Another loss on the road- How long can we go on like this?

Written by Lee Pasquariello

After yet another very poor away loss today for Bradford City, this time against 18th placed Burton Albion, I find myself asking this question. How long can this Bradford City side actually go on like this away from home?

After my last post after the Port Vale game I and a lot of other fans thought we would get a good run going together at this important stage of the season, but it’s the same old story, one step forward and two steps back. 

What makes today so infuriating for me is we actually started pretty well in the first 20 minutes or so. In that opening period we had a good few opportunities through Will Swan, who was brought back into the lineup in place of Ethan Wheatley, as well as Bobby Pointon missing a very easy chance, and on another day we find ourselves a couple of goals up. Tyreik Wright looked sharp once again, looking like a player full of confidence at the minute.

But then came a massive turning point. Antoni Sarcevic going off injured, which completely ruined the afternoon. 

Most of us have been wary of this happening for a while. In recent matches, Sarcevic has played a huge amount of minutes, and with the type of player he is as well as being 34 it was pretty much a disaster waiting to happen. It feels like Graham Alexander has run him into the ground at the worst possible time, and I really hope his injury isn’t too serious because if it is it has the potential to have a massive say on this season. 

Bringing on Stephen Humphrys made sense, as you could clearly see what Graham Alexander was trying to do, which is play him on his favourite left hand side. But in reality he didn’t really offer much apart from the free kick that went close late on in the second half. We lost the battle in midfield the second Sarcevic went off, and we went from a confident playoff chasing team looking the most threatening, to a team that is actually in Burton’s low position. 

Sam Walker’s goalkeeping is a concern for me right now as well. The first goal in particular was the type of save you expect a goalkeeper to make, but for some reason he dived and just pushed it into the net. I like Walker and I think he’s served the club well during his time at City, but some of the goals we’ve conceded mainly since January have been shocking. 

When your goalkeeper looks shaky, the defence panics as a result. For much of the game we looked genuinely nervous every time a cross went in or when they went forward. You simply can’t expect to push for the playoffs with a defence that cracks under the slightest bit of pressure. 

That being said though, Tyreik Wright, scoring once again was a positive but ultimately it was too little too late, and it was another poor performance from City. 

That leads me back to my question. How long can we go on like this? yes we are still fourth in the table in our first season back in League One which means this season has definitely been successful, but on the other hand five wins away from home all season in the league is hard to accept. 

We now have two weeks off until we play Northampton at home on Good Friday, as the game next week against Plymouth was cancelled due to international call ups, and to be honest, the break is needed. Graham Alexander needs to use the time this week and the one after to properly find a plan for our away games going forward, and one that doesn’t fall apart when key players are missing. If he doesn’t, then with seven games to go, we are really at risk of dropping out of the playoffs entirely. This can’t go on much longer.