MySpace blog entry – Saturday 14 January 2007
Is there anything better to do on a Saturday afternoon than go to the football? Exposed to rain, wind and freezing temperatures. Four layers of clothing and still shivering. Why did I leave my hat in the car…again?
You spend two hours suffering at the performance of an overpaid, talentless bunch of amateurs – and that’s just the referee and his assistants.
Goalkeeping errors, moments of brilliance and the scoreboard to your left control your mood. During the 90 minutes my outlook went from pessimistic – ‘we’re going to lose 3-0 today’; quietly optimistic – ‘hang on, we’re playing well’; ecstatic – ‘get in – we’ve scored!’; nervous – ‘oh crap they’ve equalised’; despair – ‘I can’t believe we conceded another bad goal’; resigned – ‘well we’ve lost this one’; confused – ‘has he sent our player off? No he’s given us a penalty!; hysterical – “yesssss!!!”; all the way through to relieved – ‘well at least we’ve got a draw’. I was also cold, need to remember a scarf next time too.
I don’t think there is any other leisure activity that gets you as involved as sport. If you go and see a film, the worst that happens is you don’t like it. It doesn’t leave you feeling depressed for the next six days. There’s also nothing quite like the feeling of a great result or unexpected achievement. It really does carry you through the following week.
I wouldn’t rank Dean Windass’ late penalty to earn City a draw up there with the greatest moments football can give you, but it was still a glorious moment.
We were 2-1 down with three minutes on the clock, when our opponents, Swansea, broke up the pitch quickly and seemed certain to score. The ball ended up in our net, but the referee blew to stop play seconds before it had.
Amid mass confusion and angry confrontations, the referee sent a Swansea player off and awarded US a penalty! There was our loveable Dean Windass lying hurt in their box, apparently he was elbowed. The players stop shoving Deano, who brushes himself down and places the ball on the penalty spot. With 7,346 pairs of ears firmly fixed on him, he calmly blasts the penalty home and three sides of the stadium go mental.
The whole experience has left me in a fantastic mood all weekend and I know the buzz will last well into the week ahead; yet I spent a large proportion of the actual event feeling gloomy, miserable and worried. It goes to show how much is invested in these Saturday afternoon activities and how much you are placing at stake. I think the most of us don’t generally want to be in a bad mood every Saturday night, but which is the most sensible activity towards making sure that doesn’t happen – a day out to the cinema or the football? Still they’re both preferable to visit to a Saturday shop at IKEA.
An afternoon at the football is never dull. Well, the football can be dull, but the experience rarely is. A large proportion of football fans are currently caught up with promotion or relegation issues; many are disgruntled with their club’s current manager or board. Unless you’re Watford, every team at least wins the occasional match. Some of these are exciting affairs or blighted by poor refereeing. Brilliant goals, memorable bits of play, goalkeeping saves. In a season that every Bradford City fan would agree has been ‘average’ at best, almost every game I have seen has included plenty of incident. Our problem is, too much of it has made painful viewing.
Reflections on current status at VP
Leaving the ground at the final whistle, I couldn’t help but feel we had been lucky. It looked as though the outcome was going to be very different, and, with a large majority of our supporters wanting City manager Colin Todd sacked, the anger and abuse was about to commence.
We had started the game in a very positive manner and had taken an early lead, but we then gave away two daft goals and the players struggled to get back into the game.
With City supporters for once getting behind the players, the level of performance improved, but it still didn’t look as though it would be enough. I was certainly pleased for our under pressure manager when Deano fired in the penalty. Lucky? He deserves it.
Things are certainly interesting at City at the moment and the future looks unclear. For the second match in a row, Colin Todd chose not to speak to the media directly after the game. There’s no doubt recent events have affected him. Our Chairman Julian Rhodes recently stoked up the pressure by publicly failing to back Todd and most City fans want him to be sacked. In the national newspapers, they are linking managers to come in and take his position.
After we lost to Doncaster on Boxing Day, mindless idiots decided to smash up his car while it was in the club carpark after the game. He was interviewed on BBC Radio Leeds after City drew the following game against a backgroup of angry fans chanting ‘Todd out’ from the nearby Bantams Bar. A lot of the abuse has been unpleasant and there seems no thought or reason accompanying it – just mindless abuse. Facing all of this, it’s hard to blame Todd for not wanting a microphone in front of his face.
I think it’s unfair that someone who is at least trying his best has to receive such abuse. Imagine if we all had that sort of pressure in our own jobs? I work in an office and I would hate to have a large group of people booing as I walked to the coffee machine. I also wouldn’t be pleased if I received abusive emails from IT dorks, had a local chav trash my car in the car park or read rumours in the staff magazine that Terry from Finance is been lined up for my job.
It’s fantastic to hear that there are still some City fans who still support Todd. It’s very difficult to make your voice heard amongst the boos but there are some fans who are trying. The support for the Swansea game was much better and I have read some fantastic letters/message board comments from fans speaking out against the current atmosphere among fans.
I’m also glad the Bradford City Supporters Trust are sticking up for Todd and Phil Marshall’s comments in Swansea programme stunned me. It was amazing to read that kind of article in the Matchday programme and I agreed with every word of it.
Those supporters calling for Todd’s head are failing to make both a reasoned argument and credible evidence of why he should be booted out. All we are hearing from them is immature abuse, boos and name calling.
It’s almost becoming civil war among fans, but I think the crowd were generally good on Saturday and much better than the last two home games. Even when we were losing, fans stayed behind the team. This even includes some of the more notable boo boys of recent weeks.
If this club isn’t going to fall apart again, I think we all need to be pulling in the same direction and respect other people’s views. Given our form this season, I think its perfectly understandable there is a degree of pressure on Todd’s shoulders, but I don’t think we need to panic. Everyone should know the score with the clubs finances and I don’t think any decision should be taken lightly.
No one can argue the club hasn’t progressed during the last two and a half years since administration. A lot of good work has been put in rebuilding Bradford City, both as a competitive football team and a viable business. This may not always be reflected in results on the pitch but we are heading in the right direction. Let’s stick to the same philosophy; keep building things up slowly, make careful choices and don’t panic.
Comment from James Vukmirovic:
I’d ask why you put yourself through that every week, but I support Wolves so I have no right to judge!
Good piece though, really gets to the heart of what it’s like to support a team that isn’t a regular winner of things (Chelsea fans, take note)
