Another Non Running Post

Two non running posts in a row! To save you all from being bored by another post about transatlantic saucepan shipments, there's been almost no discussion about football here at all over the last few weeks. So I'm going to at least make an effort to discuss football once a week. Maybe I'll call it "Where's The Midfield?" for old times' sake, though the joke is largely redundant now since a certain team in BD8 has a midfield again. It only took them ten years to find one.

Firstly, the continuing good start by that side in BD8. If you'd told me at the outset we'd have 18 points from 9 games, having only lost once by (nearly) October, I'd have called for the men in white coats. It's still somewhat misleading in that we have lost to the highest placed side we've played (the grim Port Vale side of Micky Adams, purveyor of route-one hoofball, 10th), and gained points from sides currently 11th (albeit their keeper was sent off after 25 minutes), 13th, 14th, 15th, 17th, 19th, 20th and 24th. But at the same time, it shows that (touch wood) the side is more than capable of holding its own at this level and should be looking to make the top 6. Today's game demonstrated the character in the side. 1-0 down to a goal in the second minute, having lost your top scorer injured after 20, and not playing at all well; to still dig in and play to the 94th minute in search of a winner speaks volumes about the mentality of the players, something Parkinson spoke of at length when he first arrived at the club just over two years ago. The current team are anything but nervous about playing in front of a large crowd. They've scored in nine league games in a row, which I don't remember happening much in the last 15 years.

Elsewhere: Whisper it quietly, but are the first cracks appearing in the walls of the red half of the Manchester empire? Between van Persie's goals and the motivational powers of Ferguson, a title was won last year with a really quite ordinary team, van Persie and Rooney (and, arguably, De Gea) apart. But now? If there's one thing apparent this year, it's that absent the reign of terror in the dressing room and on the training ground (and the threat of being sold to whichever side is currently managed by Steve Bruce or Mark Hughes), the dead wood at Old Trafford that should have been shipped out years ago (Jones, Anderson, Buttner, Cleverley, Welbeck, Young, Ferdinand off the top of my head) are a damned sight less effective now there's not the morbid fear of the famous hairdryering anymore. Fellaini? In the right circumstances, yes. But at 27.5 MILLION POUNDS? The 1994 and 1999 sides would annihilate the current side without breaking sweat. Bleating about the fixture list is fine and dandy when the fixture computer man gives you Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool in the first five games, but West Brom? At home? The next few years of Saturday mornings in the Ship as the armchair Manchester United fans plaintively plead "but.......but....." at the TV as they finally realise every sporting dynasty ends sooner or later are going to be glorious.

Also: Chelsea. It annoys me no end that the English football media continues to breathlessly flirt with Mourinho like some infatuated teenage schoolgirl with a crush, instead of querying his bonkers idea that leaving Juan Mata out of the side is a good one. They were unambitious to the point of cowardice at Old Trafford in August given how pedestrian Manchester United are these days. Fortunately, last week on the edge of CRISIS they met a Fulham side even less ambitious than that. His teams play an awful, cynical, not-remotely-entertaining, do-just-enough brand of 'football' that would be pilloried if he were, say, Sam Allardyce, Tony Pulis or Neil Warnock, but because he's some tanned, suave fashionably greying continental, the press love him. I didn't read much critique about his team essentially playing without a left hand side for the final 30 minutes at Everton two weeks ago. You're so dreamy, Jose.

If you'd asked me before the start of the season who'd win the league, I'd say Chelsea, with Manchester United second. Because they're both presently as formidable as Sheffield United are in the third division, a side might win by default this year. But who? Manchester City spent another squillion pounds of the Sheikh's money to lose at notoriously tough away venues like Cardiff and Aston Villa (!). Even Fourth Division sides beat Aston Villa. Spurs will always find interesting and creative ways to muck things up. Liverpool, well, they're on the brink of becoming the Toronto Maple Leafs. It might just be Arsenal's turn to win the whole thing by default, if they can keep the ball out of the net enough. Though with Per Mertesacker (turning circle of an oil tanker, terrorised by ex-supermarket shelf stackers), and Laurent Koscielny (generally an accident waiting to happen) in their defence, that's easier said than done. Wenger inherited a defence from George Graham that won him three league titles, bolstered it with Sol Campbell for a bit, but they've been a clown-shoed circus troupe at the back for years and you know they'll revert to type eventually.

Best League in the world? Pffft.

