A good, solid all round performance for me and well worth going along. Bond looked very assured and calm considering it was his debut. The back four were fine, though Doyley looked a little rusty... I wasn't expecting much when I saw Hogg and Eustace were both playing but Eustace seemed happy to let Hogg sit and he was playing slightly more advanced and he looked great to be honest, a really assured display and he looked like he was enjoying himself getting stuck in. I am still of the opinion that Forsyth will be more suited to a central role, but he took his second goal brilliantly after great work by Eustace. Tom James also looked assured for his five minute cameo, he done well. A lower league away day in the next round would be great.
i disagree with most of this. thought forsyth was rather good today, tidy on the ball, great second goal and won a lot of headers as expected. i thought sordell and deeney both had good games until being substituted. also you are saying we almost lost? get real, 2 goals flattered bradford today. no arguing with the first, but the second was just a bit sloppy. bradford were never going to get anything from the game, and we never looked like losing to be quite frank.
Don't understand the criticism of Forsyth. Didn't give the ball away and used it well, won a lot in the air for us mainly against that big lump they had and scored two goals! And I'm sorry but I think Deeney is getting better and better. He needs to add more goals to his game but he's looking strong, sharp, he's getting into good positions and he and Marv seem to link up well. Might just be me though! Wouldn't mind Stevenage or MK Dongs next round if they beat QPR.
Did I say we nearly lost or are you just making things up? I said only Watford can throw away a 4-1 lead in the 89th minute and they nearly did, but for a lineman's flag it would have been 4-3, with still a couple of minutes on the clock. I'm happy for you to disagree with everything else, as football is all about opinions. I'm just honest and say it how I saw it, without rose tinted glasses. I made the observation we were lucky we didn't play a better League Two side, such as Stevenage. We got away with it today because Bradford are poor. They are 18th in League Two, scored only 8 away and won just once.
It's important that Forsyth got those goals today despite it being against a lower league club two goals and a solid performance will do him the world of good. We sounded a bit sloppy at the back today, to be honest I'd rather us be poor defensively in the cup than in the league. Bradford gave it their all today and they deserve some kudos for that. Great to see the strikers bagging a goal each and even better to hear that Bond looked a good keeper. Bring on Stevenage or Man City at the Vic please.
Great day, magic of the FA Cup cant be beaten! Thought Bradford gave it their best but lacked any skill and just lumped it forward all day long. We played well adjusting to their level and played some really nice football in passages. Lots of good performances, very pleased for Forsyth who was excellent, not lucky as some muppet said ^^^ while Yates showed good touches and the front two played very well. Onwards to Reading where we NEED 3 points! YOU 'ORNS
Makes a change Good to hear. Hopefully he will be the long term replacement for Loach when he inevitably goes.
Bond looks like he has all the attributes to be a good keeper. He's tall and agile, but he's not ready for regular first team football IMO. He missed a couple of crosses, which against better oppostion would have lead to goals for sure. A great one to have on the books, but not ready yet to be our permenant number one, if Loach goes.
I thought the last 25 or so minutes were a disgrace. The best teams go on to score 6 or 7 and Bradford were there for the taking. We totally stopped playing, started fouling them consistently and had defenders trying to play little passing triangles with the end result of a lot of lost possession and there was very little more attacking play in their half. I can't imagine Dyche is too happy as we essentially lost that period of the game 1-0 through sloppiness. I'm sure some would argue it was just professional by playing at 30% of normal pace when the game was safe. Up until that period though I thought we'd done well as a team. I thought Yeates had a poor game and Forsyth wasn't in it until his first. We therefore had to rely on others to go wide. Bradford looked like what they are - a naff team from the lowest professional league. The space they gave us was crazy it's just a shame we fell into the trap of sticking to the middle of the pitch for most of the game.
Let's be honest, Harry the Hornet would be a better option than Iwelumo. The sooner the club admit he's a mistake and get him off the wage bill the better. Dyche is doing a very good job, but in hindsight I think this is the one signing he would rather not have made.
Iwelumo was dire today, he wouldnt have looked out of place playing for the other team Forsyth does everything he can do and more
I think using the word "disgrace" is a bit harsh, but I agree, the team were sloppy today. They got through by virtue of the opposition being very poor. Eustace and Hogg were the standout performers today along with Sordell in the first half. The rest were a little below par and need to raise their game in future matches.
