Bradford 1 Brewers 1

The last time we visited Bradford was in 1995 in the first round of the FA Cup. We were a little non-league club playing in the Doc Martens Southern Premier League and Bradford City were the "giants" of League 2 and destined to become a Premiership team in 3 seasons time. It was a thrilling encounter with 6 goals (two from Albion legend Darren Stride, still club captain) in the first part of the game and Burton holding on at 3-3 until the final few minutes. Bradford's Ian Ormandroyd then mis-kicked a ball against the floor only to see it loop over the Burton keeper and into the goal. Jammy sods. Burton's Dougie Keast then hit the bar with the shot from outside the box. Jammy buggers. And we lost 4-3.


Our return on Saturday was with us as league new boys (How long do we keep that tag for I wonder?) and at very different looking surroundings. Half of Bradford's ground would not look out of place in the Premiership - towering multi-tiered stands down one side and across the goal. The rest looks like Accrington Stanley - the players emerging from a little shed to one side of the pitch. They must have forgotten to build new changing rooms into the massive superstructure when they built it.


I'm backseat driver today and annoy the hell out of Evans and Colston by informing them that, according to "Twatnav", they are going the wrong way and adding literally minutes to our journey. We are losing valuable drinking time here after all. Col finds a parking space near the ground but is very politely asked to move by a "local" who looks bigger than the three of us, as it is "his" parking space. We visit Haigey's Bar, which has (like most pubs in the area) Bradford fans spilling out onto the street. They are a friendly bunch though (probably as they don't see us, or our team as any sort of threat) and two pints of "Snake Oil" later we are ready for the short walk to the ground.


Only 400 or so Brewers have made the relatively short trip, which is disappointing, especially in a crowd of almost 12,000. "Is that all you take away?" (Clearly, yes.), "You must have come on a skateboard" (Clever), "There's only two of you singing" (In-tune anyway), "You're just a small town near Derby" (Ouch!) are a selection of the chants we endure or enjoy.


The only surprise in the line-up is the inclusion of Maghoma in place of Jimmy Phillips. We hope he is just having a rest and not injured.


First half and the Brewers look short on sharpness and pace and Bradford's midfield and forwards are finding gaps and getting at us but with little result. "it's a good job they're shit" I comment on more than one occasion, as they rarely test Kyrsiek in goal. Our few and far-between opportunities result in a couple of scuffed shots at goal and we appear to be struggling to get into our usual passing and posession game.


A nothing attack from Bradford leads to their goal as John ("Ohh Arr John McGrath") McGrath and Guy ("The Beast") Branston look at the ball in front of them and completely fail to do anything (like KICK IT! for example) leaving a simple tap-in for Gareth Evans (who is rubbish, let's be honest here) on 24 minutes. Rubbish he may be, but we are slightly more rubbish and go in at half-time 1 down and not looking likely to make an impact.


Not to worry. We never really expected anything out of this game. Bradford are on a winning streak and have the team and the infrastructure to expect to be in the promotion places come the end of the season. Last week was the equivalent of Man City vs Burnley. This is more like Liverpool vs Stoke City in Premiership terms. Evans buys me a Yorkie so things can't be that bad.


Second half sees Pesch trying out his "super subs" tactic once again, with the introduction of Robin Shroot for "Ronnie" Corbett, and last weeks goal hero Richard Walker for Greg Pearson and Marc Goodfellow for Jacques Maghoma. Walker makes an instant impact, getting to the ball first, holding it up back to goal to allow Harrad and McGrath more space coming forward and causing panic in the Bradford penalty area. It is he that creates the opening, cutting back for the superbly placed Paul Boertian on the left of the area to hit a curling shot into the far top corner - his fourth ever goal in 200 league appearances.



After that, it is just a matter of hanging-on for the point, although we still look to push forward and had the chance of nicking all three points when Harrad shot over the bar from Walker's cross and later when Shroot almost provided a gilt-edged chance in the closing minutes. A great point nevertheless - that's 2 in 2 games which we didn't expect. Back home to the Rubberdome next week to face high-flying Dagenham & Redbridge. Shirely it's unfair to have to play two teams at the same time? We shall see.