Monday Night Football

Last updated : 15 March 2004 By Paul Farrington
Wigan Athletic's Nathan Ellington gets away from Burnley's Lee Roche
The Duke was our best player

Manager Comments

Colin Todd (Assitant Manager - Bradford)

"You need a little help from the officials, but it was not forthcoming today."

"Six weeks ago this was a game we would have been expected to lose, but we have not only improved in the way we are playing but we are disappointed not to have won the game.

"Nevertheless, the point we have gained against Wigan may be the point that keeps us up. It certainly keeps our unbeaten run going, and the fight going. We call it 'the Great Escape'.

"People look upon us as being dead and buried, but performances can change and people see a different Bradford team from the one we were six weeks ago. It takes time but we are getting there."

Paul Jewell
"We were rubbish from start to finish, one single shot on target speaks for itself!

"Bradford were better than us and they are a difficult side to play against but even they didn't play much better than us. I got a great reception at kick-off time which was brilliant and it's funny because I didn't get that when I was here as manager! The home fans must then have been thinking how the hell are Wigan third in the table?

"I want us to finish in the top six but we won't do playing like that, we've got to compete better. I'm hoarse because I've let the players know they disappointed me they simply didn't perform as well as a unit and Bradford quickly got in our faces and that seemed to set the trend.

"As I said we won't finish in the top six playing like that. We go to second placed West Brom on Tuesday and we have got to compete better than we did here. We were rubbish from start to finish and that sort of performance won't get us anywhere near where we want to be.

"There are only two positives to come out of today and that is that we've got a point and that we kept a clean sheet. We weren't good enough and I feel for our supporters as they've once again travelled in great numbers which is brilliant and then we didn't perform at all.

"Hopefully this is a one off though and it certainly needs to be as we can't afford any more performances like that between now and the end of the season if we want to achieve anything."

Editor's View

Alan Mahon, Gary Teale and Jason Roberts. Three big names in our squad and all were missing on Saturday and you could tell.

Previous to the arrivals of Mahon and Roberts and the flying form of Gary Teale down the right hand side, the Latics were struggling to win games. We were playing too many long balls and we resorted to the old tactics again at Valley Parade.

Lee McCulloch was awesome against Crewe as he was given plenty of crosses to attack, but in Mahon's absence the lack lusture Farrelly failed to deliever these telling balls.

Nathan Ellington, up front alongside McCulloch got his head down and tried to take the City defence on by himself, only to get pushed form pillar to post by the City centre backs, he was our most dangerous player.

In midfield, Jimmy Bullard, Jason Jarrett, Gareth Farrelly and Andy Liddell need to take a good look at themselves. Bullard, though he wasn't finding his usual passing range did not hide and continued to search out for the ball and try to get his game going.

As for the other trio in the midfield, they let themselves drift out of the game and as a consiquence we did not get any play going forward and I think three crosses were delievered between Farrelly and Liddell, with two of those coming from free-kicks. Starving our strikers of their usual service from the wings.

At the back, Breckin and Baines looked assured and at times held the defence together as Emanuel had the beating of Eaden everytime down the left flank with his raw pace and power. Thankfully, he didn't put any telling balls across the box.

De Vos - who many thought should have made way for Jackson - looked shaky and uncomfortable up against the pace of Branch. It seemed as though the captain had been assigned the job of keeping Windass quiet. He won this battle but whenever he was faced by the speedy Branch the big captain looked less than comfortable.

Moving on to the penalty issue. I was sat no more than ten yards from the incident and it WASN'T a penalty.

Branch ran along the goal line and took a touch where the ball ran slihtly beyond his control. De Vos came across and went to put his foot in, of which Branch was going to trip over. However de Vos recovered just in time and pulled his foot out, as he watched Branch fall to the floor.

The referee was right on hand to see the incident and was correct in playing on. From further away it would have been a penalty.

One positive to come out of the game was the performance of Mike Flynn when he came of the bench. Now Flynny playedn ot so logn ago in a home game when our squad was threadbare and to be fair he was awful.

However he really made an impact on Saturday. His direct running at players nearly made a break-through for the Latics.

The curse of the small squad haunted us here, but never-the-less, we are still in the promotion hunt.

