Bergen Blade
Well-Known Member
What did you think of his performance?
I thought he was reasonably busy first half, even making some runs in behind and down the channels, which he doesn't do a lot of. His finishing should have been better when he was clean through on goal. I liked the team today, but Baxter up front, like last season, looked like just a temporary solution.
I was surprised he stayed on for the full game, and in the last 20 minutes he varied from good when he sprayed some decent passes around, to very poor, as he lost the ball in dangerous positions and looked very unfit and embarrassingly slow when real chasing was required.
I am sure the plan was for us to keep possession with Baxter deeper and dictating things in the last 20 minutes, but it almost backfired. When the aim is so obviously to keep possession and see time out it sends a signal out that we're not going to attack and this can give the opposition, even a poor looking Bradford side with ten men, some belief that they can nick something at the end, some realisation that they can spend their energy on bombing forward rather than just defending.
Clough was right to put McNulty on, but wrong to take Scougall off and leave Baxter on. I think Scougall could have enjoyed the last 15 minutes as there was finally some space to run into for him. Oh, and what was that late free kick about? Well won by Flynn, good distance and in Baxter a player with a thunderbolt shot, and we chose to roll it sideways?
I thought he was reasonably busy first half, even making some runs in behind and down the channels, which he doesn't do a lot of. His finishing should have been better when he was clean through on goal. I liked the team today, but Baxter up front, like last season, looked like just a temporary solution.
I was surprised he stayed on for the full game, and in the last 20 minutes he varied from good when he sprayed some decent passes around, to very poor, as he lost the ball in dangerous positions and looked very unfit and embarrassingly slow when real chasing was required.
I am sure the plan was for us to keep possession with Baxter deeper and dictating things in the last 20 minutes, but it almost backfired. When the aim is so obviously to keep possession and see time out it sends a signal out that we're not going to attack and this can give the opposition, even a poor looking Bradford side with ten men, some belief that they can nick something at the end, some realisation that they can spend their energy on bombing forward rather than just defending.
Clough was right to put McNulty on, but wrong to take Scougall off and leave Baxter on. I think Scougall could have enjoyed the last 15 minutes as there was finally some space to run into for him. Oh, and what was that late free kick about? Well won by Flynn, good distance and in Baxter a player with a thunderbolt shot, and we chose to roll it sideways?