Bradford City pay price for 'rubbish' start (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Bradford City pay price for 'rubbish' start against Torquay

7:00am Monday 23rd August 2010 in Sport By Simon Parker

Torquay 2 Bradford City 0

This wasn’t in the meticulous plans Peter Taylor drew up for City’s road trips.

One of the manager’s big requests for the season was an increase in overnight stops.

Prepare professionally, play professionally. One surely follows the other.

Saturday’s outcome certainly wasn’t mentioned in the brochure.

Stuart McCall’s side in January had crammed into Mark Lawn’s seaside hotel in Torquay. Taylor’s team were holed up in luxury accommodation away from the town with proper training facilities laid on.

But those well-laid plans were blown away on the sea breeze; gone in 90 seconds.

You’re playing against a team full of confidence anyway and then give them an early goal. You’ve killed yourself twice

Peter Taylor

That was how long it took Danny Stevens to charge through a gaping hole and fire past the motionless Jon McLaughlin, returning the keeper’s long clearance with interest.

It’s not as if City didn’t know what was coming. The tiny terror, all 5ft 4in of him, had run them ragged last time.

But nobody reacted when he took the ball from Tommy Doherty’s half-hearted challenge on halfway, charged 25 yards forward and then picked his spot while the keeper stood rooted on the spot.

“It was an absolutely rubbish start,” fumed Taylor.

“We prepared well, stayed in a lovely hotel, trained on a really good pitch and then started like that. I think it’s very poor on our part.

“You’re playing against a team full of confidence anyway and then give them an early goal. You’ve killed yourself twice.”

If that wasn’t bad enough, City then found themselves reduced to ten men as Robbie Threlfall was sent for an early bath.

The recalled left back had only been on the pitch ten minutes when Chris Zebroski went clear. McLaughlin blocked his first shot and then Threlfall, with the help of an arm, kept out the second.

Referee Steve Tanner let the winger have a third pop at goal – which hit the post – before pointing to the spot and dismissing the City defender.

McLaughlin then saved Nicky Wroe’s spot-kick with a strong right hand but the rot had set in against a team who are not used to letting in goals, let alone losing.

The early League Two pacesetters have now gone more than 16 hours since conceding a league goal. Two Scott Bevan saves from James Hanson, one superb the other very fortunate, made sure City were never going to puncture that record.

But it was the other keeper who was in the firing line. McLaughlin won’t forget his first game in Devon in a hurry.

Questioned over the Torquay opener, his subsequent penalty block was followed up with big saves from Chris Zebroski and Kevin Nicholson to keep City’s depleted troops in the hunt.

But midway through the second half, McLaughlin was caught out again with the second goal.

Lee Mansell tried to play Nicky Wroe into the City box and the ball span off the heel of the Torquay skipper between Zebroski and McLaughlin. The City stopper went feet first but seemed to hold back and the resulting block tackle saw the ball ping into the net.

It’s a tough learning curve for a young keeper whose career has barely reached double figures. But Taylor made his thoughts crystal clear, blaming McLaughlin for both goals.

He said: “Jon came out for the second goal with his feet when he should have gone with his hands. And, for the life of me, I can’t understand what he was doing with the first.

“It was obvious what the fella was going to do and I can’t see where he was unsighted. I’m a bit surprised about that.”

So it’s played two lost two away from home. And City could have no complaints.

Their sluggish first-half display had worrying shades of the Stevenage game. Passes were short or off cue and again there was a lack of quality on the ball.

It took 41 minutes for Gareth Evans to have the first shot, forcing a scrambling save from Bevan at his near post.

Taylor changed things round at half-time and there was an improvement. Luke O’Brien had been surprisingly overlooked for Zesh Rehman when City first reshuffled after Threlfall’s departure. His introduction after the break injected some much-needed zest into the side and helped the club captain deal with the considerable threat of Zebroski on the right flank.

O’Brien immediately won their first corner and consistently added width as City looked for a toe-hold in proceedings.

There was still danger at the other end, with Elliot Benyon jabbing wide after a mistake from Luke Oliver, but the defence, led strongly by Shane Duff, bent without snapping against Torquay’s superior numbers.

Then Zebroski, now playing down the middle, gave the leaders some breathing space after McLaughlin had been found out.

The game was up for Taylor’s men. Hanson twice threatened with headers from O’Brien set-pieces but Torquay’s remarkable goalless run stayed intact. The City chief decided against throwing on Chib Chilaka, the surprise name on the bench.

The 24-year-old Nigerian trialist was hustled into the squad on non-contract terms. But Taylor stressed it was more out of necessity than choice because of Jake Speight’s knee injury.

“Chilaka is a month away from being anywhere near fit but because of the injury to Jake we had no other striker on the bench.

“It was just a case of maybe putting him on for ten minutes if needed but it wasn’t worth it.

“Jake’s got a little bit of a chance for tomorrow (against Preston) but we’ll have to see. I would imagine it’s doubtful if he can start but we’ll see what he can do.

“We’ve got to pick ourselves up quickly. We’ve got another game coming up and we need to get something out of it, whether it’s a good performance or good result.”