Omens

I'm listening to the BBC 5 Live football daily podcast, which was recorded in the aftermath of yesterday's Wembley win. It's fun to hear the Claret and Amber song and Status Quo in the background. The BBC is great, and don't knock it; those of us that have to suffer pale imitations of it miss it lots. Perma-tanned Southend manager Phil Brown has just opined "if you can guarantee you're going to win, this is the way to get promoted". Chris Kamara, manager in 1996 once said pretty much the same thing. The win in 1996 was seemingly inevitable the second the final whistle went after the second leg in Blackpool. Was yesterday's game inevitable? When you consider the following, maybe it was:

In 1995-96,

QPR were relegated from the top division

Gillingham were promoted from the bottom division

Bradford City had been in their current division for six seasons
They played 60+ games in the season
They conceded five goals in their elimination from the League Cup
They knocked Burton Albion out of a cup competition
They finished in the final playoff spot

They edged Chesterfield out of the last playoff spot

They met Chesterfield in the 43rd game of the league season

They knocked out the highest-placed playoff side (Blackpool)
They knocked out their playoff semi-final opponents in the League Cup in extra time earlier in the season
They lost the home playoff game and won away

They scored three goals away from home to make Wembley

Their goalkeeper was called Jonathan

He was eligible to play for Scotland

The playoff final opposition began with "No"
They won both league games without conceding a goal against them

The first goal in the playoff final was scored by a Bradfordian

In 2012-13.... all of the above happened. Sometimes, things are evidently meant to be.

Going The Distance

One of the more extraordinary football seasons I can remember finally came to and end yesterday. Returning to Wembley to put things right after their walloping at the hands of Swansea in the freezing cold in the League Cup Final in February was a fitting end to a marathon season. Yesterday was the 64th game of the season, and it would have been a much harder thing to stomach than February 24th had they not won, for all that effort to be for nothing. Some of the omens going back to 1996 meant that a win yesterday was almost preordained (I'll expand on that in another post). But was it?

Fortunately, when they needed to the most they played possibly their best 45 minutes of the season, making the second half an exercise in closing the game out. It'd be hard to single out any one player as man of the match as pretty much everyone dominated his opposite number. But for the Northampton keeper, the scoreline might well have matched the 5-0 result in February. 

The season came in three separate parts. From August to December, the team finally looked like they had got over their problems of being a scalp for the smaller teams. In all competitions, they lost 6 of the first 32 games, 3 of them to teams that would be promoted. In the last 18 games, they lost 3 times. That's 9 defeats in 50 games, which is promotion worthy by any measuring stick. The middle section of the season, taken from roughly the elimination of Arsenal in the League Cup, to the Cup Final itself saw just 3 wins from 14 games. That took the side from a solid 4th place to 12th, as they became a scalp for the teams in the division again, and the toll of numerous extra-times and the fixture backlog began to take effect. Such were the number of cup matches, the team didn't play six consecutive league matches until mid-March, seven months after the season started. Six of the games went to extra time, so you could claim they played an equivalent of 66 games. The fitness coach is worth every penny of his contract.

Look at who they met along the way: Watford, who have made the Championship playoff final; Wigan, who won the FA Cup; Arsenal who made the knockout of the Champions League; Aston Villa, who any number of players' wages would cover our entire wage bill for the season, beaten over two legs; Brentford, who knocked them out of the FA Cup in December after extra time in a replay made the League One playoff final today.

So after six years, they finally escaped being beaten at Dagenham, Barnet and Accrington every year. No more having Morecambe come and park the bus and celebrate a 1-1 draw like they'd won the World Cup. Finally, a chance to disappear into the relative obscurity of League One where Wolves, Sheffield United and Coventry are the teams everyone wants to beat. I think we'll do OK next year. The team - through their exploits this year in the cups - is clearly capable of playing at a higher level; some would clearly survive at Championship level. After twelve years of ever-downward progress, finally, the ship is turned round and looks to be heading in the right direction again. Credit has to be given to the two co-owners. In these times of clubs being playthings for unhinged rich people (see any number of instances, but Blackburn Rovers spring immediately to mind), it's good that the two co-owners, lifelong fans both, are on record as being custodians of the club, and aren't going to sell out unless they think it's the right thing. That's a rare thing these days.

They did go the distance. The tune linked to is part of the Valley Parade pre-match routine, coming from the closing scenes of the 1976 film Rocky, in which the titular no-chance outsider goes the full fifteen rounds with a more fancied opponent. That it should be played at ten minutes to kick off in this of all seasons, when the unfancied underdog did finally get its day - more than once - was oddly prophetic. They should keep it, in anticipation of feats still to come.

Going The Distance

So one last game to play in the Bradford City season, game 64 at Wembley Stadium two weeks yesterday, after this morning's overturning of their first leg deficit. From trailing Burton after the 3-2 home defeat on Thursday night in the semi final, first leg, was the season going to end in disappointing fashion? Nope! It's quite a shock to the system to have to be up at 4:40am to find a stream of the game and to put the kettle on. 

