London Bantam
1st September 2007, 09:30 PM
Seems like I'm first in the race to get home from the dive that is the Underhilll Stadium so here goes...
The weather was good and the turnout from the City fans was magnificent (687), it's just a shame that we didn't have the performance to match.
The game started incredibly slowly, nothing like the Wrexham game where City were firing out of the blocks from the off. Part of me wondered why a striker with no confidence was starting in place of a certain young lad, brimming with it after his brilliant debut; anyway, back to the match.
There was nothing of particular note in the first half, City lofted balls up to the, quite frankly, crap Barry Conlon, who could do nothing but mis-time his jumps, he didn't win a header all through the game. We weren't playing football and almost paid for it when Ricketts was forced into a magnificent save near the end of the first period. We looked ragged and unorganised, our fullbacks yet again were the problem. Heckingbottom was extremely poor on the ground, as was Harban. Harban wasted a few good opportunities from set plays on the wing, drifting the ball into Lee Harrisons arms every time.
Conlon broke through after he was played onside by their right-back, 1on1 with their 'keeper, he hit it straight at him, compounding the fact that he is crap. That was City's only real cut-throat chance of the first half, however, we still controlled the majority of the play, Barnet's goal came out of nothing and against the run of play, there wasn't much Eddie Johnson could do about the messy ball put into the box. The away fans weren't happy, disappointment was well heard by the players as the went off for half time.
HT Barnet 1 - 0 Bradford.
City came out with more purpose in the second half, playing more on the footballing side instead of trying to get it up to Conlon every time we got the ball. It paid off as we attacked swiftly along the flanks like we should've been doing throughout the game. The ball was played to Eddie Johnson on the left hand side of the Barnet penalty area and it was slotted away from 18 yard out with the slickest of finishes from Johnson, City got the goal they deserved from this half anyway. City had their tails up and had the chance to wrap up the game when Omar Daley broke free and almost slotted the ball into the back of the net, half of us were already celebrating but the ball had gone inches wide. Daley did the same again but lashed the ball against the post. We carried on attacking and dealt with the Barnet threat quite well from midfield, but when it came up to the defence, we looked shakey and ragged. the fullbacks didnt know what to do, they were getting turned over every time by their wingers and crosses were coming in at nearly every opportunity. We got off lucky when they struck the bar but we didnt act on it. The last 10 minutes we just lofted the ball again to conlon. Medley came on far too late for me and the game looked like a frustrating 1-1 draw.
But there was a final bit of misery for us, a shite free-kick decision cost us. The player just fell over when he was hardly touched and Puncheon took a magnificent free kick into the top right corner, Ricketts had no chance. Absolutely gutted.
We shouldve wrapped this game up when we had the chance but again paid for our wastefulness in front of goal. We didnt deserve to win on the overall performance though, terrible, there's a lot of work to be done.
FT Barnet 2 - 1 Bradford
Ratings
1 Donovan Ricketts - 7 - Quite solid, good save 1st half. Picked up a knock.
3 Paul Heckingbottom - 5 - Poor, run ragged, didnt look confident
4 Paul Evans - 6 - Injured 14th minute
5 David Wetherall - 7 - Solid performance, even though he kept getting elbowed
6 Mark Bower - 7 - Again, solid at the back, shame he didnt have protection
7 Omar Daley - 8 - Constant thorn in barnet's side, played well
8 Eddie Johnson - 8 - Typical battling performance, very good goal
9 Barry Conlon - 6 - Ineffective, crap
17 Thomas Harban - 5 - Poor, wasteful on the ball and poor positional sense.
22 Kyle Nix - 7 - Tried hard and played with passion
24 Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu - 6 - Poor game, didn't have any service
15 Joe Colbeck - 7 - Good performance from Colbeck, ran well
20 Scott Phelan - 7 - See Colbeck
25 Luke Medley - 7 - Only got 10 minutes but did enough to show he's no Danny Forrest, strong and powerful.
The weather was good and the turnout from the City fans was magnificent (687), it's just a shame that we didn't have the performance to match.
The game started incredibly slowly, nothing like the Wrexham game where City were firing out of the blocks from the off. Part of me wondered why a striker with no confidence was starting in place of a certain young lad, brimming with it after his brilliant debut; anyway, back to the match.
There was nothing of particular note in the first half, City lofted balls up to the, quite frankly, crap Barry Conlon, who could do nothing but mis-time his jumps, he didn't win a header all through the game. We weren't playing football and almost paid for it when Ricketts was forced into a magnificent save near the end of the first period. We looked ragged and unorganised, our fullbacks yet again were the problem. Heckingbottom was extremely poor on the ground, as was Harban. Harban wasted a few good opportunities from set plays on the wing, drifting the ball into Lee Harrisons arms every time.
Conlon broke through after he was played onside by their right-back, 1on1 with their 'keeper, he hit it straight at him, compounding the fact that he is crap. That was City's only real cut-throat chance of the first half, however, we still controlled the majority of the play, Barnet's goal came out of nothing and against the run of play, there wasn't much Eddie Johnson could do about the messy ball put into the box. The away fans weren't happy, disappointment was well heard by the players as the went off for half time.
HT Barnet 1 - 0 Bradford.
City came out with more purpose in the second half, playing more on the footballing side instead of trying to get it up to Conlon every time we got the ball. It paid off as we attacked swiftly along the flanks like we should've been doing throughout the game. The ball was played to Eddie Johnson on the left hand side of the Barnet penalty area and it was slotted away from 18 yard out with the slickest of finishes from Johnson, City got the goal they deserved from this half anyway. City had their tails up and had the chance to wrap up the game when Omar Daley broke free and almost slotted the ball into the back of the net, half of us were already celebrating but the ball had gone inches wide. Daley did the same again but lashed the ball against the post. We carried on attacking and dealt with the Barnet threat quite well from midfield, but when it came up to the defence, we looked shakey and ragged. the fullbacks didnt know what to do, they were getting turned over every time by their wingers and crosses were coming in at nearly every opportunity. We got off lucky when they struck the bar but we didnt act on it. The last 10 minutes we just lofted the ball again to conlon. Medley came on far too late for me and the game looked like a frustrating 1-1 draw.
But there was a final bit of misery for us, a shite free-kick decision cost us. The player just fell over when he was hardly touched and Puncheon took a magnificent free kick into the top right corner, Ricketts had no chance. Absolutely gutted.
We shouldve wrapped this game up when we had the chance but again paid for our wastefulness in front of goal. We didnt deserve to win on the overall performance though, terrible, there's a lot of work to be done.
FT Barnet 2 - 1 Bradford
Ratings
1 Donovan Ricketts - 7 - Quite solid, good save 1st half. Picked up a knock.
3 Paul Heckingbottom - 5 - Poor, run ragged, didnt look confident
4 Paul Evans - 6 - Injured 14th minute
5 David Wetherall - 7 - Solid performance, even though he kept getting elbowed
6 Mark Bower - 7 - Again, solid at the back, shame he didnt have protection
7 Omar Daley - 8 - Constant thorn in barnet's side, played well
8 Eddie Johnson - 8 - Typical battling performance, very good goal
9 Barry Conlon - 6 - Ineffective, crap
17 Thomas Harban - 5 - Poor, wasteful on the ball and poor positional sense.
22 Kyle Nix - 7 - Tried hard and played with passion
24 Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu - 6 - Poor game, didn't have any service
15 Joe Colbeck - 7 - Good performance from Colbeck, ran well
20 Scott Phelan - 7 - See Colbeck
25 Luke Medley - 7 - Only got 10 minutes but did enough to show he's no Danny Forrest, strong and powerful.