Player Ratings

Filan 7
Eaden 5
Baines 7
de Vos 5
Breckin 7
Liddell 5
Farrelly 4
Jarrett 5
Bullard 6
Ellington 7 - M.O.M
McCulloch 6

Subs
Neil Roberts 5
Mike Flynn 7

League Table

Last game played on
Sunday 14th March 2004
PldHomeAwayOverallPtsGD
WDLFAWDLFAWDLFA
1Norwich City 3513323013674241719106543067+24
2West Bromwich Albion 3610532713954241819107513167+20
3Wigan Athletic 359632313674252215137483558+13
4Sheffield United 359443019837222217711524158+11
5West Ham United 368643017693211714157513457+17
6Millwall 359622110657232415119443456+10
7Sunderland 339612310647232415108463455+12
8Reading 369542521648192615912444754-3
9Ipswich Town 3610264029567243115813646053+4
10Coventry City 3668422177562622131310483952+9
11Preston North End 36104434204681926141012534652+7
12Crystal Palace 366752724828302914913575351+4
13Stoke City 359633019539192714912494651+3
14Cardiff City 3585533185572226131012554449+11
15Crewe Alexandra 359262518369193012815444844-4
16Nottingham Forest 3666627224591825101115454741-2
17Rotherham United 3566523204591728101114404841-8
18Walsall 36765242335101324101115374741-10
19Gillingham 348181922377162411815354641-11
20Watford 36675242343111628101016405140-11
21Burnley 367652822279193891314476040-13
22Derby County 357562527269112791115365438-18
23Bradford City 3753111827431113259622315233-21
24Wimbledon 3523121430301514425327287218-44

Other Results

Sunday 14th March 2004
Barclaycard Premiership
Manchester City(2)4Manchester United(1)147,284
Southampton(0)2Liverpool(0)0
Tottenham Hotspur(0)1Newcastle United(0)0
Wolverhampton Wanderers(0)0Aston Villa(3)429,386
Bank of Scotland Scottish Premier
Glasgow Celtic(0)1Motherwell(1)1

Saturday 13th March 2004
Barclaycard Premiership
Birmingham City(0)0Leicester City(0)129,491
Blackburn Rovers(0)0Arsenal(0)228,627
Bolton Wanderers(0)0Chelsea(0)226,717
Charlton Athletic(1)1Middlesbrough(0)026,270
Everton(0)1Portsmouth(0)040,105
Fulham(0)2Leeds United(0)017,104
Nationwide League Division One
Bradford City(0)0Wigan Athletic(0)011,744
Cardiff City(2)2Norwich City(0)116,317
Coventry City(3)4Burnley(0)012,953
Crewe Alexandra(0)1West Bromwich Albion(0)28,335
Derby County(0)1Rotherham United(0)021,741
Ipswich Town(0)1Millwall(2)323,582
Nottingham Forest(2)3Crystal Palace(0)228,306
Preston North End(0)0Gillingham(0)013,111
Reading(0)0Stoke City(0)014,132
Sunderland(0)2West Ham United(0)029,533
Walsall(1)1Wimbledon(0)06,889
Watford(0)0Sheffield United(1)213,861
Nationwide League Division Two
Brentford(0)0Stockport County(0)26,615
Grimsby Town(1)1Bournemouth(0)15,015
Hartlepool United(0)1Queens Park Rangers(0)46,519
Luton Town(1)3Blackpool(0)26,343
Oldham Athletic(0)0Colchester United(0)05,937
Peterborough United(2)6Wrexham(1)14,323
Plymouth Argyle(1)2Swindon Town(0)116,080
Port Vale(1)1Brighton & Hove Albion(1)15,646
Sheffield Wednesday(1)2Barnsley(0)125,664
Tranmere Rovers(0)2Chesterfield(1)37,370
Wycombe Wanderers(0)1Notts. County(1)15,125
Nationwide League Division Three
Carlisle United(0)2Oxford United(0)05,492
Darlington(1)3Cambridge United(2)45,056
Doncaster Rovers(0)1Cheltenham Town(0)17,510
Huddersfield Town(1)4Macclesfield Town(0)09,729
Hull City(2)2Scunthorpe United(0)119,076
Leyton Orient(1)1Kidderminster Harriers(0)13,764
Lincoln City(0)4Mansfield Town(1)16,034
Northampton Town(0)2Boston United(0)06,243
Rochdale(0)0Bury(0)04,225
Southend United(0)1Swansea City(0)14,753
Yeovil Town(2)4Bristol Rovers(0)08,726
York City(0)0Torquay United(0)03,150
Nationwide Conference
Burton Albion(0)0Northwich Victoria(1)11,416
Chester City(0)2Morecambe(0)13,512
Exeter City(0)2Aldershot Town(0)13,982
Farnborough Town(0)2Dagenham & Redbridge(2)2787
Forest Green Rovers(0)1Shrewsbury Town(0)11,484
Gravesend & Northfleet(1)1Barnet(0)11,516
Hereford United(0)1Accrington Stanley(0)03,230
Scarborough(0)4Leigh RMI(0)11,093
Stevenage Borough(0)3Tamworth(0)11,646
Telford United(0)2Halifax Town(0)11,337
Woking(0)0Margate(0)02,109

Other

Latics loanee Tony Dinning scored his second penalty for Blackpool as they lost 3-2 away to promotion chasing Luton Town.