Burton had the best home record in the division this year (17 wins, 3 draws, 3 defeats, all of which were 1-0). But it's such a BCFC thing to do it the hard way, everyone was hoping things would go the way they did against Blackpool in 1996. After the first twenty minutes they calmed down and scored three goals which were aided to a greater or lesser degree by the comical defending of the Burton defence and goalie. The latter looked pretty ropey on Thursday night in the first game, and was just as iffy today. It would be the perfect way to end the season putting something right after the walloping they got at the hands of Swansea in the league cup final.

Useless Sunday afternoon digression:

Northampton's win over Cheltenham this evening means that there might be a reasonable chance at breaking the Fourth Division playoff final attendance. Northampton took 30,000+ to Wembley twice in the late 1990s and of course 33,000+ decamped from Yorkshire for the league cup final. Given the tickets are likely to be cheaper this time you'd hope a similar number will travel. Maybe even the Second West pub will get some this time. The record for the fourth tier game is the 61,589 that watched the 2007 final, the first at the newly re-opened Wembley Stadium. Given the records established this season, one way or another, one more would be nice.

2012: 24,029 (Cheltenham 0-2 Crewe, Wembley)

2011: 11,484 (Stevenage 1-0 Torquay, Old Trafford)

2010: 32,054 (Dagenham & Redbridge 3-2 Rotherham, Wembley)

2009: 53,706 (Gillingham 1-0 Shrewsbury, Wembley)

2008: 35,715 (Rochdale 2-3 Stockport, Wembley)

2007: 61,589 (Bristol R. 3-1 Shrewsbury, Wembley)

2006: 29,196 (Cheltenham 1-0 Grimsby, Millennium Stadium)

2005: 19,653 (Lincoln 0-2 Southend, Millennium Stadium)

2004: 37,298 (Huddersfield *0-0 Mansfield, Millennium Stadium)

2003: 32,148 (Bournemouth 5-2 Lincoln, Millennium Stadium)

2002: 24,368 (Cheltenham 3-1 Rushden & Diamonds, Millennium Stadium)

2001: 23,600 (Blackpool 4-2 Leyton Orient, Millennium Stadium)

2000: 33,383 (Peterborough 1-0 Darlington, Wembley)

1999: 36,985 (Leyton Orient 0-1 Scunthorpe, Wembley)

1998: 19,486 (Colchester 1-0 Torquay, Wembley)

1997: 46,804 (Northampton 1-0 Swansea, Wembley)

1996: 43,431 (Darlington 0-1 Plymouth, Wembley)

1995: 22,814 (Bury 0-2 Chesterfield, Wembley)

1994: 40,109 (Preston 2-4 Wycombe, Wembley)

1993: 22,416 (Crewe 1-1* York, Wembley)

1992: 22,741 (Blackpool *1-1 Scunthorpe, Wembley)

1991: 21,615 (Blackpool 2-2* Torquay, Wembley)

1990: 26,404 (Cambridge 1-0 Chesterfield, Wembley)

* won on penalties. Let's not even think about that on the 18th......it scares me to put the record to the test in such season-ending circumstances.

Comebacks

I was a bit concerned that my little statistical post below had jinxed the team, given they then shipped four goals in the next two games, taking one point from six and scuppering a bid for third place. Fortunately, a win and a clean sheet on Saturday makes everything better, especially when it cements a place in the playoffs. Look at the table after the 4-1 defeat at Exeter on March 16th (right). Ten points out of the playoffs with  nine games left, twelve behind Exeter. Their collapse in form over the next seven games was something similar to our own in the last month of 2008/09. Quite something to have clinched it with a game still to go. I could almost have a lie-in on Saturday morning. So now we get our third bash at the playoffs. Oddly, all three have been with the home leg of the semi-final first. And as someone pointed out on Claret and Banter today, the last time we were in the playoffs, Gillingham won promotion from the bottom division, QPR were relegated from the top division, and we edged Chesterfield out of the last playoff spot in our division. History repeating itself in terms of being promoted at Wembley would be nice....

Oddities

Because I can't spend every waking second working on job applications, here's a bit of Tuesday afternoon trivia. In light of the Bantams' latest win this evening, there was a very interesting little statistic on twitter this morning about our record on Tuesdays, which has been extended today. Bradford City have now played twelve league games on Tuesdays this season, and haven't lost a single one of them (seven wins, five draws), but the most freakish thing about that run is that they have conceded a miserly two goals in the process.

