No last day fairytale for Bradford City, but there are reasons to be confident about the future at the end of a difficult season

27/04/2024 18:47

By Jason McKeown

In the end there was just too much to do, and not enough time to do it. Bradford City came as close as they could to crashing into the play offs on the final day, but there wasn’t any miracles elsewhere. It will be – as we had expected – League Two football for the Bantams next season. And a summer break where it will be hard not to let the mind ruminate over the what-might-have-beens.

Promotion certainly wasn’t lost here today, where City did their job and did it well. They comfortably eased their way to a fifth straight win by defeating a Newport side who showed some spirit but little resilience.

Perhaps, if the City goals had started to come sooner, greater pressure would have been felt inside other League Two football grounds, where the same prize was fretted over. By the time Calum Kavanagh and moments later Andy Cook had made the breakthrough to put City 2-0 ahead, 198 miles away in Sussex, Crawley Town were already 2-0 up themselves. They would ultimately take the final play off spot. Barrow also miss out, though the draw they managed with Mansfield would have denied City a top seven finish even if Crawley had messed up.

The Bantams fall short by one point.

One bloody point.

The feeling of disappointment is undeniable, but shouldn’t detract from a really positive final day display. City racked up their biggest league victory since smashing the same opponents 4-1 away from home in September, and registered their largest league home win in nearly three years. All season long they have struggled in these types of games, where they have more of the ball and the onus is on them to break down opponents. But this City team is closing out the campaign looking so focused, so confident and so methodical.

There was no edginess when an early goal didn’t arrive, and Newport began to have a spell. City were patient in waiting for the right moments to strike and took them when they came.

For a while at least, it was difficult to separate the on-field action with the unfolding events elsewhere. Seb Palmer-Houldon ran through on goal for Newport only to woefully blast over, just as news that Barrow were losing filtered through, causing roars in the crowd and appreciative chants about Mansfield Town. Jamie Walker flashed over a dangerous fizzing cross that no one could quite connect to, and then we heard the disappointing report that Crawley had scored. Harry Charsley pounced on a Kavanagh mis-control and shot from distance, which Sam Walker saved comfortably – when details of a second Crawley goal emerged.

It all meant that by the time City got the breakthrough, a level of enthusiasm was lacking in the crowd celebrations, at least compared to how frenzied they might have proved earlier in the day, when other scores looked more favourable. Still, it was great to see the newly crowned player of the season Brad Halliday cross for Kavanagh to power a header into the back of the net to put City in front. Kavanagh had another typical day of promising skill mixed with raw mistakes, but what a signing he is proving to be.

1-0 straightaway became 2-0 when Richie Smallwood sent over a free kick that Cook got on the end of to head home. That it was Cook’s 19th goal of the campaign – but only the third league goal at the Kop end of Valley Parade – summed up the slightly mixed fortunes of the Bantams’ top scorer this season. Nevertheless, the 33-year-old ends the campaign with 69 goals in 211 starts (22 sub) for Bradford City since signing in 2021. Next year, he should rise the ranks to become the third highest scorer in the club’s history.

He is such a talisman. And who said we can’t play good football when he is leading the line?

With City looking assured, they kept going in the second half and made it 3-0 when Smallwood set up Bobby Pointon to smash home another stunner from distance. Three goals in his last seven games for City, and a black mark against Graham Alexander that will be hard to scrub out, given the manager overlooked the youngster for so much of this season. Pointon was once again brilliant. So brave on the ball. So creative. Get that bloody contract sorted right away. He has to be a massive part of the club’s future.

When Pointon crashed home his goal there was still a tiny lingering hope that results elsewhere might swing back in their favour, but moments later news filtered through of Barrow finding an equaliser against Mansfield, and suddenly both other results were going against City. All they could do was keep playing in their flowing manner and pray for a series of unlikely events to happen at Barrow and at Crawley. The minutes ticked by with no further score changes in those games, and City’s fate was sealed.

Newport to their credit didn’t lie down. A slight misjudgement by Ciaran Kelly saw a loose ball land in the path of Charsley, who finished past Sam Walker. The visitors had other half chances to reduce the arrears to 3-2 and make for a nervy ending, but there was always the feeling City could easily go and score more themselves.

Sure enough, deep in injury time Cook teed up Jamie Walker to finish expertly. That’s nine goals for the season for the Scot – another player who deserves to be in the queue to be handed new deals.

It was an all-round accomplished City display. The Good Friday Alexander switch to 3-5-2, with Smallwood at the base and Walker and Pointon pushing forwards to support Kavanagh and Cook, has seen City end the season with much greater balance. All season long it’s been a challenge to get the best set-up for a decent group of players, and it came good eventually. It’s certainly given Smallwood an impressive end of season flourish, where he’s finally looked the part after nearly two years of not quite living up to expectations. Let’s be clear – Smallwood is still not widely popular with the crowd, but the respect towards him is growing.

The defence is not perfect but has been more solid ever since Matty Platt’s return – once again he was superb here. Daniel Oyegoke was an unlikely solution at right centre half that has worked out brilliantly, leaving the previously impressive Jon Tomkinson sidelined. Kelly had a dip in March, especially when Platt was out, but he’s ended the season in strong form. The wing backs of Tyreik Wright and Halliday work really well. With Plymouth just about in the driving seat to seal last day survival in the Championship, you have to wonder what sort of future Wright faces when he returns to his parent club in the summer. This loan spell hasn’t been flawless, but ends in a situation where surely both the player and club would be interested in making it more permanent.

As the dust now settles, City end the 46-game season in ninth place and there will be cause to rue those missed opportunities to repeat last season’s play off finish. If only Alexander hadn’t being so cautious at Grimsby on Easter Monday, leaving out Jamie Walker. If only City hadn’t suffered such a poor January, not least blowing a 2-1 lead at home to Crawley and losing 4-2, especially given the Red Devils have ultimately pipped them. If only City hadn’t messed about for so long replacing Mark Hughes. If only Harry Lewis hadn’t chucked one into his own net at Tranmere. If only Andy Cook hadn’t missed a penalty at Stockport. If only Ash Taylor hadn’t had such a nightmare on day one at Crawley.

If only. If only. If only.

The fact you can source so many ‘what ifs’ from the season all helps to build an overall conclusion that, ultimately, City weren’t good enough to finish inside the play offs. They only came close during the final straight, having spent so much of the season well off the pace, languishing in the bottom half of the table. We can agonise, but we can only point the finger of blame at ourselves rather than at any ill-fortune.

There is of course one period I didn’t mention in those ‘what ifs’. That 11-day collapse in March. You know, the one where we lost four games in a row, conceding 13 goals and scoring just once. Where anger and frustration grew, leading to anti-chairman and anti-CEO chants, protests outside the ground, a breakneck trip to Germany and an open letter from Stefan Rupp.

Before that torrid spell, City were unbeaten in the league for two months, and after it they went undefeated for the seven remaining matches. Losing the plot on the field over those four games was deeply damaging.

Of course that cost us the play offs. There isn’t really a dispute on that. But it’s hard to look back on that fortnight with complete regret. Because the reaction and the fallout from those events appears to have led to meaningful change at the top. An unavoidable conclusion that the club could not continue to operate as it was. An apology from Rupp, a commitment to do more, with actions like the arrival of David Sharpe, and promise this summer for the Bantams to have a much bigger budget.

In the long-term, going through that horrendous period could prove absolutely pivotal to Bradford City’s future.

The US Army General George S Patton once said that “success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom”. We have to hope that those dark March days were City’s modern day rock-bottom, and that the bounce has begun. They’ve not lost a game of football since Rupp agreed he has to lead the club differently. There are signs of a feelgood factor slowly returning to Valley Parade, one that can power the club through the summer with greater optimism.

And there are reasons to be upbeat going into the close season. There have been understandable doubts expressed about Alexander. But since he took charge in early November, City have the fifth-best record in League Two – only the top four of Stockport, Mansfield, Wrexham and MK Dons have picked up more points than the 52 from 32 games Alexander has achieved. Over the course of a full season, Alexander’s 1.63 points per game average would see City achieve 77 points. And that’s with all the turbulence he walked into.

The squad is not perfect, but the basis of a good team is there. The January transfer activity deserves to go down as a success – something Stephen Gent needed after growing doubts about his judgement. Sam Walker in particular has proven a great addition. Keep Platt and Halliday, and perhaps one if not both of Wright and Oyegoke, and the defence is decent. Cook and Kavanagh look a good partnership, with Jake Young and Tyler Smith providing competition. Alex Pattison will be back, and if Jamie Walker and Pointon are retained the 3-5-2 should work well with such options. It’s a decent base to add to and improve.

That said, we do need to be cautious and guard against ourselves against recency bias.

In the latest series of Netflix's excellent Drive to Survive Formula 1 documentary, there is a great scene where Lewis Hamilton – soon to be out of contract, and on the verge of signing for Ferrari – meets face-to-face with Mercedes team principal Toto Wolf for crunch talks. It's the 2023 season, and Mercedes are having a dreadful year, with the car not enabling Hamilton to compete for the championship. Wolf admits to Hamilton that a strong end to a difficult 2022 season had given the team misguided belief going into the following year. Wolf concedes, "Sticking to the concept from last year, holding onto it, because of the encouraging results at the end, it's the biggest failure."

There's every danger that Bradford City could do something similar from here. That as welcome and undoubtedly uplifting as the end to this season has proved, it's still ultimately a very disappointing season where the club have fallen short of their aims. Maybe ending with something of a flourish is a positive sign for next season, or maybe it's a false dawn. Separating fact from fiction is absolutely crucial for Alexander right now. And the decisions that he and the club make in the coming weeks on the retained list, and on recruitment, need to be about much more than the recent evidence of the last few weeks.

Over these final seven games of the campaign, 27.5% of City’s overall 2023/24 points were picked up. In the other, 85% of their season, City collected the other 72.5% of their points tally. We cannot forget they underachieved for too long. Or that this actually proved to be a much weaker division than we had expected, especially outside the top four. Turns out, whilst we were bemoaning to ourselves how bad we are, everyone else was really bad too. We only truly began to realise this when we starting sailing past many of them during the run-in.

Finally, what also cannot be forgotten is the damage this season has caused to the relationship between club and fans. Large swathes of disgruntled supporters returned here for City’s third best home attendance of the season, but the fact they’ve been gone for so long means there’s healing to do. Season ticket sales have held up remarkably well, but that doesn’t mean the frustration towards Rupp and Ryan Sparks has gone away. The club is still on thin ice, and simply cannot fail again next season.

It’s uplifting how well this season has ended, it really is. And you can genuinely see the green shoots of recovery, poking through the mud of the threadbare Valley Parade player surface, ready to give us all much greater confidence about our prospects in an even weaker-looking League Two next season.

But these foundations are still fragile. The strength of the building blocks yet to be fully proven. If the lessons of this turbulent period have truly been learned, and change does turn out to be genuine, we can hopefully look back on this difficult Bradford City season and be glad that we went through it.