v Bradford City (h) - 12/8/25 - Carabao Cup

[des]

Well if we cannot beat a team who have just come up from division two its going to be a long long hard season  and we will be lucky not to go down 

[Rover down South]

A year from now, losing on a Tuesday night to League One opposition will be the norm, as that's where we are heading.

[Valconite]

Downgraded team. No attacking threat. Players looking like they can't be bothered and want away asap. Loosing first two games of the season so morale is low. Saturday we will essentially be the away team in our own ground.  Yeah it is looking fantastic. 

Let's face it. We will never get rid of the rot that has settled in here. What is the point of it all. 

[DutchRover]

Pasha says spending doesn't guarantee success, but not spending does guarantee failure.

The wage stagnation versus rest of league is what hurts us more than the low transfer fees I think, because we can't keep Championship level players, or even use free transfers.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Trying to look on positives :

Tavares, Tyjon, Wharton all had reasonable matches. Axel looked like there may be a player there.

The real positive, we don't have to worry about Cup matches as we likely fight relegation.

Yet another Venky first- over a hundred years since Bradford beat us at Ewood. They really are the gift that just keeps giving.

[CambridgeRover]

2 minutes ago, RTM08 said:

As much as we look bereft of a plan I don't what anyone is expecting him to do with the garbage he's being given by them upstairs.

Fair, the clowns are above him. Just surprised at how much we look off it

[neophox]

Middlesbrough with Brittain losing 4-0 at home to Doncaster 😁

[WacoRover]

No commitment from owners to secure championship level players. A poor showing by manager thus far, to name a starting 11, & provide meaningful gametime decisions. A lineup that is underwhelming, at best. 
Most games, we will be trailing, 0-1, or 0-2, with no or little chance to play for a win.  Half our games, we will be scrapping for a point. 

The way things stand right now, Rovers will have single digit wins, and be in the relegation zone before we get to September.

[Atko's Engine]

5 minutes ago, OsloRover said:

It really wasn’t 

I think it was. He was clearly caught on his standing leg. 

Ohashi wasn't given one on Saturday. Consensus then was that if it'd been the home team then a penalty would've been given. 

Yet Cantwell didn't get this one.

Doesn't excuse losing however.

[pick32]

Montgomery was by far the worst player on the pitch including Bradfords team, Cantwell looked a class above when he came on, need some decent forwards and to keep players like Trav who can get stuck in, positives Tavares and Miller looked like good additions

[London blue]

1 minute ago, neophox said:

Middlesbrough with Brittain losing 4-0 at home to Doncaster 😁

I understand wanting to find a silver lining but I couldn't care less.

[ObiWhan8t7]

Only positive tonight was Taveres. Looked composed, always scouting, good range of passing and passed the ball forwards tonight more than every other midfielder did last season. Shame the rest on the field were terrible 

[Torgeir]

5 minutes ago, London blue said:

I don't know where to start with this shit show.

Rotating so heavily was foolish in the extreme. It was patently obvious Bradford would be right up for this. What the fuck was Montgomery doing starting at RB? 

Individual performances across the board really, really poor. I could pick out maybe one or two that didn't disgrace themselves but I'd be grasping at straws.

This is Bradford, playing in league two last year and don't let the possession stats fool you, we barely laid a glove on them. 

The good news? Our captain will very likely be sold this week and we get to welcome Big Club and 7000 cocky Brummies to Ewood this weekend. Fuck off.

Bradford rotated six players as well so no excuses. We are shit going forward and don’t have the right players to dominate teams. The subs were pre-planned and proof is that Montgomery stayed on for that long when he played to a 1 out of 10 rating.  

How  many times did we gift them glorious oppurtunities?

Still, we should’ve had at least two goals. I liked the looks of Miller, Tavares and (at times) Henriksson. 

[doctorryan]

1 minute ago, neophox said:

Middlesbrough with Brittain losing 4-0 at home to Doncaster 😁

I hope he enjoys the direction they're pulling him in.

[Torgeir]

1 minute ago, pick32 said:

Montgomery was by far the worst player on the pitch including Bradfords team, Cantwell looked a class above when he came on, need some decent forwards and to keep players like Trav who can get stuck in, positives Tavares and Miller looked like good additions

Cantwell hardly got forward and gave them a big chance. Can’t remember him turning a game around for us ever. 

[StHelensRover]

Another rancid performance. There was a couple of late penalty shouts though, so we can pretend we were unlucky like Saturday when in reality we've had our pants pulled down by a lower league team. Another embarrassing cup exit under the clowns. 

We look completely clueless again in front of goal. Our goal only coming after Miller threw the ball 3 yards Infront of the net for De Neve to smack in at point blank range. 

If we concede early again on Saturday we're in trouble. 

[Herbie6590]

Vote for your BRFCS POTM in our elegant Match Centre right now…⚪️🔵

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[corb691]

This has been coming, the survival on the last day two seasons ago was the warning shot and they haven't learnt their lesson. 

It takes time for new signings to bed in and for the team to gel however, every team is in the same position. After focussing on their individual contributions so far, the replacements are not even on par with their predecessors (apart from Tavares). I think it wouldn't be unreasonable to suggest that in terms of quality, we probably rank quite low in the league and that doesn't bode well. 

We lack quality, we don't seem to have any identity. I don't think VI is a bad coach (he proved that at the back end of last season) but I he is even thinking now "what have I got myself into?".

From an attacking point of view, too reliant on Cantwell for creativity (a player that conceivably could be available for 50% of the season), Kargbo looks like a competition winner, Gueye and Montgomery are way out of their depth.

I hope I'm wrong....

 

[pick32]

Wonder if they will swap Montgomery and De Neve for Metcalf

[davulsukur]

Yikes. That was awful. 

Huge, huge concerns with pretty just everything right now.

Relegation is more likely than not at this moment.

[RevidgeBlue]

4 minutes ago, DavidMailsTightPerm said:

The real positive, we don't have to worry about Cup matches as we likely fight relegation.

That's a negative not a positive.

A positive would be being embroiled in a relegation battle but gaining some confidence and momentum because of a good run in the Cup.

[Makrover]

Didn’t buy a season ticket absolutely nothing about the window or last two games that would make me want to clubs rotten 

[corb691]

3 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

Cantwell hardly got forward and gave them a big chance. Can’t remember him turning a game around for us ever. 

I can't believe how difficult it is to get a player who is a number 10 to play further forward. He always plays so deep and he did it under Eustace. I'd suspect it's a case of him not listening/following the instructions he is given, can't be a coincidence that he's doing the same under VI, yet back end of last season he did seem to be further forward. 

[Waggy76]

1 minute ago, pick32 said:

Wonder if they will swap Montgomery and De Neve for Metcalf

I would certainly swap them for Stuart at the same age !

[neophox]

It could be a good thing showing we need to splash the cash now or we will have a long hard season.