Record (league games only) by days of the week:

Saturday: P26, W8 D6 L12, F38 A41

Monday: P1, W1 D0 L0, F3 A1

Tuesday: P12, W7 D5 L0, F14 A2

Wednesday: P2, W1 D1 L 0, F3 A2

Friday: P1, W0 D1 L0, F2 A2

(combined non-Saturday record: P16, W9 D7 L0, F22 A7)

The especially weird thing is that all five of the Tuesday draws were 0-0. On Saturdays, just two goals conceded in the eight wins, and a goal difference of -20 in Saturday defeats. Clearly, if the cup final was on a Tuesday, we'd have won. Or drawn 0-0 and won on penalties. And we should petition for the Chesterfield, Burton and Cheltenham games to be moved to midweek. Or perhaps an unexpected snowmageddon could cause re-scheduled games.

 (Including all  the cup games, the record on Tuesday is P23, W11 D9 L3, of which the three defeats were in extra-time at the FA Cup at Brentford with a second string out, a game at Crewe with a second string out in the JPT, and, last but not least, the famous 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa that sent them to Wembley)

The record on days of the week isn't the only odd thing you'll see. There was a post on Claret and Banter a while ago about the goalkeepers. I can't find it now, but I've updated the numbers. Look at the records with the two different goalies:

McLaughlin: P20, W10 D7 L3, F32 A16 (0.8 goals per game against)

Duke: P22, W7 D6 L9, F28 A32 (1.45 goals per game against)

I know from bitter Wednesday night experience that the goals against column is to some degree a function of the other players in front of you (as well as the holes in your game); the majority of Duke's appearances did come when Davies (and Meredith, to a lesser extent) was missing. But pause for thought.

Speaking of Meredith. He was a player everyone was raving about in the first half of the season. 'A steal' they said. 'He and Reid have such an understanding with each other, one overlapping the other'. I only saw him twice when home at Christmas, where he laboured, but since he was probably in the incubation period for glandular fever which caused him to miss two months of the season, that's not a surprise in hindsight.

With Meredith: P29, W15 D8 L6, F48 A32 (1.83 points per game, 83 points in 46 games. Promotion form)

Without: P13, W2 D5 L6, F12 A16 (0.85 points per game, 38 points in 46 games. Emphatic relegation form)

Fifteen of the team's seventeen wins have come with him in the side. In those fifteen wins, the side has conceded just six goals, and never more than one goal in a game. He appears to have given Kyel Reid a new lease of life since his return. Not surprising in a way, since the two most frequent stand-ins, McHugh and Good were converted centre-backs, unused to being in advanced positions. Take-home message: keep fit, JMc and JM!

Wembley

It's a bit odd writing this post, more than a week after the game, but a few thoughts on the whole Wembley experience. Such was the schedule that if you blinked you missed it: fly Friday night, get to Heathrow on Saturday afternoon, game on Sunday afternoon and back to Heathrow on Monday morning for an early afternoon flight. By Monday evening, all that really existed in the memory was a stiff back from sitting upright for nine hours on a plane. If it wasn't for the facebook photo album and the various souvenirs, I'd struggle to believe I was actually there anyway.

First, it was nice to feel the excitement to the build-up to the big game itself in person. Obviously there was some degree of this in the previous rounds, but when you're watching it or listening on the internet from thousands of miles away, and not walking up Midland Road it's the sort of thing you miss out on. It was great to see - both on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning - walking round London that there were so many people wearing claret and amber scarves/hats/coats and so on. The excitement on twitter was palpable. In comparison, I saw very few Swansea fans until it was time to go to the game on the underground on Sunday afternoon. Getting to the stadium, the excitement factor was amped up to 11, to just be swept out of Wembley Park underground station in a sea of people and carried along until at the stadium was a bit different to 1996 when the attendance was less than half the 82,597 present - almost certainly the highest attendance the team has ever played to.

It was very cold - which is a comical thing to admit to when you live where I do - but so it goes. It's the damp cold versus dry cold, or something. It was a bit weird to stand there and wait for the rest of the party to arrive in the light snow. Standing in a vast sea of Yorkshire accents was quite a weird thing when all you've heard is Canadians for five years. But the excitement of the fans was something to see, and the sheer numbers in which they travelled when the stadium was full was another illustration of the level of support they could call on if they managed to do a Swansea on the pitch and get themselves back much higher up the leagues. Because that's the way we're going to have to do it; through careful management and slow building of a style of play and a group of players. I think that's much more preferable to being bankrolled by some middle-eastern emirate, or by an eastern european who somehow managed to asset strip a nation of its heavy industries.

