Bradford up against it

Thursday, 03/02/2011

by Will Rook, Shoot's Bradford City blogger

At this stage of the season, Bradford City fans are used to not really having much to play for, what with their constant mid-table mediocrity of recent times, although, only when they haven't been embroiled in one of their many relegation dogfights in the past ten years.

It is looking distinctly like this season will be no different for Bantams fans after a series of seriously below par performances and a case of severe inconsistency in the league.

Many times throughout the season Peter Taylor has told the press that as long as Bradford can 'put a run of results together', they could shoot up the table and be 'up there' come the end of the season, at least challenging for a play-off position.

This was a minimum expectation at the beginning of the season from the vast majority of the Valley Parade faithful, so to see any kind of faint hope of finishing even in touching distance to the fabled 'seventh spot' in the table has obviously angered many supporters and made them turn against their ex-England manager.

Peter Taylor came to the club with a proven track record of getting teams promoted from the lower leagues and their was a real feeling shared by all parties that his achievements at Hull City could be recreated in West Yorkshire.

The problem seems to lie in Taylor's style of football though, as, in playing his trademark defensive style, Bradford tend to sit back and defend one goal leads to the death, resulting in countless last-minute goals conceded, and losses to teams who Bradford never even considered playing at all, other than in a giant vs. minnow style match-up in the FA Cup.

Nevertheless, City do find themselves well and truly in the mire, lying 18th in the fourth tier on English football, ten points adrift of the top seven and having played a significant amount of games more than many teams in the league.

But, there could be some sort of light at the end of the proverbial tunnel with the arrival of experienced striker Scott Dobie, once of Premier League West Brom, on loan from SPL side St. Johnstone until the end of the season.

In Dobie, Taylor could have found his seasoned goalscorer who is able to take advantage of the chances which his younger, more inexperienced players have spurned earlier in the season.

This said though, at this stage of the season, so far away from the play-off positions, it looks more of a likelihood that the Bantams will end up dropping out of the Football League than gaining promotion to League One, which would undoubtedly see the death of the club, making it an in-viable financial prospect. Although, over the next three months or so, we will see.

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