Town gifted bitter rivals Bradford with their first double over us in nearly 90 years after a frustrating performance at Valley Parade. Another young and inexperienced side had the better exchanged in the first half but fell behind to a poor goal just before the break.

Town clearer lacked bit in the middle and were crying out for width. Tim after time the midfield had the ball and were looking to play the ball out wide, but there simply was nowhere to go. Up front, Pav and Facey both had poor games, Pav missing a Hat trick of 1st half chances, Facey also guilty of missing a good opportunity.

However unlucky, it was typical Town conceding just before the break and it was uphill there from there on in.

It was a full blooded local derby with plenty of incident, the team battled but lacked any real quality and the inexperience was there for all to see. Im all for blooding youngsters but in games like this, you need big players and Town simply didn't have any.

2nd half, after what seemed another inspiring half time team talk, town came out and simply rolled over. The annoying Dean Windas doubled the lead on 54 mins and for me, that was that. Town simply didn't look like getting near breaking city down and far too many players drifted out of the team. 3 subs all came on for Town, to little effect. Effe Sodje for Clarke, Mendes for Collins and Carrs for Ahmed but it made little difference and try as they might, Town only put any real pressure on the city goal in the last few minutes but it wasn't to be.

IMO, we don't need Delroy Facey, hes simply not good enough and while Jacko continues to say he will not bring players into the club who aren't better than what we have, he certainly fits into that category. Personally, I don't see him as adding anything to the current crop of players and he should go back after his loan spell. Whats the point of Apko Sodje scoring every week for the reserves if hes not going to get a few starts under his belt and see if he has the metal to make to the step up to the first team on a regular basis.

My view of the players:

Rachubka - Hesitant, poor positioning for the goal
Holdsworth, involved in their goal, didn't get forward, poor distribution
Mirfin - Solid at the back, had a good game and played really well
Clarke - Steady game at the back, think he might have taken a knock
Tom Clarke - ok game, but too inexperience, Edwards should have played - Needs to take lessons from his brother on how to take a throw in
Worthington - Poor distribution again, silly booking for a wreckless foul
Ahmed - Couldn't really get into the game, struggled at time, replaced by Carrs
Brandon - Non stop running again, frustrated with the lack of quality around him
Collins - Invisible at times, found it hard today, took a heavy knock, replaced by Mendes
Abbott - Missed a couple of good chances, had a poor game, looked very frustrated and got booked for mouthing off to the ref again.
Facey - Won a few headers in the first half then vanished out of the game

Subs

Sodje - Got booked shortly after coming on after a tussle with Windas, then called him a clown on Radio leeds
Carrs - Steady - Unable to change the game
Mendes - Put in a great cross late on, did nothing much else

Frustrating, sad and best keep my head down and avoid seeing anyone in Claret and Yellow!

By Mark Overend from the Blue-Army Mailing list.