Bradfords season is all but over after last nights 2-1 defeat at Rochdale.
Once again the dreaded last 10 minutes syndrome returned.Rochdale substitute Adam Le Fondre came on and hit the winning goal with two minutes left.
Peter Thorne’s 13th goal of the season from the penalty spot in the second half looked to have salvaged a point for the Bantams.But substitute Le Fondre had the last laugh as he had done at Valley Parade in February.
Pint sized dynamo and by far Rochdales best player David Perkins took only 21 seconds to fire Rochdale in front after poor play from Eddie Johnson.
Rochdale 1 Bradford City 0
Eddie Johnson tried to make up for his costly mistake and hit a powerful drive against the post after eight minutes following a clever free-kick move.
City were second best to the ball with Dales Perkins in perticular,bossing everything in midfield.
Half Time Rochdale 1 Bradford City 0
Bradford were handed a lifeline in the 59th minute after Joe Colbeck was tumbled over in the box by Tom Kennedy.
Up stepped Peter Thorne to score from the spot,could another spirited comeback be on the cards?
Rochdale 1 Bradford City 1
The answer to that was no.City failed to build on the equaliser and looked lethargic towards the end.Perhaps the second half performance up in Darlington had drained the players energy.
McCall tried to freshen thing up with three late substitutions but they made little impact.
City nearly equalised for a second time in stoppage time when Mark Bower headed against the bar but Rochdale deserved their win on the night,they were far the better team in my opinion.
Final Score. Rochdale 2 Bradford City 1
Player Ratings
Loach 5
Made a very good save in the first half,acrobatically pushing the ball over the bar.
Starosta 4
Poor,their number 11 had him in his pocket all night.
Heckingbottom 4
Poor performance.
Bower 5
Steady.
Wetherall 6
Pick of the defenders by a mile.
Colbeck 6
Made a meal of penalty with a classic dive.
Conlon 6
Conlon was playing with enthusiasm but showed little in front of goal.
Thorne 6
Well struck penalty.
Nix 4
Poor Performance.
Johnson 4
Another Poor Performance from Eddie
Penford 5
Drifted in and out of game.
Medley N/A
Replaced Thorne.
Rhodes N/A
Replaced Nix.
Replaced Johnson.
Too concede after 30 seconds was n’t bad enough, but then too concede in the last few minutes is a kick in the goolies!!
Overall apart from Johnson’s messing around in a dangerous area of the pitch (although in his defence it was an surprisingly sticky & boggy part) and failing to make a headed clearance & the ball falling kindly to Le FOndre, it was a good battling display in a very fast paced & entertaining match. There were some heavy legs around at the end, Penford in particular looked shattered for the last 20 minutes and I would have taken him off & moved Nix into the middle where he did well on Saturday. He may have then been able to get a grip of Perkins who was given far too much time & space throughout the match (in the old days Jamie Lawrence would have given him a good kicking!). Oh well, it was always a long shot & there’s always next year!!
PS The match officials were even worse than normal, the ref not understanding the rule that is supposed to prevent their centre forward every time he had a header, slapping his arm across the faces of the excellent Wethers & the occasionally shaky Bower (saved from extreme embarrassment when he passed a free kick straight to their player by the ref who made him retake it from the right place) and the very overweight linesman who had to have the offside rule explained to him (eloquently & politely of course) by our section of the crowd!
PPS The linesman must have been partaking of the excellent & reasonably priced pies served in the stand (and served a damn sight quicker than at VP it must be said by good old fashioned women who knew how to work quickly & how to work the tills!). David Brown was seen several times also partaking of the pies but he’ll a few more hundred if he wants to grow up properly & weigh more than 5 stone wet through! A couple of our trainee players were also seen queueing with us plebs & buying pints of lager which seemed a bit unprofessional!!
PPPS The award for numpty of the day went to the Rochdale stewards who, despite knowing to expect their biggest crowd of away fans of the year, chose to close both ends of the stand so there wasn’t enough room for fans to sit down until a row ensued & the police got involved and also inexplicably closed access to the second set of toliets in the stand causing another load of tension with fans having long queues to dispose of all the draught lager that we had supped them out of at the bar!
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