Bradford blogger Lee Norton lists five reasons why he is a happy man this week...
Goal fest could breathe life into Bradford bid
Bradford blogger Lee Norton lists five reasons why he is a happy man this week, and one reason why he still can't sleep.
Well, I said I wanted a goal, and after four games without scoring at all, we net five in a single game, wow!
As I said before, in the last two home games we were playing some decent football but just couldn't score, so the fact we won away at Cheltenham wasn't a total surprise, the fact we scored five goals was.
Unfortunately I couldn't make it to Cheltenham so I can't really comment on the game itself. However it sounded like a superb match, end to end, various chances and nine goals, certainly one of those games that I'm really gutted to have missed.
It was great to see the new boys getting on the score sheet. I commented before on how well Steve Williams and James Hanson were playing, both came from non-league teams and both scored their first professional goals on Saturday. Also James O'Brien (who's only on a three-month deal) scored on his first start and former Macclesfield striker Gareth Evans got in on the act too with a goal and apparently a man of the match performance.
Big change
I think the major difference so far has been that these new, young players are hungry and determined. They want to play football, they enjoy playing football and they're giving 100% in order to do so. It's something we've really missed the last few seasons, it's OK having the experience but the desire of these young players seems to make up for that. I'm very happy with this type of signing, as I said in my first blog, by signing young players we're also building for the future rather than just the current season, and hopefully this will pay off.
Of course it's not suddenly all rosy just because we got our first win, the fact we conceded another four goals (making it 14 goals in 5 games) is a big concern. On loan 'keeper Simon Eastwood hasn't filled me with confidence in the opening games and he looked all over the place for the goals on Saturday. To be fair, he is only young and doesn't have that much experience but I feel it's going to cost us in the long run if we continue to concede like we are doing. Back-up goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin is of a similar age and has just as little experience, so surely it's worth giving him a chance next week given Eastwood's poor start?
I feel for Cheltenham a little bit, to score four at home and still not win is unbelievable. League Two seems quite open again this season (every team has lost one of their four games) which should make for another interesting season.
Hopefully this win will get our season up-and-running and we can start climbing the league. Next up is Torquay at home, fingers crossed for another good performance and a further three points on the board.
