Excellent draw for Morecambe at Bradford.
A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since Derek Adams’ Shrimps comprehensively beat Mark Hughes’ Bantams by three goals to nil in north Lancashire last August. Bradford’s two latest Managers out of the countless number of men who have had this thankless task over the last two decades are no longer in post. `Sparky’ was sacked; Derek has decided to go back home and cheer everybody up for Hogmanay by telling them that elite Scottish football is `rubbish’; quote/unquote. City have improved, however, since the peripatetic Graham Alexander took over in early November. They have won their last four league games in a row, most recently 1-3 at nearby Doncaster, where the visiting crowd caused trouble by throwing flares in the stadium among other misdemeanours so serious that the club expects to be sanctioned by the EFL because of them. (The cover photograph shows a warning published on the club’s `X’ page today.)
Morecambe’s fortunes since King Derek abdicated, however, have been very variable – and mostly bad. They have won only one of their last six league games and lost four of them, most recently at home to MK Plastics last Saturday 1-3 in a match in which Manager Ged Brannan said his players `never done what they were told. We never pressed; we stayed off men; we never went with runners.’ They would have to improve considerably today if they were to get anything out of this fixture – but reasons for hope were provided by their excellent win 0-5 at Doncaster last time out on the road and two wins on the spin in the FA Cup at supposedly superior clubs.
Historically, Morecambe and Bradford have met before on twenty occasions. City have won ten of these; Morecambe six. Today, the Bantams started the game in tenth position in League Two whereas the Shrimps were two places and two points behind them, albeit with a game in hand.
Manager Ged expressed his thoughts for this Boxing Day fixture thus:
“It’s a cracker over Christmas, there will be a massive crowd. Obviously they will be right up for it, but we will as well. We’re going to try and put things right. We’re a team that can pass it around the pitch and create chances. Hopefully – like the Doncaster game – we will go there and create as many chances as that, and we’ll be fine.”
For Morecambe, it was As You Were as far as last Saturday’s line-up against MK Plastics was concerned. Michael Mellon was only fit enough to be named on the bench after a spell of illness during Christmas week. For the hosts, Emmanuel Osadebe replaced the injured Jamie Walker.
It was grey but dry in West Yorkshire as Morecambe kicked-off on a very heavy Valley Parade pitch once the dinky little remote-controlled vehicle which had delivered the match ball scuttled out of the way. The Shrimps started brightly and won a free-kick on their right hand side deep into the Bantams’ half after just two minutes. Adam Mayor took it; the ball was cleared but it hit Emmanuel Osadebe on his heel as he faced away from goal. This unintended touch set-up James Connolly – up from the back into nosebleed territory – and he fairly walloped the ball past Harry Lewis in the home goal to put the visitors one- up with less than three minutes on the clock. Almost immediately though, City had their first good chance of the game: Alex Gillead was too strong for the Morecambe rearguard and flicked the ball to Tyler Smith, who forced a really excellent stop from namesake Adam in the away goal at the cost of a corner which came to nothing. With nine minutes played, Tyler Smith missed again with a weak header from the City right which went well wide of the target’s far post. Morecambe were playing effectively on the break as the visiting defence looked solid and Yann Songo’o was excelling against his former employers. It was no surprise when they increased their lead with seventeen minutes played. Jordan Slew was set-up for a run down the Morecambe left flank; did brilliantly to take-on and beat two Bantams’ defenders and then picked out an onrushing JJ McKiernan, who swept the ball onto the top right hand corner of the net to Lewis’ right – he had no chance once more. Bradford reacted immediately once more and Adam Smith again did well to save after Andy Cook found Osadebe in a crowded away penalty area for an attempt on goal. But the Shrimps continued to play the ball around intelligently and confidently as they sought constantly to hit City on the break. Osadebe almost booted the ball out of the ground with a wild effort in the twenty-fourth minute. Ten minutes later – as the visitors were once again probing well on the Bantams’ right, defender Ciarán Kelly would have been relieved to see his sliced clearance go just wide on his own goal for a Morecambe corner when it might so easily have ended-up in his own net. Just before the break, the imperious Songo’o forced Lewis into another save at the near post from Eli King’s corner from the right.
So the visitors went back to the Changing Rooms – as half-hearted jeers rang in the ears of the home players – with a well-deserved lead at half time. They had played the better football; looked sharper than their hosts and were usually quickest to the loose ball.
Would `Bratfud’ throw-off their Xmas torpor in the second half? Or would Morecambe consolidate their lead – and even possibly add to it?
