Well Tuesday night was Bradford's first and last game in this years Carabao Cup competition as they fell to a 4-0 defeat by Preston. Bowyer made 8 changes from Saturday's league starting 11 and brought in goalkeeper Hornby who made his debut for the club. Did these changes work? They definitely didn't, the talk around us was the typical 'oh he is focusing on the league and resting players' well to me if your players need resting after 2 games it is ridiculous, a little bit of a cup run can really help a team out. Remember the last time we had a good cup run, we ended up at Wembley twice and promoted which just goes to show managed right the players can do anything.
But back to yesterday's game, Preston's first goal came from a defensive mistake, they broke through the midfield far too easily then the defence just weren't tight enough, it was a cross that Anthony O'Connor totally missed which led to the duty of clearance falling on French who got nowhere near and Preston volleyed it home. Preston were 2-0 in the first 20 minutes, a pass that split open the whole City team followed once again by O'Connor been caught out and a simple slide home for Preston.
2-0 down the only atmosphere coming from the Preston fans and City fans becoming more and more frustrated with a formation that just doesn't work for us, we didn't even get a shot on target until the final minute of the first half, Anderson being the one unable to beat the keeper.
City came out ready to attack in the 2nd half and looked a much improved side in the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half but it was to be short lived. Connor Wood had a curling effort that hit the cross bar which was probably the best chance of the game. The he came attacking one more, crossing the ball to Devine who headed the ball over the goal.
The next goal of the game though of course came from another mistake by of course Anthony O'Connor. A pass straight across the edge of the box straight gifted Preston their 3rd. The 4th came from a great looping shot, over a challenge by Anthony O'Connor that left Hornby stranded and quite frankly looking foolish. To be quite honest Anthony O'Connor really needs to book up his ideas and Bowyer should be looking at proving to him his place is not guaranteed and he will miss out, surely he can't be starting Saturday? He was the main catalyst in those goals. As for Hornby on his debut, when signing he said he wanted to be first choice, I think he still has a long way to go for that, too many rash decisions and standing out of position can end up being costly.
So the takeaways from yesterdays game are...
- Doyle is not a lone striker
- Defensively we still need a lot of work
- Anthony O'Connor looks good alongside Richards-Everton but looked like last season in a new pairing
- Our formation just isn't working for us.
- We don't like making substitutes when we really need someone to change the game
-We once again aren't taking our chance which is going to leave more fans frustrated just like last season.
So there we have it up next we are at home to Oldham on Saturday. Are we finally going to win? Is the formation going to change?
See you soon
Lucy
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