SAM Walker may have been stunned by the composition of the defence in front of him on Saturday afternoon, but City’s assault was where things went wrong.
While wingbacks Lewis Richards and Brad Halliday played centre back with Cheick Diabate and Paul Huntington on the bench, the former was undoubtedly the Bantams’ greatest player.
In the end, they lost 1-0 due to a penalty conceded by striker Andy Cook.
The City Keeper told the T&A: “It is my responsibility to coordinate and encourage where possible.
“I must add that I felt Lewis was great today on the left side of the three, in a position that isn’t particularly accustomed to him.
“It’s excellent for him to have the confidence of a good game under his belt, and hopefully he can carry that into a solid run of games.
“But my job doesn’t alter depending on who plays in front of me; I just have to marshal them wherever I can.
“And apart from their penalty, which was the deciding factor, we largely did our jobs defensively.”
Walker was essentially a passenger after the first 20 minutes of Saturday afternoon.
When asked about the frustration of watching his team gain possession but not scoring, the custodian confessed, “You just hope you break them down and get that opportunity to score.”You’re looking at the clock on the other end, counting the minutes, but I’ve always been confident in our ability to move forward.
“I thought we played some great things, but they defended well, and their custodian made a couple of saves you’d anticipate.
“It’s hard for me on the other end to see that, and because I can see the entire game in front of me, I’m trying to help.
“Can we identify some different gaps? Can we move the ball more quickly if our intensity drops? Things like that.
“But we gave them a headstart early on and the game became very difficult from that point.”
The fact that the crisis was entirely of City’s own creating resulted in a horrible full-time debrief.
Walker admitted: “There’s a lot of frustration in the dressing room.”
“It’s been a bit of a pattern for us away from home, giving teams a bit of a head start and being 10, 15, 20-25 percent ahead of the opposition early on.
“Today it was a penalty, but it’s been other goals in previous games, and giving the opponent the opportunity to go 1-0 up on their own turf makes it difficult to break them down in this league.
“We tried and had a lot of the game, which I believe we dominated after they went up, but their defensive system was solid, and I don’t recall us getting any particularly clear-cut chances.
“It was a very depressing day, especially since the fans normally support us.
“It was another sold out away end and it would have been great to have had that feeling at the end that we’ve had before, where we celebrate a collective three points on the road.”
He continued, “The only positive for me is that we’re away again next weekend against Colchester.”
“That may seem unusual considering our away struggles this season, but I really think it’s a terrific opportunity to right some of the wrongs of today.
“We can get back in to training, look at today, why we’re not starting how we should do and get a really good week’s work in.”
