Re: score : Thu Jan 19, 2012 10:17 am  

The group I was stood with all enjoyed the game and saw it for what it was:

An opportunity for the coach to test existing players at this more intense level and determine his best 17.

An opportunity for the coach to try young lads.

An opportunity for the coach to try new plays.

In my opinion this was just the sort of game we needed. Batley were quick and aggressive and moved the ball well. Both sides put the other under periods of concerted pressure and both sides had periods of poor discipline that gave the ball away.

Both coaches can take something from this and both will know they have things to improve. The biggest thing for me is that we make too many errors that give the opposition the ball in our half.

Our young lads did well at York but we have to remember that this intensity is far and above what they are used to. Without doing anyone an injustice, I don’t think it’s coincidence that Batley got the upper hand in the last quarter whilst we had 4 of last years under 18’s on the pitch.

Roll on Bradford.

Re: score : Thu Jan 19, 2012 10:22 am  

Excellent post Dreamer,I fully agree.

Re: score : Thu Jan 19, 2012 10:35 am  

captain_cougar wrote:

Must admit that was a shocker last night. Too many mistakes and some trying a lot harder to impress than others.

With regards to dominence' post friendlies are surley a marketing tool and should be intising people down this season. If that was my first game i wouldnt return. Basically the last 3 games have been gloryfied training sessions and charging a lot of money for them including full price at york.

At the end of the day the majority of people on this forum go to most games. However surley we need to be attracting new fans and with performances like this i dont think we are

I agree to a certain extent, but I don't think you can class friendlies as a marketing tool. They are there for a variety of reasons such as match fitness, cohesion, integrating players etc. The list could go on. As for the price York charged, yes it was criminal, but I assume the Cougars had no say in that. I really feel people are putting too much stock in the last 3 friendlies. I would hope JD now has a good idea of his strongest squad and I would personally like to see this take the field on Friday week against the Dulls.

Attracting new fans is something the club has to work on off the field and hope then the performances on the field make people want to come down again. I agree the 3 friendlies have been very patchy in terms of performance, but surely that's what's going to happen in friendlies when we are trying to integrate a large number of new signings. If having started the NRC and we are still having these discussions on performance then some people may well have valid points, but at this stage we've had 3 friendlies with many changes in terms of personnel in each game.

What we need is for the fans to keep the faith, JD to pick a strong squad for the Dulls game and work on fine tunning the performances/getting the defence sorted.

I'd like to see something like this for the Dulls game;

Haythorthwaite, Duffy, Tadulala, JD, Barnett, Obst, Jones, Korky, Buster, Sheriffe, Reed, Jones, March/Coleman.

Re: score : Thu Jan 19, 2012 12:20 pm  

What was the attendance last night?

Re: score : Thu Jan 19, 2012 12:33 pm  

With four 18yr olds on the pitch in the last 15 mins thats not too bad a result, wasn't it 10-10 at 70 minutes?

Friendlies never attract crowds, i don't go beacuse they tend to be a waste of cash. Bradford bring thirteen 3rd teamers and about ten fans. I went to the Halifax game....this confirmed why I never go to friendlies! What a waste of time that was, however I wanted to see the new talent on display. Only a couple of which played! I do think friendlies should be beefed up a bit, there have been some good ones though from memory.

Getting crowds in must be hard work. Getting school kids in for free could help, not sure what the current position is for this? the occasional game perhaps spread the catchment to Wharfedale. Offer a coach for 50 kids, perhaps paid by a coach sponsor. Hopefully they nag their parents to take them every week, this worked when I was 12.

Re: score : Thu Jan 19, 2012 12:52 pm  

Attendance was in the 500`s. Possibly friendlies are not for me.

Re: score : Thu Jan 19, 2012 5:47 pm  

I was glad to be able to watch a game.
God i missed it soooooooooooooo much.

Couple of things we need to get a grip of before the season starts is,
not dropping the ball
and learning how to read what the other team is doing.

When Batley ran angles near our line we looked clueless.

Re: score : Thu Jan 19, 2012 9:25 pm  

my supporter hat here on again ....... but re the friendlies..


I'd say what is all the fuss about ???...so far they have mirrored where I would see us (realistically) performing in the league...

Halifax .. going to be somewhere near the top of the pile in Championship ...fairly comprehensive [i]loss[/i].......

York ..I'd expect us to beat em in the league ....win...............

Batley ..a team who have been consistently hard to beat in last few seasons and had reasonable success (n.Rail Cup)..narrow-ish loss


If we get stuffed by Rochdale then complain but at the mo ..look at the league position in 2011 and the teams we have faced so farand then moan about friendly results .....

Re: score : Fri Jan 20, 2012 12:22 am  

I would have attended had I been at home but I wasn't - I was 250 miles 'daaan sarf'.

That said, can anyone give those who couldn't attend, including myself, the team line-up? Did Mickey take a video for us 'unfortunates'?

I agree that 'JD knows best' but by now, he must surely have an idea of what his first team squad is likely to be. That said, he also needs to protect our new recruits from our 'friendly' opponents just in case they are 'targetted' by their ex-colleagues. However, whatever the first-team squad is going to be then the fans must be given some indication of when they are going to play in so-called 'friendlies'; otherwise, why should they even bother to turn-up and pay their 'hard-earned'?

We want and need to see what we are paying for, otherwise poor attendances will be the result.

One final point: I believe that 'Northern' are devaluing the name of one of our joint former players by treating the annual fixture for the 'Joe Phillips Trophy' with complete contempt by not sending a truly representative and strong Northern team to compete, which to my mind speaks volumes for the Club - is it still 'Bradford Northern (1974) Limited?

Remember where they were before they were resurrected and who they cloned in the 90's?

Re: score : Fri Jan 20, 2012 12:34 am  

666 wrote:

Did Mickey take a video for us 'unfortunates'?

No sorry, I was working, I have booked time off for as many league games as poss throughout the year.