I dont have anything against Forsyth, but I get frustrated that he is really the only option we have until McGinn returns. Forsyth has good qualities, but as Dyche would say, he's a development player. He is not a player that should be playing every week, as I believe will probably happen now that Kightly has gone back. That's not Forsyth's fault but more of a problem with the finances that we cannot get a player of Kightly's quality permanently. I was thinking if we had Graham and Kightly, we would be a very good side indeed. That's only two players, and that's how near I think we are to being a very good team.
THis is what im saying though, I agree with you, Forsyth isnt good enough to start every week on the left wing, imo he isnt good enough ever to hold down a left mid/left wing position I think he can do a job for us as a target man striker, either off the bench or starting alongside Sordell. Essentially I think he should take over Iwelumo's role in the squad
Iwelumo shouldn't have a role in the side at all. Burnley must have thought that there luck was in when Dyche came along and took him off their wage bill. We need to accept that we were conned and pay off his contract so that he can find a place in a lower conference side.
That's an interesting thought, you might be onto something there. He's good in the air and seems to have an eye for goal, so it might be worth trying out. I remember when we got Mooney he was a centre half and was converted almost by accident to centre forward, and the rest is history. I would also like to see Forsyth play at left full back, as I think he could do well there.
Nosworthy was pretty good also I thought although their first goal was probably his fault. A number of times in the first half he made a deft nudge into the back of a Bradford player causing them to knock the ball on out of play. They were getting quite frustrated.
I have to agree with this. Hodson has improved immeasurably and Doyley has gone backwards a little. Doyley has been a great servant to the club, but I think the days where he's in the team every week are over.
Somewhat of an odd game today really. Thought Bradford where poor despite the effort they put in and more than a few of our players had off days. Having said that it was a solid enough team performance to comfortabley beat what was put infront of us, though i do have to agree with a previous poster when he said we could have been in trouble against a team like Stevenage today. The game had no natural flow to it today. There where large parts of the game where nothing really happened, it was flat and if anything rather dull - then all of a sudden there would be a glut of chances. Thought all the goals we scored today where either well worked or well taken. The interplay for the 3rd goal and Sordells run for the 1st where both particularly good. Sordell looked a cut above at times during the first half, but faded in the second. Deeney worked hard as usual. Eustace had a good game on the whole, as did Hogg. Like someone else said Forsyth had a quiet game until he scored. Took his second goal really well. Yates had had better games for us. The back four as a whole where out of sorts today and Doyley looks like someone coming back from injury & lacking match sharpness. Bond can be fairly pleased with his full debut. He didnt have an awful lot to do. Couldnt have done alot for their first though perhaps should have done alot better for their second. Also I thought their no21 looked promising, certainly caused us one or two problems at times.
We got worse after Deeney and Sordell went off meaning we lacked any threat up front....doesn't say much for Big Chris or Garner!
Iwelumo is a pointless squad member, Garner is just a really really bad Will Hoskins. Sordell is magnificent, Deeney is a good foil for him right now. Yeates is crap.
Nice of the Bradford fans to welcome Jonathan Bond to the world of professional football with 30 or so of their ugliest fans at the front of their bit screaming 'w*nker, w*nker' at him as he walked over at the initial change of ends.
Bond was unlucky with their second imo, their forward looked offside to me, I immediately looked at the linesman as the ball crossed the line and he was running down the line about 5 yards behind play
Never mind, it's division 4 & a fight against relegation to non-league football for them now this season
Anyone else get annoyed when away fans are silent for 80 minutes then sing for the last 10 and pat themselves on the back about their "unbelievable support" The cheek in criticising our noise levels as well, we hardly make any noise at the best of times, let alone when were cruising at home against a team of semi-professional dross
Tommy Mooney signed as a centre forward. To quote from the BSaD "Looking back, it's easy to forget that he initially struggled to fit in, that the striking partnership with Jamie Moralee never got off the ground. But Glenn Roeder, like subsequent managers, was to find that he couldn't be surpressed. Dropped from one position, he'd simply pop up in another, even playing as part of an inventive back three during the Second Division Championship campaign. Sure, there were times when it seemed that we had no need of Tommy Mooney and his awkward, apparently limited talent. But there were many, many times when we had need of things that only Tommy Mooney could even think of doing." And from the Golden Heroes book "But there was also a challenge for the STRIKER. At the Les Simmons testimonial game with Arsenal, having already discussed the possibility with Tommy, Graham switched him to the left of the back 3"
Yup, a left back and a centre forward is where he played for us. Not a centre half is what I meant. That back three was immense though, I loved watching us play with that system.