So, yes, on the pitch. There's not much else to be said; they didn't face a team like that in the competition. You can't do anything without the ball, and Swansea a) kept it and b) were gifted it back when we did get it. I read plenty of reports after the final in the media saying things along the lines of "Bradford should have got amongst them and chased and closed them down". That would have left even bigger gaps for Swansea to  play the ball through; they were being pulled out of shape enough as it was under orders to sit back. Pressing higher up the pitch would have seen just as ugly a final scoreline. And as fit as our players undoubtedly are, the overriding memory of the game was just how more athletic and dynamic the Swansea players were anyway; chasing faster players than you won't end well. The penalty was the first foul we conceded because we just couldn't get anywhere near them, such was their speed and movement. The off the ball movement was confusing enough for me sat several miles up in the air, goodness knows what it's like to play against.

Ultimately, you just have to take it on the chin; the law of averages meant that facing a sixth team from a higher division meant this was on the cards at some point. The second goal was the killer; the first half was just like the opening half of the second leg at Villa Park. There, we escaped only 1-0 down and could regroup somewhat, and Villa's hilarious inability to defend set pieces meant the rest was history. Swansea made sure there was no repeat, first through a goal coming through two pairs of legs, and such a disciplined defensive performance they conceded almost nothing in the way of set pieces to exploit. End result: we couldn't exert any pressure at all. For a far more articulate view of the game than I can manage, I'll just link to this article from The Width Of A Post, which hits the nail on the head what I'll remember about the afternoon, years from now: the noise and colour of the support when the ship had already sunk and there were still over thirty minutes left to play. That, and Hanson bending over and putting his hands on his knees with fifteen minutes to go, looking over at the bench as if to ask "what else can I do? there's nobody else within thirty yards of me". So well done Swansea for a job well done, done the right way.

For the last two months of the season, they have to concentrate on what was always the primary objective: getting out of this division. As much as the powers-that-be say it wasn't the case, the facts remain that after beating Torquay in early December the team was a solid 4th of 24 in the table, and had seemingly finally - after years of trying - got to grips with avoiding being a scalp for a succession of recently promoted non-league sides. Of course, from beating Arsenal to losing the final, they won precisely two more games in nearly three months, because they were A Thing again, ending up in the bottom half of the table. Back to being a scalp for the usual suspects again. On a glass-half-full note, in the three games since Wembley they are unbeaten and have put in three good performances. There's a lot of ground to make up, but remember their last trip to Wembley, seventeen years previously: 9 wins in their last 13 games, before squeaking into the playoffs on the last day on that bizarre afternoon in Hull, police horses and all. The events that followed in Blackpool and London ended up in folklore. What price a repeat?

Thursday

Pre-flight preparations are done. Seat is picked, boarding pass printed. Suitcase packed. It only seems vaguely more real now than it did in January when they won through to the final. Of all the things that I've done in the name of this team, travelling wise, this is easily the most crackpot. But then these are times without precedent since before World War 1. One more day of work, then home to dump the laptop, pick up the luggage and off to the airport.

The Postman's Been

Look what's arrived in the post for me, thousands of miles away.

Musings on Tuesday's Events

Five days on from Tuesday night and it still doesn't seem real. Even after having booked a flight to the Final on Thursday night, and having spent the last couple of days finding and booking a hotel, it still seems odd. Watching the highlights over and over again just reinforces how bizarre it all is.

A few things to reflect on, in no particular order:

• We have now played 420 minutes of football against Premier League opposition, and conceded just four goals with a back four that was nowhere near first choice at the start of the year.
• Given the easy chances missed/kicked off the line/hit the woodwork, we could have had way more than four goals across the two ties, almost as remarkable.
• Blair Turgott learnt an object lesson in taking the ball to the corner and keeping it there the next time, lest the ball end up in your own net ten seconds later.
• How can a top flight side concede a goal from a corner, eight games in a row?
• Throwing on forwards at the expense of midfielders is something that a pub team manager might consider tactically unsound. Yes, now you've five strikers strung across the penalty area, but nobody to pass to them.
• Confidence in football is an amazing thing. In one half, tails up, playing like you're a side three divisions higher. In the other, having given up yet another unopposed free header that ended up in your net, playing with complete terror and panic.
• Shay Given must be chained to the goalline.
• How noisy were the fans when we scored the goal in the second leg.
• Fifteen years of absolutely chronic Cup draws finally gave way to something more entertaining.
• I hope that the commemorative strip idea that was so roundly panned (and rightly so) on twitter and facebook yesterday was the idea of the kit manufacturer and not the club. Not days after being feted in the media as an antidote to the ills of the modern game, to then be seen to be cashing in is absolutely chronic PR if it's the club's doing.
• The club made the Wall Street Journal today, the New York Times on Wednesday. Appearances on Canadian TV? Nil.

