Four unbeaten at home- City victorious against Rotherham

Written by Lee Pasquariello

The momentum really is building at Valley Parade now. If last week’s win against Stockport was the statement, then last night against Rotherham was confirmation that we are a team that really knows how to win at home. With our fourth home win in a row, it means we are still progressing nicely and the gap between City in the playoffs and Saturday’s opponents Reading in 7th is getting bigger. 

To be honest, there isn’t that much to talk about regarding the game as a whole. It wasn’t pretty for the majority of it, and it felt like a “job done” more than anything, but there were a few reasons as to why the points stayed with City. 

If Saturday taught us anything, it’s that this City side looks totally different without their main captain. Max Power returned to Bradford City’s midfield after a 2 game suspension, bringing back the leadership we lacked. 

His role was also massive in the winner. Whilst the Rotherham defence were preparing for the ball to go into the box, Power had already mapped the path to goal. His split second decision to pass the free kick quickly to Tyreik Wright showed an outstanding bit of intelligence, as it caught out every single Rotherham defender. Overall this is the type of leadership and decision making that separates a promotion chasing side to one that is lower in the table. 

I have to give massive credit to Wright this season. I’ve felt since early into the season he’s really turning into the player we hoped he would be, similar to his 2022 loan spell. His perfect cross for Matt Pennington’s bullet header in the 10th minute was exactly the type of quality we’ve needed recently. 

I’m pleased for Pennington, as like I’ve said before in previous posts I think he’s been solid this season when he’s played. 

The only thing that was a real shame last night was the loss of Kayden Jackson due to injury, but it allowed a chance for Manchester United loanee Ethan Wheatley. Hopefully Jackson won’t be out for too long, as his pace is key to how we currently play. I thought Wheatley was generally okay though, he held the ball up quite well and even had a goal disallowed for offside.

This moment was a bit frustrating, as I feel Bobby Pointon should have really taken the shot himself on the edge of the box instead of passing to Wheatley when it was clear he was in an offside position. 

What was quite bizarre is that he was subbed off in the second half for Stephen Humphrys. I think this is because Graham Alexander is managing his minutes appropriately, as when he came to City he had only just recovered from injury. It didn’t really affect us too much though because Rotherham were offering nothing in return. 

Despite holding on to what we had, late in the second half we could have doubled our lead. Jenson Metcalfe, who continues to be outstanding every time he plays for Bradford City, saw a brilliantly taken free kick come off the crossbar. On another day, it might have gone in. 

Overall this City performance just showed one moment of quality and 90 minutes of discipline, and City did what all top teams should do, take the lead and keep the opposition out. 

Rotherham on the other hand offered absolutely nothing apart from the last few minutes when the goalkeeper went forward for a corner, and his header went wide. It’s easy to see why they are where they are in the table. Playing like they did last night with very little attacking threat, you get the feeling that it’s going to get a lot trickier for them in terms of their survival. 

As I mentioned last week, the schedule generally is in our favour at this stage until we play Bolton in the last home game of the season. We are also winning in different ways, sometimes with quality and attacking domination, sometimes with grit, which are a sign that the side are well on track to achieve their aims. 

I just hope we can replicate this form away though. For far too long our away form has been horrendously bad, and that whenever we are away from Valley Parade we look a completely different team. After Saturday’s defeat at Wimbledon I didn’t even want to talk about it, as I’d be repeating myself! 

In all seriousness though, if we can start a good winning run which also includes away games, then the rest of this season could be very exciting. 

The belief is there amongst the fans, the results are there (at home!), so City could be on the move.