had a bit more possession, managed to create a corner on the hour only for the Glovers to break away and through unknown Southampton loanee Marcus Barnes who has never ever played a professional match in his entire career before, opened the scoring from an Otis Khan assist to put the Glovers 1-0 up. Maybe a goal is what the match needed, I was expecting a response from City, but as the minutes were ticking by, my expectation soon started to merge into hope that we could force a replay at home. With ex City striker Francois Zoko, I was hoping he wouldn’t get onto the score sheet, but he did the next worst thing, with a quarter of an hour ago, he created a chance for Jordan Green who then scored only his 5th goal of his career to put the games out of reach of the Bantams if it already wasn’t done so. 2-0.
It is great we got to the 3rd round of the cup, but a sour taste has been left on how we have exited. Many Bantam eyes will be on the draw on Monday night to see who Yeovil will get, and I’m sure a few expletives will be shouted in the West Riding area if the Glovers do earn a juicy tie away to someone like Liverpool or Man United or even worse, Huddersfield Town at home. Now after a few home truths, let’s concentrate on the league, and back McCall to the hilt and see if he can get us back into the 2nd flight of English football after what seems like a lifetime away. The season isn’t over, and we are still in a very good position as we are now in the 2nd half of the season.
Result
Half Time Yeovil Town 0-0 City
Full Time Yeovil Town 2-0 City
Barnes (62), Green (76)
Card watch
Romain Vincelot (31) season total – 7 yellows 1 red
Tyrell Robinson (50) season total – 1 yellow
Timothee Dieng (68) season total 3 yellows
Ref watch
John Brooks has had a very busy 2017/18 officiating 30 games, most of which are in League 1 and 2. With City’s game, Brook booked 3 City players and Jared Bird in the first half for the home side, in total dishing out 4 yellows. The stats read for Brooks this season, 97 yellows and 4 reds. He still has some way to go to match last season of 150 yellows and 10 reds.
Attendance
3040
Line ups
Yeovil Town 4-4-2
Artur Krysiak, Nathan Smith, Bevis Mugabi, Ryan Dickson, Thomas James, Jared Bird (78 Lewis Wing), Otis Khan (90 Alefe Santos), Jake Gray, Jordan Green, Francois Zoko, Marcus Barnes (85 Corey Whelan)
Unused Subs – Johnny Maddison, Paulius Golubickas
Bradford City 4-4-2
Lukas Raeder, Matt Kilgallon (46 Adam Thompson), Romain Vincelot, Jacob Hanson, Tyrell Robinson, Nicky Law, Timothee Dieng (70 Daniel Devine), Shay McCartan (75 Dominic Poleon), Alex Gilliead, Charlie Wyke, Paul Taylor
Unused Subs – George Sykes-Kenworthy, Jordan Gibson, Omari Patrick
2017/18 City Scorers
12 – Charlie Wyke
6 – Dominic Poleon
5 – Alex Jones, Romain Vincelot, Paul Taylor
3 – Patrick Omari, Nathaniel Knight-Percival, Matt Kilgallon, Shay McCartan
2 – Tyrell Robinson, Alex Gilliead
1 – Jacob Hanson, Tony McMahon, Adam Thompson, Timothee Dieng
1 – Own goals, Aristote Nsiala (Shrewsbury Town)
Upcoming fixtures
Northampton Town (H) Sat 13th Jan
Bristol Rovers (A) Sat 20th Jan
Rotherham United (A) Tues 23rd Jan
AFC Wimbledon (H) Sat 27th Jan
Oldham Athletic (H) Sat 3rd Feb
Think Raeder was an enforced switch as Sattelmaer apparently had a sore back. My concern is more with Killa. Thompson should be nowhere near our squad as we are considerably worse with him in there. I hope its not a long term injury or we play with Vince at CB.