A difficult afternoon as Bradford City lose against Luton 

City’s bad run on the road continues. After a very poor performance against 2nd placed Lincoln City in their last away fixture where they just couldn’t get going, the fans were hoping we would put in a much better display in today’s early kick-off. But it didn’t go well, a 2-1 defeat to 7th placed Luton Town.  

Although losing against Luton away from home isn’t necessarily the worst thing ever, given they were a Premier League side only 2 years ago, there is now a bit of a concern. The gap between us and them now stands at 4 points.

There was some interest for me when the team news came out. Tyreik Wright came back into the starting 11 after his stunning volley against Doncaster last week. There was also a first start for new signing Paul Mullin, who impressed me last week with his aggression and pressing like i wrote in the previous match report.

On paper, it looked like a squad that could potentially ask questions of Luton. Plenty of pace and players who can score all over the pitch, even the bench was strong and very attach minded, with Joe Wright the only recognised defender. But the reality of the day was different.

The first half – stuck in the mud  

City actually started okay. We managed to get a few half chances and showed glimpses of promise in the first 10 minutes or so, for example with Josh Neufville making some good runs down the right, and Paul Mullin had a few chances that went wide or resulted in him being found offside. Not being able to finish many chances is a similar story for our away games recently.

The conditions and the shocking state of the pitch didn’t help though. After so much rain in more or less every part of the country this week, it was absolutely soaking and the ball constantly got stuck. It mostly happened in the wider areas of the pitch and in City’s half in particular, meaning we couldn’t get many crosses in and it was easier for Luton to intercept our players in these positions. It actually reminded me of the Valley Parade surface a few years ago, where it was basically all mud.  

As the half progressed, Luton adapted a lot better to the conditions than we did. They looked much more threatening, winning a lot of corners. I noticed they were specifically targeting City defender Curtis Tilt a lot, as it was clear to see he was struggling with the pace of Luton’s wingers, most notably Shayden Morris, who was one of the best players on the pitch in the first half for me.

The first Luton goal came in the 39th minute, and it was completely avoidable. After a Luton move that included some nice passing, the ball fell to Jake Richards, who was playing in the number 10 role for them. He was left completely unmarked at the edge of the box to hit it low into the bottom right corner. 

At this level, allowing a player so much time and space will never work, and it meant City had to go into the second half with a lot of work to do.

The Second Half – Missed chances and more frustration 

Just like the first half, City actually started the 2nd half pretty well. We had a really good chance within the opening minute that we should have done better with. Jenson Metcalfe sent in a brilliant cross on the left side in towards Kayden Jackson, who totally miss-kicked the ball and got no connection on it at all.

 This chance was about as good as it got for City in the early stages of the 2nd half, and in the 55th minute it was Morris who got the second goal for Luton, and to be honest it came out of nowhere and was completely unexpected. Jenson Metcalfe lost the ball rather cheaply, whether it got stuck because of the state of the Luton pitch or the Luton players pressing him i don’t know, but it fell to their captain Jordan Clarke, who sent in a first time ball to Morris who easily went round Tilt because of his pace, and then it was an easy finish into the bottom corner.  

It was a really poor goal to concede in City’s perspective, and I think City goalkeeper Sam Walker could have done a bit better as well, as I think he seemed a bit too far to the left side of the goal.  

In the hope of changing the game, Graham Alexander made three changes in the 61st minute, bringing on Stephen Humphrys, Antoni Sarcevic and a City debut for Ethan Wheatley, who signed on deadline day from Manchester United on loan. 

Wheatley had a glorious chance within a minute of him coming on. Sarcevic sent a fantastic ball to him to put him clean through on goal but he didnt get much of a connection at all and it looked like he simply passed it to the Luton keeper. For me, if this chance goes in then it’s a totally different game.

Soon after, Luton made a notable change themselves. In the 77th minute, ex-City player Devante Cole came off for another ex-City player in Nahki Wells.

Wells is no stranger to everybody concerned with Bradford City. He was a part of the most amazing chapter of our history, the 2012/13 season, and it was brilliant to see him in a City shirt during that period. However the manner in which he left did not go down well at all with the fans, joining bitter rivals Huddersfield Town.  

What is interesting is he has never played against City until today in a competitive fixture since leaving over a decade ago. He actually didn’t do much today, but the boos and jeers he got from the City fans in the away end that I heard on the TV, show that they haven’t forgotten about him joining Town.  

City  did actually manage to pull a goal back in the 6th minute of added time through Stephen Humphrys. It was similar to the Wheatley move, but instead of hitting it straight at the keeper, Humphrys put it into the bottom left corner. Overall though, it was too little too late and was another poor away performance.  

Opinions and final thoughts  

For me, this was a very difficult afternoon on the road for City. It’s a similar story to the Lincoln game almost 2 weeks ago. When we play away from home we seem to really struggle to find a rhythm or create many chances. For me this is something we really need to work on if we are going to compete with other teams in this league. 

City’s midfield in particular stood out to me today as there were gaps all over, meaning Luton were able to easily get round them. Clarke and Kasey Palmer can be the examples of this, as every time those two had the ball they looked to go forward. Whether it’s a change of formation or change of tactics, something has to change away from home, because it is costing us a lot of points, which is not good as we move further into the season.  

Also, our away form in general needs to improve quickly if we actually want to be up there this season. The gap between City in 5th place and Luton in 7th place is now standing at four points, with City on 49 and Luton on 45 points respectively.  

The team now have a full week off to put things right. We are back to Saturday 3pm kick offs now after 4 in a row of early ones, and we return to Valley Parade next week as we host 10th placed Peterborough United, who in the last few minutes at the time of writing this blog, have won 6-1 at home to 22^nd placed Wigan. Hopefully though, City can get the three points they need if they want to keep progressing.