Bradford City 2-0 Stags | Straight Talking

Bradford City 2-0 Mansfield Town | Sky Bet League Two | Sunday 29th December 2019 | Utilita Energy Stadium

*The views expressed in this article, are solely those of the writer and not those of their associated organisations*

Mansfield Town’s miserable 2019 came to a crashing end at Bradford City yesterday with a 2-0 defeat which typically summed up how the Stags have performed over the last twelve months, in a weak and lacklustre fashion.

As Graham Coughlan said in his post-match press conference, there’s no point in putting an arm around the lads and dressing it up as a one-off, that’s going to get us nowhere. He’s right, this entire year we’ve become progressively weaker and consistently poor for three different managers, failing to achieve this “potential” supposedly hidden within.

There’s a clear lack of quality in both boxes at the minute but rather than stand up and be counted, we’re clearly squabbling with each other on the pitch and that, in isolation, is boiling over to players vs fans – highlighted with an incident with Sir Mal towards the end of the match.

You have to question why this squad over the last year has failed three managers? You have to question why this group of players are performing so below par we’ve gone from promotion contenders to relegation candidates – the league table doesn’t lie.

Coughlan has been brought in to install some confidence and belief into this group and whilst I believe he’ll do so given time on the training ground, he needs a collection of new players to help achieve this – an elder statesman at the back to drag people kicking and screaming through games, a rat in the middle of the park to get under the skin of the opposition and to scrap for every last drop, some flair and pace down the wings and some confidence upfront., in order for that to be accommodated players will have to go.

That first win is elusive, we have to get that at Cambridge on New Years Day and really give ourselves the best chance of moving forward, failure to do so and the next decade could be one where we take a drop backwards, rather than the one forwards this decade has been the foundation for making.

As Coughlan said, we could talk about referees, penalties, bad luck etc but what’s the point? It won’t change anything, only make things worse. I want to look around that dressing room and see players ready to go out and fight, ready to leave errors and thoughts of being hard-done-by behind – time moves quickly, and there’s no time to feel sorry for ourselves.

​Our weak approach, our timid nature and poor decision making has lead us to this point, but only the players can get us out of it – they’ve shown they are capable of being strong, ruthless and sharp once before, let’s make 2020 the time to do it all over again.  

match recap

Two changes were made by Graham Coughlan ahead of his first away game as Stags boss, Conrad Logan came back in between the sticks to replace Oljenik, whilst Otis Khan replaced Bishop with MacDonald moving into the middle.

Mansfield started brightly with a good pressing tempo and on four minutes as MacDonald stung the palms of O’Donnell in the Bradford net, three minutes later Cook couldn’t get the ball out of his feet as Hamilton picked out the front man with good movement down the left.

The Stags undid their hard work on 12 minutes as Matt Preston pushed high to try and win a header but failed to do so, Alex MacDonald dropped into cover and sent Palmer to the ground for a spot-kick which you’ve seen given and not given in equal measure, Bradford made no mistake from 12 yards, as Vaughn sent Logan the wrong way.

James Clarke sent an effort high and wide as Mansfield struggled to get back into the game before skipper Sweeney had to go off injured, replaced by Pearce, who watched on as at the other end, Rose nodded wide as the half time whistle blew.

After the break, Andy Cook headed wide of the target before a scramble in the City box saw Rose and Khan denied on 49 minutes.

Jacob Mellis and Nicky Maynard replaced Khan and Rose as the half went on and Mansfield chased a point, alas a clumsy foul by Preston with eight minutes to go saw City get a second spot-kick, despatched with ease by Vaughn as the Stags slumped to a defeat.

FULL TIME: Bradford City 2-0 Mansfield Town | Attendance 15,197 (1,141)

STAGS: [4-4-2] Conrad Logan | James Clarke, Matt Preston, Ryan Sweeney © (Krystian Pearce 39), Mal Benning | Otis Khan (Jacob Mellis 61), Alex MacDonald, Willem Tomlinson, CJ Hamilton | Danny Rose (Nicky Maynard 72), Andy Cook Unused Subs: Bobby Oljenik, Craig Davies, Neal Bishop, Jimmy Knowles

*The views expressed in this article, are solely those of the writer and not those of their associated organisations*