Blimey

So barely more than two weeks after getting back here, it looks like I'm going to have to plan another quick trip to London for some football match or other. I'll write a better post when I'm able to string coherent speech together. For now, "wow" will have to suffice

Pile-Up

So even more football games to play now, thanks to the barely believable events of this afternoon/evening at Valley Parade. This post might well get edited into a longer one once all the thoughts stop swirling around. My thoughts on the game: they did very very well in the first half, were a threat when they attacked, they passed the ball well. It didn't look like a fourth division side against a top flight team. The two Arsenal centre-backs had a very shaky half and the front two of Hanson and Wells were brilliant at holding the ball up and giving the midfield and defence a rest.

The second half started much the same way, and it was only when Wells was replaced with the much slower Connell that the ball started to come back every thirty seconds. Even then, Arsenal didn't create that many goalscoring chances until the last ten minutes when the home side visibly tired. The goal was probably deserved from a territorial advantage point of view, but not from chances created. Extra time was just a case of holding on, which they did with a bit of help from the crossbar, which is probably still shaking now. The run in shootouts continued on its inexplicably merry way.

Thoughts on Arsenal. They're now a pale, pale shadow of the 'invincibles' team, and Wenger is now firmly in Liverpool-era Gerard Houllier territory: team full of dead-wood imports from France who aren't anywhere near the level of players they replaced. Gervinho played like he'd won a competition to play with the stars for a day. Podolski was utterly, utterly anonymous. Do Arsenal want to win things, or pay off the stadium? Looks like they're happy to do the latter.

Pile-up: The Revenge

So we don't have to worry about the Bantams adding to their number of games through further additional cup ties, given that they were, er, kicked out of the FA Cup today for fielding an apparently ineligible Curtis Good (on loan from Newcastle) in the game against Brentford last Friday. It's funny, because if this had happened in any other season, there would be all manner of abuse about being amateurish/incompetent being hurled at the club from the fanbase, but coming as it does four days before a glamour tie with Arsenal and amid a fixture backlog, nobody seems all that bothered.

Still unbeaten in Cup competition, though.

Pile-up

Last night's home draw with Brentford in the FA Cup means that there'll be yet another game for the Bantams to schedule before Christmas. From mid September to New Year's Day, they'll have had exactly two midweeks free of games. This is a combination of a) the number of cup games they've been involved in; b) the season starting two weeks later than normal because of the Olympics, and ending a week sooner because Wembley is needed for the Champion's League final on the day the Fourth Division play-off final is usually played; and c) the fact midweek games have generally been moved from the winter to the autumn in light of the last few bad winters and mass postponements.

That four of the games have gone to extra time - and potentially a fifth - means that the game on December 29th against Rochdale will be the equivalent of a 38th game of the season. That's a whole Premier League season, in half the time available. It looks highly likely that if they're involved in the playoffs, they'll be into the realm of playing 60 games, before any potential further advance in cup matches is is considered. With a small squad, already robbed of three central defenders through very serious injuries, that's a big ask.

Odd thing is, I was looking back at the 1995-96 season on Soccerbase to check on something I put on twitter related to the sacking of the Micky Mellon below. That season, we played.......60 games. The normal 46 in the league, six in the league cup (in the days of two legged ties), three in the FA cup, two in whatever the Johnstone's Paint Trophy was called at the time*, and three in the playoffs. But I don't remember that season as overly fixture congested. Of course, the playoffs extended the season to the last weekend in May, which might have something to do with it.

We still have some way to go to match Stockport's season a year later. In the 1996-97, they played 67 (!) games: 46 in the league; 11 in the league cup where they reached the semi-final; 4 in the FA Cup, and 6 in the Auto Windscreen Shield where they lost the two-legged northern final.

* Wikipedia tells me they were eliminated by the drawing of lots - trust something as weird as that to happen to them - after a three team group between themselves, Carlisle and Doncaster resulted in three 1-1 draws and all sides having an equal record. Further advance would have added even more games to the total.

Tuesdays

A long time ago, in a chemistry lab far, far away, Tuesday was regarded as something of an unlucky sort of a day. An "if it can go wrong, it will" sort of day. This was due in part to the lab next door having accidents and fires and things. It became folklore almost; "don't do that today, it's Tuesday".

So today was a nice for lots of potentially good things happening. First up, notification of a job interview I have next Wednesday afternoon. At last, after a ridiculous number of applications sent, something to demonstrate I am still apparently vaguely employable and my alterations to my resume and cover letters were actually useful.

Secondly, that the announcement that George Lucas had sold his LucasFilm company to the Disney Corporation would mean a Star Wars: Episode VII (and probably VIII and IX at least) and a chance to expunge the memory of two-and-a-half very bad films for half of a good one. Yoda vs the Emperor was worth it, but only just. It'll be interesting to see what they do to re-cast the principal roles of the original trilogy, being as the twins are in their sixties and Harrison Ford is now 70. It's also promising that Lucas will apparently only be 'creative consultant', rather than directly involved, since it hasn't gone without notice in the movie going world that the best film of all six (The Empire Strikes Back) was the one he was least involved in.

