No answers in the cup as Bradford City's goalscoring issues continue

11/19/2024 05:40 PM

By Jason McKeown

A scrappy early goal, followed by 85 minutes of scrappy, disjointed and stop-start play that underlines the problems Graham Alexander just cannot seem to solve.

It didn’t matter greatly to lose this final EFL Trophy game, given Bradford City had already qualified for the next round, but another defeat contributes to a supporter mood that is plummeting as fast as the West Yorkshire temperatures. Confidence in the Bantams prospects for the season is starting to wane. And for all the huff and puff here, there wasn’t an abundance of positive signs to suggest they’re on the cusp of figuring out what’s going wrong.

They were a bit unlucky for sure. In the second half, the home side hit the post three times, and had a reasonable penalty shout turned away. A decent performance, featuring 19 shots on goal. Some good attacking play, but end product once again falling short. The forward line continues to falter outside of Andy Cook. And Alexander’s determination to play two up top leaves him desperately hoping that someone else, beyond City’s number 9, can find some semblance of goalscoring form to share the load.

Until then, the manager is shuffling, tweaking, trying new things but not getting the tune he wants. Here the team was much changed around – good to see Cook and Richie Smallwood especially rested up – with some success. Encouraging for Paul Huntington and Corry Evans to finally get some game time and they looked decent. Evans has the potential to be the best player in the division and provide Smallwood with genuine competition.

But there are problems for sure. Tyler Smith and Olly Sanderson as a front two? Crikey, let’s never do that again. Smith got only his second start of the season but was so far off the pace he was subbed off at half time. Sanderson showed some neat flicks, yet so much more is needed.

In keeping with some strange recent experiments, Alexander decided to invert his wing backs. The right sided – and captain for the night – Brad Halliday shifted to left wing back. Clarke Oduor deployed as right wing back. Erm, yeah that happened. Not sure what the City boss was hoping to gain from deploying defenders on their wrong side. But hey, this is the time to try it. He can say he did it. Now, let’s move on and make sure it’s never repeated.

The impotence of City’s first half forward line and defensive inverting contributed to a low key, forgettable game. Rotherham took the lead from their first real attack after a corner was half cleared and Joseph Hungbo was able to skip past Jack Shepherd and cross from the byeline (the ball may have gone out). After taking a deflection, it looped to Shaun McWilliams, who could not miss.

Rotherham would ultimately triumph from here. They are a decent League One side of course (if falling short of expectations), having been two divisions above the Bantams last season. But they’re also utterly useless away from their New York Stadium home. This was only their second away victory in 49 matches on the road, stretching over a two-year period. I’ll say that again – only their second away win in 49 games. Given the Millers higher league status, we won’t put this forward as the next entry to the big book of Bradford City infamy. But it’s pretty typical of City to be such willing hosts to beleaguered travellers. It’s what we do.

The game continued to be tepid after the break, at least until the final 25 minutes when it seemed to finally liven up. Shepherd had to go off injured just before half time and Alexander threw on Vadaine Oliver for Smith after the interval. Oliver got on the end of a brilliant Brad Halliday cross, forced a superb block from Dillion Phillips, before his rebound header bounced along the line and hit the post. It was Oliver’s best moment of the night by far. But once again, he failed to make an impact overall. We are entitled to expect a lot more from him.

The second smacking of the woodwork came when Cook entered the fray and received the ball inside the area, where he produced a low shot that beat Phillips but not the goalframe. And in the game’s final moment, Cook headed the ball down for Jamie Walker – making his 100th City appearance – to hit a powerful effort from distance that rattled against the very same post. Another sub, Smallwood, earlier had an appeal for a penalty turned away. He was probably too eager to fall to the ground. But definitely one in the category of seen them given.

So City finish runners up in Group H, and will face a second round away tie at one of the other group winners. That means a mid-December trip to either Stockport, Wrexham, Morecambe, Bolton, Blackpool, Doncaster or Chesterfield. Morecambe aside (and please don't be Morecambe again!) they all look pretty tricky. But they could be fun too.

In the meantime, it’s back to the league and a visit from an Accrington side who are showing improved form after a really slow start. Not the best time to play them perhaps, especially if Shepherd joins Lewis Richards and other long-term absentees on the sidelines.

It’s a big moment for sure. The feelgood factor that followed the three straight wins in October has been followed by one win in six – and that only victory was against an 18th-place National League side. City need to put on a show in front of their public. Quieten the growing mutterings.

And as part of it, Alexander has somehow got to unlock an effective attacking approach. His non-Cook striker options have just six league and cup goals all season (two goals in the league). And the more starting opportunities each striker is given, the worse they seem to look. No one is coming close to staking a claim to partner Cook. And the over-reliance on their talisman is becoming an ever bigger worry. Just imagine if this season’s injury curse strikes Cook? We’d be toast.

The club is already talking about January – a depressing situation to be in, given the window doesn’t open for some six weeks and nine games yet. They cannot wait until then to fix these problems. They’re very unlucky with their injury list and they have showed what they can do. But the last few weeks suggest Bradford City are once again suffering from a slow puncture that – if not corrected quickly – will set them on a path for another season of failure.