best in the players and the atmosphere is always better. The attendance was
poor but Bradford only had about 300 out of the 756 away seats.
We started well and IMHO the big difference today was having 2 centre midfielders that can play football. Simon Rodger was superb, Carpenter solid and this gave confidence to Hart and Brooker.
BZ had an off day and scored 2 goals. He should have scored in the first
minute and then wasted another glorious chance to pass to Barrett with an
open goal, but tried to do a clever lob and put the ball out.
I saw the penalties on Meridian yesterday (how did the Pompey v Leicester game ever take place????- a swimming event would have been ideal!) and I would say that all 3 where penalties.
I think Kuipers was the only case of being last man so got a red card, but I think the player was heading way from goal and made sure he went down under the tackle.
At 3-2 we defended well and it seamed like eternity before the Referee
finally blew the final whistle. The relief was obvious and the players
rightly got a standing ovation.
My MOTM was Blackwell, who made such a difference and spread confidence to
the back 4. Mayo played well after his nightmare at Selhurst last week.
I spoke to a few Bradford lads on the bus on the way back and they thought we
looked a reasonable team, but they are not happy with their lot. Apparently
Ashley Ward is on #18,000 a week!!!!!!!
Roll on next Monday and live on sky. We always do well on TV don't we? ;-()
Mark R
My player rating
Kuipers - 5 (still looks out of sorts at times, but still made vital saves)
Watson - 5 didn't do anything wrong
Mayo - 6 much better and looked confident at last
Blackwell - 8 marshalled the defence superbly
Cullip - 7 back to last seasons form
Carpenter - 6 looked much happier with another midfielder to help him out!
Rodger - 7 looked good despite not being 100% fit
Hart - 7 back to old determined self
Brooker - 7 didn't waste the ball and battled back well
Zamora - 6 poor distribution and missed some good chances, Cool under
pressure for penalties
Barrett - 7 never stopped running, will be a quality player