Bradford City v Torquay United - 8/12/12

[Dutchgull]

Apparently these kind of things even out over a season .....yeah right.........

[gurneygibbs23]

what a shame. After holding on after apparantly a shocking decision giving a red card for saah. Radio Devon made me laugh keep suggesting towards the end that torquay are going to make another substitution, after they had already brought all 3 subs on before. Maybe that would of made a difference, Rice up front !

[AustrianAndyGull]

Write more tomorrow when i,ve got the pc but today we were immense defensively and everyone gave it everything they had. Dubious sending off for which many blamed meredith for faking injury but brians elbow was raised and you just can,t get away with it nowadays. Bodin off injured too and the cruel blow of conceding late on. Great strike by connel though and one which an amazing pokey just couldn,t get near. Craig for me was the poorest player corners and free kicks continually bad delivery and he bizarrely misjudged the bounce of the ball on a few occasions including for the goal. He worked tirelessly though and was as gutted as anyone. Bradford still a total shithole, only 120 of us there and the ref a complete c*nt but a great effort.

[Plymouth Gull]

Disappointing result, but it sounds like we didn't really do much form of attacking. I wasn't there, so don't know if he was doing particularly bad, but I think taking Stevens off was a mistake. I would have taken Jarvis off, allowed Stevens and Thompson to keep wide and keep some form of width, as well as giving Rene some help should we have counter-attacked. Judging from the stats, we didn't though. Still, I'll look at Saah's red later on and see but it sounds like he raised an arm, which you just can't do in this day and age, no matter how much contact there is. Unfortunate, but very silly.

[Dutchgull]

How many "raised arms" go unpunished ? It will be very interesting to see this later.

[Plymouth Gull]

For people who haven't seen;

http://twitter.yfrog.com/n9gyuheciazusajdlzjlcmwyz

Definite red in my book. Stupid thing to do. Looking at that I'd be very surprised if we appeal.

[Dutchgull]

Didn't look good but the Bradford player connected with Saah first . Like to see that a bit more clearly but thanks for posting !

[brucie]

Didn't look anything to me - their player went down like he had been shot. Typical shite decision that always goes against us

[Chris B]

Truly embarrassing from Meredith – first of all he unnecessarily backs in as Brian is picking up the ball, and then the speed with which his hands come up to his face, and the laughable way he throws himself to the floor show his intent to get Saah sent off. I wouldn't be hopeful of a successful appeal, though.

[Scott Brehaut]

Looks a definite red to me from that clip - the player made a meal of it admittedly, but Saah's elbow is clearly up and in the players face....you just can't do that sort of thing nowadays.

Would like to see it later on in the Football League show and see it a bit clearer though, but that clip is not great for Brian.

[Plymouth Gull]

Just watched again. The bloke has stood right on Saah's foot, and I wouldn't say it's an abnormal reaction to put your arm out to try and keep balance. Hmm. It's a tough one but we all know an appeal is unlikely.

[AlexGulls]

Like others I didnt think it was a red either at the time. He was just getting the ball and he didnt even realise Meredith was behind him. Shame really as that kind off took away any hope of catching them on the counter attack and we had to settle for damage limitation and I thought Poke was excellent. Had no chance with the goal.

[bengull]

Extremely proud of how we played in adversity today. We defended brilliantly in the face of a brutal onslaught and every outfield player showed pride in the yellow shirt with whole-hearted commitment. We came so close to pulling off a brilliant escape but sadly it wasn't to be. Stayed behind to applaud the team off until the last player took his last step off the pitch, they deserve every credit for the monumental effort they put in.

Special praise for Michael Poke who put in the single best performance I have ever seen from a Torquay United Goalkeeper. He was completely in the zone today and set the tone inside the first minute with an instinctive and top-drawer tip over from a point-black header. He repelled everything that Bradford could throw at him and was the difference between a slender 1-0 defeat and a 5-0 thumping. He didn't deserve to be on the losing team, but as a very very miniscule consolation, atleast the winner (curse of Connell) was a worldie that he could do nothing about, as opposed to a gutting defensive error.

We started off so lethargically, with Leadbitter in particular being caught out of position on a number of occasions, which in turn created holes in the middle of the park which Bradford exploited at will, gleefully accepting opportunities to shoot on sight. It felt like it was going to be one of those days as we struggled to create anything meaningful, but just as we started to stem the Bradford tide.....

I have yet to see a replay of the Saah incident, so i will try and describe how i saw it as best I can.

