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
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 | Pld | Home | Away | Overall | Pts | GD | |||||||||||||||||
W | D | L | F | A | W | D | L | F | A | W | D | L | F | A | |||||||||
1 | Norwich City | 35 | 13 | 3 | 2 | 30 | 13 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 24 | 17 | 19 | 10 | 6 | 54 | 30 | 67 | +24 | ||||
2 | West Bromwich Albion | 36 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 27 | 13 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 24 | 18 | 19 | 10 | 7 | 51 | 31 | 67 | +20 | ||||
3 | Wigan Athletic | 35 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 23 | 13 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 25 | 22 | 15 | 13 | 7 | 48 | 35 | 58 | +13 | ||||
4 | Sheffield United | 35 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 30 | 19 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 22 | 22 | 17 | 7 | 11 | 52 | 41 | 58 | +11 | ||||
5 | West Ham United | 36 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 30 | 17 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 21 | 17 | 14 | 15 | 7 | 51 | 34 | 57 | +17 | ||||
6 | Millwall | 35 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 21 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 23 | 24 | 15 | 11 | 9 | 44 | 34 | 56 | +10 | ||||
7 | Sunderland | 33 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 23 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 23 | 24 | 15 | 10 | 8 | 46 | 34 | 55 | +12 | ||||
8 | Reading | 36 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 25 | 21 | 6 | 4 | 8 | 19 | 26 | 15 | 9 | 12 | 44 | 47 | 54 | -3 | ||||
9 | Ipswich Town | 36 | 10 | 2 | 6 | 40 | 29 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 24 | 31 | 15 | 8 | 13 | 64 | 60 | 53 | +4 | ||||
10 | Coventry City | 36 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 22 | 17 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 26 | 22 | 13 | 13 | 10 | 48 | 39 | 52 | +9 | ||||
11 | Preston North End | 36 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 34 | 20 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 19 | 26 | 14 | 10 | 12 | 53 | 46 | 52 | +7 | ||||
12 | Crystal Palace | 36 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 27 | 24 | 8 | 2 | 8 | 30 | 29 | 14 | 9 | 13 | 57 | 53 | 51 | +4 | ||||
13 | Stoke City | 35 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 30 | 19 | 5 | 3 | 9 | 19 | 27 | 14 | 9 | 12 | 49 | 46 | 51 | +3 | ||||
14 | Cardiff City | 35 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 33 | 18 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 22 | 26 | 13 | 10 | 12 | 55 | 44 | 49 | +11 | ||||
15 | Crewe Alexandra | 35 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 25 | 18 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 19 | 30 | 12 | 8 | 15 | 44 | 48 | 44 | -4 | ||||
16 | Nottingham Forest | 36 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 27 | 22 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 18 | 25 | 10 | 11 | 15 | 45 | 47 | 41 | -2 | ||||
17 | Rotherham United | 35 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 23 | 20 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 17 | 28 | 10 | 11 | 14 | 40 | 48 | 41 | -8 | ||||
18 | Walsall | 36 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 24 | 23 | 3 | 5 | 10 | 13 | 24 | 10 | 11 | 15 | 37 | 47 | 41 | -10 | ||||
19 | Gillingham | 34 | 8 | 1 | 8 | 19 | 22 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 16 | 24 | 11 | 8 | 15 | 35 | 46 | 41 | -11 | ||||
20 | Watford | 36 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 24 | 23 | 4 | 3 | 11 | 16 | 28 | 10 | 10 | 16 | 40 | 51 | 40 | -11 | ||||
21 | Burnley | 36 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 28 | 22 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 19 | 38 | 9 | 13 | 14 | 47 | 60 | 40 | -13 | ||||
22 | Derby County | 35 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 25 | 27 | 2 | 6 | 9 | 11 | 27 | 9 | 11 | 15 | 36 | 54 | 38 | -18 | ||||
23 | Bradford City | 37 | 5 | 3 | 11 | 18 | 27 | 4 | 3 | 11 | 13 | 25 | 9 | 6 | 22 | 31 | 52 | 33 | -21 | ||||
24 | Wimbledon | 35 | 2 | 3 | 12 | 14 | 30 | 3 | 0 | 15 | 14 | 42 | 5 | 3 | 27 | 28 | 72 | 18 | -44 |