Osadebe was taken-off by Graham Alexander at half time and replaced by Clarke Oduor in an attempt to revitalise the stalled home attack. The only change I could see in the Shrimps’ side was Songo’o’s shirt: the mud-spattered thing he has sported for most of the first half was replaced with a pristine-looking clean one. After three minutes of the re-start, the home defence looked at sixes and seven again as they managed to block another good Shrimps move down their left flank. In the fiftieth minute, though, David Tutonda gave the ball away; Gillead took advantage and played-in full-back Brad Halliday only for the ball to eventually fly over the Morecambe bar for a goal-kick. Tyler Smith’s penultimate contribution to the match was a wild shot way off target in the fifty-second minute – he was soon replaced by our old chum Vadaine Oliver. King tried his luck from distance after 63 minutes following another good Shrimps’ counter-attack but his shot went well over the bar. Then a key moment of the match was reached with fifty-five minutes on the clock. There was a big shout for a penalty when large, lumbering centre-forward Andy Cook (who was memorably described by one of our number as `not having the body of an athlete’ last time we encountered him) went down in the away penalty area and appealed for a spot-kick. We all held our breath as Referee Darren Drysdale took action: would he give it? The answer was – no he wouldn’t. Instead, he booked Cook for diving. Well done Ref – the big lump basically just fell over. I thought that King was clearly fouled in the fifty-ninth minute but Tyler Smith took full advantage, slipped the ball forward to Halliday who, in turn, played it to Cook who then picked-out substitute Oduor who reduced the arrears with a shot which gave the visiting stopper no chance at all. Bradford stepped-up the pressure after this but were lucky when Lewis dropped Adam Mayor’s corner from the Morecambe right with sixty-four minutes played but was able to recover. Five minutes later, Bantams’ Skipper Richard Smallwood played a free-kick deep into the heart of the Morecambe rearguard only to see Matthew Platt head it narrowly over the bar. City were asking most of the questions by this stage of the game but Morecambe were still causing them problems on the break. Goalkeeper Lewis again patted-down a Mayor corner in the eighty-second minute but was once more able to pick it up unchallenged. Then – out of absolutely nothing – Kelly spotted an unmarked Halliday on the right side of the Morecambe penalty area from his point of view and picked the full-back out with a simply sumptuous pass from the Bradford left wing. City’s official Man of the Match scored a cracking equaliser to set-up the game for a very tense finish. Cook was unlucky when he hit the bar with a powerful header with three minutes left to play but that was the final good chance for either team in a game which probably deservedly ended all-square. Morecambe were in charge during the first half but Bradford were unquestionably the dominant team during the second.
Throughout the first period in particular, the men in the white shirts showed all the battling commitment and organisation which was so obviously absent last Saturday. It might well be two points lost at the end of the day but I’m sure all Shrimps’ fans would have settled for a draw prior to the game. To stall a good team which had won all of its last six matches in various competitions before today is no small achievement. The draw sees Morecambe fall to thirteenth in League Two. City remained tenth.
A clearly disappointed Ged Brannan put a brave face on things though when he expressed his thoughts after the game:
“I thought first half we absolutely dominated the game. So – absolutely delighted with the first half performance. We knew second half that they were going to come out at us. I’ve just got to say our lads were absolutely brilliant defensively second half. You come away with a two-two draw against Bradford. We’ll take that. But it is what it is. I’d say that’s our best performance since I’ve been at the club – first half. The way we dug-in in the second half was good as well. We’re happy with a point in the end and we’ll move on to Friday.”
Bradford City: 1 Harry Lewis; 2 Brad Halliday; 5 Matthew Platt; 6 Richard Smallwood (C); 8 Emmanuel Osadebe (12 Clarke Oduor (Y) 45’); 9 Andy Cook (Y); 11 Alex Gillead; 14 Tyler Smith (19 Vadaine Oliver 71’); 18 Ciarán Kelly; 31 Jonathan Tomkinson; 32 Lewis Richards.
Substitutes not used: 13 Colin Doyle; 27 Matt Derbyshire; 3 Liam Ridehalgh; 4 Ash Taylor; 26 Kevin McDonald.
Morecambe: 21 Adam Smith; 3 David Tutonda (Y); 4 Jacob Bedeau (C); 6 Yann Songo’o (18 Jake Taylor 85’); 7 Tom Bloxham (9 Michael Mellon 77’); 8 Eli King; 10 JJ McKiernan (Y) (5 Farrend Rawson 85’); 11 Adam Mayor; 12 Joel Senior; 14 Jordan Slew (Y); 22 James Connolly.
Substitutes not used: 26 George Pedley; 16 Jacob Davenport; 17 Cammy Smith; 20 Charlie Brown.
Ref: Darren Drysdale.
Att: 18,540 (420 from Morecambe.)