Saah does well to win the ball and attempt to carry it out of defence. A player wildly hacks at Saah from behind not once but twice causing Saah to stumble and take the foul. Looking to take the kick quickly he stands up quickly and tries to shrug off the players standing behind him hassling him. In doing so his body moves violently from one direction to the next. Simultaneously, Meredith senses the chance to cause some mischief and reacts like he has been sniped from the crowd. The referee, no doubt looking in completely the wrong direction, has not seen the incident and seems in no way interested in Saah's actions and instead checks on the fallen soldier. 1 minute passes whilst the flood of blood is mopped up from the broken nose Meredith did not sustain, and ice is applied to the 2 black eyes he is not displaying as he slowly gets to his feet without any sign of concussion that an elbow to the face would surely carry. As an afterthought the referee ambles over to the linesman to no doubt ask whose freekick was it in the first place, only for the lino to tell him its assault, a definite red card and a 6 month jail term. Red card then brandished in face of disbelieving captain who seeks solice in equally disbelieving team mates.

Ok, so i may have embellished it a tad, but if the Ref thought it was a red card the first thing he should have done was removed a 'violent player' from the field of play.

I have to say from my lofty perch, it looked bad, I had a nasty feeling that it would result in a red card, but i am convinced Saah didn't touch him. It looked really un-natural from start to finish. People will say that if you raise your elbow you run the risk of a dismissal, but my gut feeling was that he didn't even do that. Meredith read the situation and fell to the floor so convincingly that the linesman had made up his mind despite not seeing the incident face on- which the majority of Torquay Crowd had the benefit of doing so. And the majority of the Torquay contingent were up in arms and apoplectic, normally with contentious decisions you get 5 or 6 knuckleheads like myself having a good old moan for the sake of moaning, but in this case 90% of Torquay fans were ranting, raving and gesticulating, which gives you the feeling it was a shocking decision.

I must stress this is all based on my gut reaction at the time, and recounting it since. By the time I have watched the replay, the reality may be completely different and I will react accordingly. I have to say I wasn't surprised that the card was brandished, I had a nasty feeling it was coming, but I still think Saah didn't touch him, and never meant to. It made it all the more galling that Meredith was on the charge, down that very wing, at every opportunity for the rest of the half with not a mark of injury on him. Leaves a bad taste in your mouth, I am not sure I would be proud of any of our players if they acted in the same way, but at the same time I am not sure any of them have it in themselves to do so.

Still, big well done to Lingy for sticking to his guns and bringing in extra defensive cover for the christmas period, Angus came on and did a very good job, wonder what the neighsayers make of this astute bit of managing now? Kirtys Mckenzie performed admirably against Vale in August, but asking him to play against Exeter, Argyle et al is a different kettle of fish. We have to pray that Downes is on his best behaviour, or pray that we can get Saah's red rescinded (or realise that praying won't do any good at all, and just hope for the best instead)

Going down to 10 men didn't really change the proceeding of the match, we were on the backfoot with 11, however it just makes not winning all the more inevitable, and when you've been up since 6am and travelled 250 miles to be there, it really puts you in a bad mood. Ironically we then had our best 5 minute spell of the match and we really should have nicked a goal there, Nial hit the post from distance, and then Downes headed over what looked to be a straightforward chance from a corner. Those happened to be our only 2 chances of any note.

Bradford re-entered the arena for the second half with real purpose, it was like the Alamo. I don't think we threaded 3 passes together in Bradford's half for the entire second period, we certainly didn't have a shot at goal. It was just wave after wave of Bradford attack, using the extra man to their advantage every single time. It just looked a formality, but Poke was equal to everything thrown at him, and there was heroic blocks and interceptions from the men infront of him. It was a bit like being 9 wickets down in a test match and having to bat for an hour with a bunny at the crease to secure a draw, with each minute passing grew the belief that we could pull off an improbable escape. As time drew on Bradford started to run out of ideas, and crosses were hacked into the crowd. I really did think we had seen out the worst of it, before Connell found a bit of space on the edge of the box to drive home an unstoppable shot from 20 yards to settle it.

Just enough time though for Rene to nearly get sent off, fustration getting the better of him as he charged down the keeper who was timewasting. To me that was more of a red than Saahs, but that just summed up the referee's afternoon. Started badly by not realising his black shirt clashed with our away kit, he was attrocious for both sides.

As i said, once you go down to ten men, you know what to expect until full time, I could not have been more pleased with how we played in the face of adversity, the passion and pride they showed. That we lost is irrelevant, as is our lack of attacking threat. Put that sort of effort in every week and we will be fine. Squad is stretched now though, last season we were heralding the lack of injuries and suspensions as the cornerstone to our successes, this season they look to be hindering us every single week.

[Dave]

Difficult to tell from that clip, however regardless of whether the Bradford player makes a meal of it or not looks a red card to me and little to complain about.

[Dutchgull]

There bloody is !! Why always sympathise with a feckin actor ???

I am fed up of us suffering at the cheating of other clubs players