And then the main event of the day, another cup win for BCFC. I am on record on one football forum today as to speculate "we might get tonked this evening", given we were without both centre backs injured, players cup-tied, suspended, and coming back from injury. And the team looked, politely, a bit cobbled together. But having listened to it all it sounds like they defended superbly, and their new-found invincibility in shootouts (seven wins in a row dating back to 2009-10) is as welcome as it is inexplicable. I just hope that tonight can serve as a tipping point to get the momentum going back the other way after twelve years of things getting ever worse.

Cup of Cheer

So to carry on from the post below, yet another win for the Bantams this afternoon (or evening, depending where you live). An eighth win from eleven games, and a fourth in a row. It's all very.....disorientating. It speaks volumes for the character they seem to have in the building that they can shrug off an apparently very harsh 2-0 deficit and come back in the closing stages. By my reckoning, that's still only the fourth or fifth time they've come from 2-0 down to win a game in more than 20 years. Winning breeds confidence which breeds more wins.

I have two wishes: firstly, that they are finally rewarded with a plum tie in the fourth round against a top team where they can get some exposure and make some money. And secondly, that they didn't put so much into tonight's game - they rested six players, but Hanson, Wells and Reid still ended up playing an hour - that they come out flat on Saturday in front of some of an expectant crowd. There have been too many games like that down the years. That game will, I think, tell us a lot more about the season to come.

Moan Free Zone

There's a long way to go in the new football season, for sure, but it's a promising beginning thus far for the (once) mighty Bantams. Four home wins on the bounce from the start of a season for the first time since 1957, two wins away from home against teams in higher divisions in cup competitions, merciless dispatch of sides we usually struggle terribly against at home. Fifth in the league and a very winnable home tie in the third round of the league cup next week with the chance of a big payday at a big name. It's all very........disorientating to not have things to moan about.

Turning

A week is a long time in football. Two weeks is an age. So it's nice to see that the once mighty Bantams are finally, it seems, heading in the right direction. They have managed to double their wins total in that period, after all. The first half of the season, cup competitions apart, has been painful. At more than one point on Saturday mornings this autumn, the team has been only a goal away from being right at the foot of the football league. 

Parkinson has slowly recast the team from the collection of loanees and inexperienced kids he was left with after Jackson's sudden departure in August. Goals were preciously hard to come by, and it seemed with Matt Duke that they couldn't keep them out at the other end either. Slowly, with the acquisition of Marcel Seip and Andrew Davies, and McLaughlin's return in goal the goals against has been tightened dramatically (just two against in five games. A goalie that can stop shots. Goals against go down. Who knew?). And now the goals have begun to come, six in the two festive home games.

I can't imagine a collective support more desperate to cling onto something than ours over the last ten years, there have been so many false dawns and mistakes made, but it's been fun to be up early in the morning to listen to games and hear the crowd, supportive and engaged again. Or giving the referee a piece of their mind as they have in the last two games. Hopefully, 2012 is a better year than 2011 was.

Developments

To describe Bradford City's season thus far as a bit of a roller-coaster is something of an understatement. Just when you thought that they might slowly be piecing it together on the field after being onto their third manager by October, along comes another bolt from the blue. Up until today, we were confident, following a quite superb set of articles on one of the leading independent BCFC sites, BoyFromBrazil, that the club had a long term plan. The fans have been, on the whole, quite patient given the team was at one stage only a Plymouth goal away from being 92nd of 92 in the professional game. The man to oversee the long term plan was the head of development, Archie Christie.

So imagine my puzzlement this morning, when an email from my brother - partly in reply to my rant about HSBC secure keys below - signs off with "I see the BCFC fun bus has been driven into the ditch again". Eh? A quick look at twitter made the heart sink. Archie Christie had left the club. Due to "ill health". Later in the day, BoyFromBrazil published this article. If the allegations (for want of a better word) are true, then this is the latest in a series of very spectacular PR own goals. The club, of course, denied it within a couple of hours through Derm Tanner of BBC Radio Leeds. I'm not sure what I find more depressing: that there was another in a long line of PR fiascos brewing; that a second member of the football staff had walked out with zero notice or explanation inside three months; or that barely anybody out there believes a word the club says anymore. I mean, "ill health"? Do the Christie articles above read like a man who's about to bail out? He was, according to various people "in the know" offered the job of Chief Executive very recently. Ill health?

There's a part of me that's also a little bit annoyed with the local media (Radio Leeds, The Pulse, The Telegraph and Argus) who, it seems, walk on eggshells so as to not antagonise the club into withdrawing media access to their players and staff, and it's left to fans with day jobs to provide the objective coverage.

