Bantams Bounce Back: City Triumphant Over Exeter

Written by Lee Pasquariello

Sometimes in football, you need a bit of luck. After a poor run of form, and only one win since the end of September, City desperately needed points on the board to keep progressing nicely, and they got them against Exeter. It wasn’t pretty to watch, and it was very scrappy at times, but ultimately City triumphed in this hard-fought game. This win, although we were fortunate, marks an end to this run of form and gives the team a much-needed boost of confidence.

First half – the breakthrough 

The first half was a tight affair and there was not much at all to separate the two sides. It was good to see Aden Baldwin back in the starting line-up, making his first start since the fantastic afternoon in Cardiff in September, in which he unfortunately got injured. As I said in last week’s blog, I think he is crucial to this team because of his range of passing. Overall, his presence in the back line brought some much-needed calmness and composure.

The breakthrough came from Joe Wright. After a brilliant performance last week, he continued it here with a goal, and it was a very good finish. His overall defensive performance was very solid as well, as in the first half he stopped a certain goal, further adding to his recent form.

On the left side I feel Ibou Touray had a bit of a shaky start and struggled a bit with Exeter’s early pressure, but he grew into the game and looked more comfortable towards the end and did his defensive duties well as the half progressed. Towards the end of the first half, Exeter looked more threatening. They were finding gaps in our midfield, and they created numerous chances which on another day go in, which shows how close the game was heading leading into half time.

Second half – a strong defence

The second half was a fantastic display for City’s defence. They were very resilient and limited Exeter to very few chances as protecting the 1-0 lead was prioritised. The substitutions of Graham Alexander became more defensive minded as the second half went on, which for me is a strategy that causes a bit of nervousness as sitting on a 1-0 lead invites a lot of pressure, meaning that it can easily be overturned.

We had a massive bit of luck due to a misplaced back pass from Touray, leaving Exeter’s number 9 Jayden Wareham one on one with our goalkeeper Sam Walker. He missed an absolute sitter, this further increasing the fear amongst the crowd. 

In my opinion he was probably Exeter’s best player, he was constantly trying to find a way around City’s defence, and even had the ball in the back of the net but fortunately it was disallowed for offside, however after checking the highlights after the game it was extremely close, and on another day it could well have been given.  

On occasions we did go forward with attacking intent, but were let down by poor decision making from certain players.  Specifically, Humphrys, who made the wrong choice twice by choosing to shoot instead of pass. One hit the side netting even though Will Swan was completely free in the six-yard box, and on the second one he ran round three players and didn’t get much of a connection on his shot.

I don’t mind Humphrys, on his day he is good to this team, but I think to properly fit in and start every week he needs to drastically improve his decision making.

Sam Walker was credited with City’s man of the match, and you can understand why. He was key to City maintaining their lead under some heavy Exeter pressure and he made some exceptional saves later on.

I was right behind the shots in the Kop end, and they were both pretty much the same move. A cross would go in from the left wing, City would half clear it and the player on the edge of the box would shoot, but Walker got down excellently to save both times.  

Overall, City rode their luck, battled and managed to pick up three massive points. Maybe we didn’t deserve it, and maybe on another day we would have lost, but ultimately a win is a win. Hopefully, this win can bring some real confidence back to the team as we look to build on this result

Onto next week against Plymouth 

Although not the finest performance of the season, this scrappy 1-0 win will hopefully provide a momentum and confidence boost to the team. We now look ahead to next week’s match at 21st place Plymouth Argyle, with their under-fire manager Tom Cleverley desperate for a win to save his job. This is a 12:30pm kick off with the previous fixture cancelled due to International call ups. Onwards and upwards!