City in the doghouse

Torquay United 2

It's time for Jake the performing dog.

Maybe Colin Todd should forget about bringing in another frontman on loan. And don't bother about a midfield terrier - it's one of the border variety that City need at Valley Parade.

Jake is the professional pre-match pooch who entertains the fans with his dribbling and flick-ups.

He has been booked to perform three times this season by Reading, Yeovil and Swindon. And each time he has delivered a home win.

Jake's got such a lucky reputation that Torquay, another side like City who can't buy success in front of their own fans, have got him coming down for the next game at Plainmoor against Doncaster.

Maybe the Bantams should get in touch with his kennel before the home form sends their season to the dogs.

Once again, City blew a golden chance at Valley Parade to clamber back among the play-off pack. How many times have we said that?

On their travels - where City have gone over seven hours without conceding - they may look like Chelsea. At home it's more Chipperfield's Circus.

And Colin Todd is not laughing.

The City boss struggled to contain his anger at seeing a first home win since October tossed away. Just as Swindon had done in the last game here, Torquay struck twice in the space of a couple of minutes as the home side switched off big style.

It's not as if the Bantams had been playing well to lead. They hadn't.

But having got their noses in front with a one-two of their own, it surely wasn't too much to ask that City could build on that against a side only a couple of points above the relegation zone.

Then again, when has the table had any relevance on this topsy-turvy league?

The play-off hopes are receding just as Todd gets the flexibility to bolster his squad. Another striker should be in before next week's televised trip to Barnsley.

But bigger numbers do not guarantee success, particularly when one or two go missing from duty, as was the case on Saturday.

Todd made it very clear who he felt were the culprits by hauling off Darren Holloway straight after the Torquay equaliser and Owen Morrison at the break.

Steve Schumacher, too, looked a shadow of the barnstorming box-to-boxer we've come to expect, although he may have been restricted by the tight hamstring that needed attention during the week.

Alongside him, Lee Crooks was left to do the job of two men and stuck to the task in typically no-nonsense fashion - the presence of Craig Armstrong on the bench no doubt giving him the prod which Paul Tierney's arrival has done with Lewis Emanuel.

That is what competition for places is about and Todd may be tempted to shuffle the pack for Oakwell and ruffle a few feathers. His post-match dig that some were getting too big for their boots suggested his patience had already run out.

"If we were 2-0 up away from home then we wouldn't concede," he argued with some justification given the miserly goals against record on the road. "It's not the central defenders or the keeper but it's in other areas where we are not putting enough pressure on the ball and playing very negative.

"Once again we let in two goals in a quick period. The same thing happened here against Swindon, so have we learned from it?"

Apart from one run in the early minutes which almost found Dean Windass in the box, there was precious little from Morrison.

He is an unpredictable talent, occasionally match-winning and brilliant and then frustrating in equal measures the following week. This was one of those to forget.

It was no shock that he made way for Ben Muirhead, who then ruined his chances of a recall at Barnsley with a fifth yellow card.

Todd wanted his widemen to bombard the Torquay box with crosses for Windass and Andy Cooke. Yet it took nearly half an hour for the first juicy centre to come in.

By that time, Torquay could and should have been away. Crooks denied Jo Kuffour with a well-timed lunge in the box and Mark Bower headed just over his own goal from a corner.

Then Kuffour, left criminally unmarked by Holloway, lashed wide with only Paul Henderson to beat. Yet as soon as City got the first cross in, the tables turned as Windass forced an alert tip-over from Oli Gottskalksson.

And from Nicky Summerbee's second quality centre, they were ahead.

Bower didn't get the best contact on his free-kick but steered the ball into the path of Cooke who did the rest to get his account up and running from eight yards.

Then Summerbee unlocked Torquay again as Cooke's header bounced off Gottskalksson's chest for the lurking Windass to nod home.

It was surely time to pass the cigars round.

But straight away Torquay were gifted a lifeline.

Adebayo Akinfenwa, again left all on his own, headed against the bar and nobody was closing down Tony Bedeau as he rolled home the rebound.

Torquay roared forward with renewed hope and Henderson tipped away Akinfenwa's fizzer for a corner.

Craig Taylor met it with a goal-bound header which David Wetherall nodded off the line. The danger should have been cleared but Holloway rammed the ball against Akinfenwa, who had turned away, and the ricochet came back with interest into the City net.

A freak goal, admittedly, but no more than Torquay had deserved. And equally City's sloppiness got its just deserts.

That was Holloway's involvement over and Morrison did not come back for the second half either.

Muirhead, with a point to prove, was straight into the action and won a free-kick which saw Cooke get too much on Wetherall's flick-on.

The same route - Summerbee set-piece, Wetherall header - undid Torquay again within minutes but Cooke's overhead kick flew a foot too high.

The visitors rode the pressure and when Muirhead's swerving cross-shot was dug out the bottom corner by Gottskalksson's finger-tips, another day of home frustration was confirmed.

Schumacher produced one strong late run to tee up Windass from the byline but the ball bobbled up at the last moment. And it could have been even worse when Akinfenwa broke away in stoppage time but Tierney tracked him all the way and defused the danger.