Bradford City 2 Carlisle United 1: As Valley Parade cleared, and the last few members of staff and media packed up their things, you could hear fireworks from somewhere beyond the Kop. Was it Andy Cook, having his own private party and to hell with who he kept awake?
Doubtful. He’d already had one of those inside Bradford City’s ground and that was probably ample: an emphatic celebration against the club that, once upon a time, nurtured him and then let him go.
Cook’s riposte was well over a decade in coming, and also occurred a year and a bit after some Blues fans recreated Guy Fawkes’ Night outside the Bantams’ Cumbrian hotel on the eve of a play-off semi-final.
Well, football moves on, sometimes dramatically so, and karma will often catch you squarely in the face. If you give it then the requirement to take it must be readily accepted and the sight of Cook, arms outstretched, imbibing the acclaim of the home end after his 70th-minute winner was, for United, a painful reply.
It is a sensation they are awkwardly familiar with right now. This was a different Carlisle performance, an alternative style to the recent past yet the Cook-inspired outcome was just as costly as many of those we’ve seen in the last year or so.
The stark upshot is that United are the third worst side in the EFL right now, only Accrington Stanley and Morecambe saving the Blues from further indignity. And to those who feel Carlisle’s squad is of a quality only to be on loan to the bottom reaches of League Two, the message must be tabled that such an assumption will get the Blues precisely nowhere.
Four defeats from five – six from seven in all competitions – is the start of a struggler, whatever else anyone imagines United to be, now or in the near future. Should it go on much longer this will simply be a battle to avoid further calamity in terms of their league status, regardless of what the club would like to do in terms of renovating style of play and improving off and on-field structure.
Stop losing, please. That ought to be item one on a new head coach’s list, with a gap before the others. Do that, and the rebuild can be quicker and more immediately positive. Keep stacking up the defeats and this step-change, own-the-north project will, in the short term, boil down to a much more stressful agenda.
It was not supposed to be like this but, up to press, it is and on merit. Whatever good things United attempt – and there were some here, in the leaning towards a more footballing style, and in some of their attacking movements – they are still too adrift from the idea of not just winning games but being ruthless in the pursuit of situations where they might win them, or at least not hand them over.
Cook accepted two chances like a cartoon hound given a string of sausages, the first in particular an awful sight defensively. Carlisle got their own piece of luck with their goal, but also failed to make their own fortune as they missed some cast-iron chances. Charlie Wyke was the leading culprit in a supposed individual second coming that has not yet happened.
Like much else, it will need to, soon. Here, at the home of League Two’s biggest crowds, 1,756 travelling supporters took their seats in the drizzle and watched Carlisle set up in 4-3-3 – another shift away from the Simpson era – and try to unroll a more progressive game.
It lasted less than two minutes before it cost them, Harry Lewis slipping the ball to Jon Mellish, the defender’s touch sloppy, Jamie Walker’s ambush clean and Cook’s finish basic. Can we not just knock it?
Okay, that’s not where we want things to be; Carlisle were too blunt of style for too long in Simpson’s latter period and any switch to a more gradual method will bring risks, especially when you are a losing team. United, under their caretaker managers, tried to rebuild in the face of more Bradford eagerness in a game which seemed to have a hectic pace for much of it.
Mellish headed a Cook chance clear in the ninth minute and then, after Ben Williams’ knee buckled on the wet turf, leading to lengthy treatment and his painful withdrawal, Carlisle began putting some better things together. Dominic Sadi and Jordan Jones combined brightly for a chance Wyke headed across goal to no avail, and United continued playing from the back, undeterred by their early slip and Lewis undaunted by pantomime boos that came from his former supporters.
Carlisle’s build-up was hopeful but their grip of things in both boxes remained concerningly loose. Wyke had missed a more than reasonable chance even before Cook’s goal, and later Sam Walker denied Sadi from a decent spot. Cook, oddly, then declined to attack a Richie Smallwood free-kick for Bradford when escaping Carlisle's defensive line, his header left for Olly Sanderson a reprieve for the Blues, who were brightest when involving Sadi, Jones and the industrious Harrison Biggins in their play, less so when their central midfield was being punished, pressed and snapped into for its slowness.
Walker saved superbly from Jones, Smallwood sliced through a 50-50 and Mellish had to deny Cook. It was fast-paced stuff, end to end in spells, and after an early Bradford second-half flurry, Carlisle missed a golden chance when Wyke hit the post from Archie Davies’ searching pass, but then suddenly levelled when Neal’s tame, looping flick from a Cameron Harper cross went through keeper Walker’s hands like soap in the bath.
A platform? Yes – but for Bradford. In a trice, after the equaliser, the hosts were denied by a superb Lewis double-save, from Cook and Sanderson, and the truth is United did not create with anything like enough imagination after their goal...and nor did they kill Bradford's passion. Graham Alexander's side did not exactly lacerate them in response but their renewed purpose and width eventually led to their second: headed commandingly across Lewis by Cook, after Davies had denied Bobby Pointon but Tyreik Wright then threw over a telling second cross.
Cook ran to the home end’s embrace, and from there it was more patchy – still energetic but with less faith United could go back to the well. Other than a failed handball shout and a 93rd-minute Josh Vela miss Carlisle’s remaining efforts were urgent but impotent, their substitutes also failing to find the key.
One of their caretakers, Jamie Devitt, was among those booked for something he said in the dugout and it was this sort of thing that had captured the mood, by the end, rather than the buzz United had hoped for but which remains, concerningly, missing. Like Cook and scoring goals, certain things have a habit of sticking around.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel