Cod Almighty | Diary
Didn't we have a lovely time, the day we went to Bradford
3 April 2023
Miss Guest Diary writes: Despite many visits to Valley Parade, I have never seen Town win there (something they haven't done since 1997), so it's fair to say my expectations of Saturday's game against Bradford were set fairly low. As is sometimes the case, my hopes were centred more on the experience of the day as a whole than the result of the game.
On the plus side, the drive was uneventful and we secured a parking spot not too far from the ground at only the second attempt. The first blot appeared on the horizon when we emerged from one of the side streets leading down to the away end right into the middle of the hordes marching to the ground under police escort. Not a problem in itself but it meant a long queue at the turnstiles followed by the impossibility of getting a hot drink in the resulting melee at the bar.
A couple of minutes before kick-off I was in my seat looking around and thinking how much I liked the stadium – sort of new and old at the same time – when I was surrounded by a scrum of teenage boys all jostling to get into the few vacant seats nearby. Recalling the experiences of "limbs" in the play-off games last season I felt a little nervous, but Mr Butcher offered to be my human shield should Town manage to score. So when we did score I escaped with nothing more than some jostling and a hug from a nice young man, though some of the seats didn't fare so well.
Regrettably, I was forced to have words when a few of these lads started up the Yorkshire Ripper song. I had thought those days were behind us, but sadly not. I have asked myself whether teenagers can be blamed for adopting a chant which refers to events which happened over 40 years ago; it must seem like ancient history to them. But given that most of the murders to which it relates took place in West Yorkshire and there will probably still be friends and relatives of the victims alive in the area, then yes I do blame them and hope I never have to hear it sung again.
On the pitch Town were pretty good at times and probably just about deserved their half-time lead. After about 60 minutes, though, some of our players looked distinctly knackered and it’s hard to understand why Paul Hurst didn't make some changes then. By the time he did it was obvious the game was already gone. But we fans kept on singing and chanting and I'm not sure how much we were really bothered by the result.
A quick drink after the game with some friends we haven’t seen since before the pandemic and an easy drive home rounded off the trip nicely. As football days go, I'd give it a solid seven out of ten.
On Friday BOTB Diary pondered the existence of games that "don’t matter". It obviously mattered to Bradford because they are currently in a play-off spot but could easily be overtaken. For Town sitting in mid-table this felt as close to a doesn’t matter game as I've experienced for a while, and maybe that was the difference between the teams on the day. I certainly wasn't impressed by Bradford and wonder whether Andy Cook would have had quite so much free rein had Luke Waterfall been playing.
Interestingly, Paul Hurst mentioned in his post-match interview that in the ten days since Bradford last had a game, Town had actually played three matches. That would certainly account for the difference in the two teams' ability to keep going for the full 90 minutes. Would I exchange Town's FA Cup run for less fixture congestion at the back end of the season? Not likely!
UTM