Bradford City 1-0 Mansfield Town

Written by Lee Pasquariello

Well, we needed that. 

After a very poor result midweek against newly promoted Cambridge United, Bradford City needed to bounce back today with a win and thankfully we did. It wasn’t the prettiest game of football at all and was a tough watch at times, but 3 points are 3 points. It brings great relief after the frustrating week we’ve had, and it puts us back on track. 

The decisive moment in this match came from a brilliant finish from Antoni Sarcevic. His volley was wonderfully taken and it gave us exactly what we needed.

It could’ve got a lot more comfortable for us though and on another day we score more than just the one goal. Ex-City keeper Harry Lewis had a great first half to be fair to him. He made some very good saves and single handedly stopped the first half ending with City going 3 or 4 goals up. It was frustrating to watch him pull off those saves against us, but it kept the game tenser than what it should’ve been. 

Jake Beesley is still searching for his first goal in a City shirt, and you can see how much he needs one purely for his confidence. He assisted well to set up Sarcevic for the winner, but I felt he struggled a bit in the second half. 

To be fair to him though, he was completely isolated. He carried on doing his job and won a few flick ons, but the problem is there was no one there to pick them up. While Nick Powell and Kayden Jackson put in a solid enough shift, they aren’t really the answer to this problem. Beesley desperately needs a natural strike partner to play alongside him. 

Looking back at the transfer window, I can’t help but think we needed either one more striker, or Alexander needs to fully reintegrate Stephen Humphrys back into the team after his loan move to Wigan failed. Right now, our lack of a true front two is not playing towards Beesley’s strengths, and therefore stalling our attacks in the second half. 

Also, I have to give a special mention to George Pratt, who made his full debut today in the City defence. He put an excellent shift in, handled their pressure well and looks to be a very solid signing for us. As he is a local Bradford lad, seeing him put on the shirt and put in a performance like that made the win even better.

Finally, we take the points, take the clean sheet and move on quickly. We have three days from tonight to prepare for Leyton Orient in the League Cup, a tie that was met with disappointment when it was drawn. Hopefully it’s another win, hopefully a chance of a good draw in the fourth round and hopefully we can gather some momentum again.