STEVENAGE 2 CITY 3

COULD you ever get a more Bradford City result than this one?

Forget “Spursy”, it’s surely about time the phrase “Bantamsy” is added to the football lexicon.

Tottenham’s consistent shortcomings have coined its own mocking description.

But what can we say about the actions of that certain club in BD8 who constantly frustrate, bemuse and sometimes amaze almost on a weekly basis? League table and formbook logic rarely comes into it.

Thirty miles up the road from north London, City chose the division’s most fearsome venue - on current results - to deliver the most gloriously unpredictable outcome.

Let’s consider the “facts” that were demolished in a second half that nobody could have seriously predicted:

Stevenage had kept five clean sheets in their previous six home games;

City had not scored in their previous five away games;

Stevenage had not lost after scoring first since September 2021;

City had not won after conceding first since beating Salford last January.

Not forgetting that City boasted the best first-half form in the fourth tier but were one of the lowest after the break.

Nor the fact that Stevenage had recently put three without reply past leaders Leyton Orient; a week and a half earlier, City had lost at home to bottom club Rochdale.

So what happens when the two collide?

Yep, it doesn’t get more City - or “Bantamsy” - than that.

Three shots on target, three goals, three points; and a huge statement delivered to those doubting whether City really can back up the confident talk that has been emanating from Valley Parade since before the first ball was kicked.

Fair play to anybody who backed a Stevenage half-time/City full-time afternoon. I can’t imagine the bookies lost too much money.

Steve Evans, as usual tossing in the odd strand of barbed wire wrapped inside the post-match bouquet, called City “a big club that should be winning and shouldn't be sitting whatever it is behind us.”

He’s right, of course, pound-for-pound, player-for-player, there should be no reason why they are still 11 points behind Stevenage.

Dismiss the usual trimmings about big budgets - goal-scorers Carl Piergianni and Dan Sweeney are both understood to be on decent bucks - but Evans has a point about the personnel that Mark Hughes has assembled.

Hughes himself had dressed this one up as the type of occasion when reputations had to be justified. Let’s see what those so-called promotion credentials are made of.

And they did exactly that - from just after 4pm anyway.

He had turned up with a team heavy in experience, Matt Derbyshire’s inclusion for a first start and the immediate recall of skipper Richie Smallwood boosted the total league appearances of the midfield and front two to a whopping 2,268.

Liam Ridehalgh added more know-how on his return from five months out at the back while debutant Sam Stubbs was no wallflower in the middle.

It was the type of occasion for those who had been around the block rather than up-and-coming youngsters - although Thierry Nevers showed a commendable ability to be a real “pain in the backside” for Stevenage in the six, long added minutes before victory was confirmed.

The dark arts that seem to follow Evans and his trusty sidekick Paul Raynor wherever they go were evidenced from an hour before kick-off as a stubborn groundsman decided to fork the pitch in exactly the area where Colin Doyle wanted to warm-up the keepers.

Hughes subsequently reported his annoyance at the lack of GPS by the dug-out and the club’s analysts being stopped from filming the action. Antics that all added up to making what followed even sweeter for the Bantams.

Not that there was any suggestion of anything other than a standard Stevenage home win after an opening 45 minutes controlled by the hosts.

Hughes had urged his team to be brave and stick to their own game, getting the ball down and play when all their opponents wanted was to launch it high and long.

But the early exchanges were all about the basketball action he had feared; the action whizzing from A to B and back again with nobody having the slightest chance of taking the sting out of the frenzy.

Evans paid City the respect of matching them up with a midfield diamond and stuck the bruising Michael Bostwick on Jamie Walker; the ultimate catchweight duel. But the Scot would deliver the last telling blow.

Stevenage struck first on 25 minutes from a predictable route. City’s zonal marking at corners was exposed as Piergianni got the run on Derbyshire and Stubbs to power home Jake Forster-Caskey’s delivery.

Josh March and Bostwick both went close to adding to the tally before City finally broke out of the barrage long enough for Derbyshire to fire a very presentable half-volley over the bar.

Hughes used half-time to remind his side to find that balance between going long as Stevenage wanted and moving the ball quickly with one or two touches to take the home press out of the play.

For five minutes it seemed that nothing had changed. But then …

Smallwood’s free-kick was knocked down by Andy Cook and Derbyshire did the rest with a looping finish that flew in off the underside of the bar.

Five minutes later, City were in front. Referee Leigh Doughty redressed some of the penalty balance against Hughes when he spotted Sweeney pulling on Matty Platt’s shirt.

Cook dispatched his 18th goal of the season and the contest had turned on its head.

Stunned by what had just happened, Stevenage renewed their shelling of the City box.

Harry Lewis pulled off a breath-taking stop from March but again the lack of man-for-man approach at a corner cost them dear when Sweeney briefly revived his miserable day with the equaliser.

Ciaran Kelly and Vadaine Oliver were summoned from the bench for the test of strength that was heading their way in the closing stages.

Then with four minutes of the 90 to go, City broke with menace.

Cook tried to feed Oliver but the ball pinged back to him and this time he laid into the path of Walker’s run.

The matchwinner last season repeated the trick a year on with a composed finish to the euphoric disbelief of the 700 or so delirious fans behind that goal.

Not all in the crowd were so well behaved.

One so-called Stevenage "supporter" mindlessly ran on the pitch with the intent of seemingly getting at Cook.

Fortunately for all concerned, the Stevenage players were far more alert than the dozing stewards and Alex Gilbey led a posse of red shirts that surrounded the idiot and ensured he was marched away.

A late storm was still brewing for the Bantams when the fourth official signalled so much additional time.

But the back five/seven won their headers and clearances, Lewis made one last sharp save and Nevers went about his job of occupying and generally annoying the Stevenage backline with gusto.

The subs had worked a treat, unlike against Mansfield the week before, and complemented a performance that dug deep in all areas.

We should never have doubted them. Football, eh …