A massive step forward as Bradford City FINALLY win away

Written by Lee Pasquariello

Feels good reading that title doesn’t it? 

Yes it was against a truly terrible, bottom of the league side in Port Vale. Everyone in this league knows their struggles, despite their recent FA cup heroics, but the feeling tonight is one of complete delight. To secure our first away victory since January 4th is a massive step forward, both in the league, and for our players’ confidence. 

In all honesty, Port Vale looked terrible tonight and deserved to lose. They look a shadow of the team they were last season (that finished above City by the way). There was no fight and they were defensively all over the place. But whilst Vale were poor, City were professional. We did what any playoff chasing team should do, we attacked and went forward at every single opportunity. 

It was this dominance of this Bradford City side that pleased me the most tonight. We went near enough with a full strength team, with Ibou Touray replacing Aden Baldwin in the City defence, and the stronger team really showed. We actually registered more shots than the Peterborough game a few weeks ago with 33, which shows a level of intent that has been missing in our away games for a very long time. 

Despite the dominance, not much actually happened for the first 20 minutes apart from an effort from Jenson Metcalfe that was cleared away, and a few half chances that we still kept missing, so you got the feeling that it could potentially be more of the same. The stand out one during this early opening period was Ethan Wheatley missing yet another 1 on 1 after a good run, and this is not the first time it’s happened in games either. 

Whether it’s a confidence issue with Wheatley I don’t know, but instead of hitting it properly he just seems to simply try passing it into the net, which makes it easier for the goalkeeper to get to. That being said, his pressing tonight was great and he really got into some good positions and tried to win the ball high up the pitch, but I feel like he needs to really work on his finishing if he’s to properly gain a place in the starting lineup.

Thankfully, the early misses didn’t haunt us. Bobby Pointon finally got a goal away from home. We’ve seen him doing it plenty of times at Valley Parade this season but in recent times he seems to be a lot quieter during away games, so hopefully going forward he can gain some confidence back. 

And then there’s Tyreik Wright, and I’m going to admit it. I wasn’t his biggest fan last season and the one before that. I thought he looked the total opposite of the player we had on loan in 2022. 

Perhaps it was the transition into a wing-back role, for a while it seemed like he struggled with the system in terms of his positioning, for example where to be and when, basically struggling with the role overall. 

But this season? probably since the Stoke game in the early rounds in the League Cup he’s really turned into one of my favourite players. Tonight’s screamer proved that he’s got his edge back, and he’s truly found his position this season. Overall he’s definitely one of our most improved players this season in my opinion. 

There’s no excuses whatsoever for this City team now. Tonight has to be the standard in terms of attitude and mentality to every single away game going forward until the end of the season. 

It’s important to note that we have now built a ten point gap between us and 7th, and we are only nine points behind 2nd placed Cardiff. I still personally think 2nd is a big ask, but if we can play like that at home as well as away from home every time, then anything is possible. 

We’re hitting form at the right time. As the away fans were singing “We’re off to Tottenham, you’re off to York”, the difference between the two clubs is clear to see. 

If we can play like we did tonight, away from home, the rest of this season will be very exciting.