I don't know what happens to the development squad approach in the future. The cynic might suggest that, since the club appears to be overspending the budget again (how can it not be, given the turnover in playing staff this year and the huge size of the squad?), the development squad might well be jettisoned to make the books balance. And then, not for the first time, the club will be back at square one again.

Edit: the whole BfB website has been pulled this morning after 12 years. The club wheeled out John Hendrie to deny everything. What a mess. An absolute mess.

Oscar Winner

A week is a long time in football, they say. Certainly, from last week to this the mood around Valley Parade has changed appreciably, but it's funny what a couple of wins will do to lighten the mood of the supporters. Saturday saw an apparently very good performance against Barnet, coming from a goal down to win 4-2, and there were more happy faces making their way home from BD8 tonight. The first round of the much-maligned Johnstone's Paint Trophy saw the Bantams at home to Sheffield Wednesday, and televised to boot. Being in immigration limbo meant that I could spend a leisurely lunchtime watching it over the internet. 

Quite often when we end up playing a side from a higher division, there's a school of thought that says "just don't get beaten heavily". That certainly applied to the game against Leeds three weeks ago. However it would be fair to say Sheffield Wednesday weren't taking things quite so seriously as Leeds did, when they took their keeper off after just 80 seconds, without looking too injured. The conspiratorial smirks on the bench suggested this was entirely expected; it was quickly speculated both online and in the commentary box that this was a way of Wednesday circumventing the "6 man' rule which states that teams must start six men from their last league game. This was pretty much confirmed a little over ten minutes later when two more subs came on, again to amusement from the visiting dugout. It didn't go down well with their supporters on twitter, and I can't blame them. What a slap in the face to the 700 or so travelling supporters that had to brave the M1 and M62 on a Tuesday night to get there. 

I really wouldn't expect anything less of a team coached by Gary Megson, purveyor of numerous artless, route-one sides down the years. I often think back to his West Brom side in 2002, who blindly hoofed the ball long for 90 minutes, couldn't create a chance worthy of the name, and then had to resort to one of the most blatant bits of cheating I've ever seen to get them promoted into the Premier League. The Owls side had more of the ball in the first half, but created almost nothing of note, chance wise and the home side should have opened the scoring on the stroke of half time when Hanson headed wide with the keeper all at sea. City improved in the second half. The second showed more of the same from the visitors, but a bit more cutting edge from the home side; Compton should have scored in the opening seconds of the half after a slip from a debutant central defender who had played in the Owls infamous 14-0 preseason defeat to the mighty Alfreton Town.

City had the ball in the net in the 66th minute as giant defender Luke Oliver headed Chris Mitchell's free-kick goalwards and a defender headed the ball out from inside the back of the net. A clear goal, but as per usual, the standard of FL officiating left a lot to be desired. Ritchie Jones was denied a goal late on by a fine save from the visiting sub keeper O'Donnell, and then Oliver hit the crossbar in injury time. The home side deserved to win on the balance of chances created, but the deadlock meant straight to the lottery of penalties. City had won two shootouts two seasons ago and we were hoping another loanee keeper might make a name for himself. Swedish keeper Oscar Jansson, on loan from Spurs saw the first attempt from the useless Clinton Morrison balloon over the bar, before saving from Chris Palmer. Jones and Michael Flynn buried theirs, Wednesday's Giles Coke scored his, boyhood Wednesday fan Ross Hannah netted, before Jansson saved a really very poor effort from  Chris Sedgwick to win the game and get his reward of a giant pile-on. An ultra-cynical reading of the shootout and the level of spot-kick taken would lead you to speculate they were trying to miss those as well. Maybe that's a bit harsh. Maybe. 

Ultimately, Megson got his wish. I would hope there's a disrepute charge or something winging his way somewhere pretty soon. For many lower division players (and fans), the chance of a Wembley day out is pretty much limited to the Play-Off final; if he feels he can in clear conscience deny the supporters a chance at that, as well as the significant financial boost that comes with it, then he's even more of a pillock than he showed himself to be tonight. As for BCFC, I was impressed with the work-rate (just as I was in the Leeds game), but tonight, there was a much greater solidity to the team. Luke Oliver was something of a figure of fun last season, but he has apparently been very good this season and was commanding tonight. Jones in the midfield was also very good I thought. Two good performances under Colin Cooper make me hope that the club will keep him on in his coaching capacity, he gave a very impressive interview on the radio after Saturday's game about the length of time he has taken since his playing career to get his UEFA coaching qualifications. Given the new approach of trying to find diamonds-in-the-rough, the club needs coaches of his calibre.