Canny Caddis happy to join Bantams fightback

PAUL CADDIS bounded out of the wilderness as Bradford’s League One bantamweights at last showed signs of packing a punch.

The decline of a proud club amid fan protests against owner Edin Rahic has been one of the season’s more depressing storylines.

Already on his fifth manager in 2018, Rahic sent out an SOS to former chairman Julian Rhodes to help clear up the mess as a consultant.

But on the pitch, rock-bottom Bradford – whose magic carpet ride to the League Cup final as a fourth-tier club in 2011 was a footballing miracle – have been going downhill fast.

Just six wins in 38 league games since New Year’s Day is asking for trouble at any level.

Scrapheap

But former Scotland international defender Caddis, whose contract at Blackburn was torn up at the end of August, brought some Caledonian steel and know-how with him in his first game for three months.

City were well worth their point at the ABAX Stadium and debutant Caddis, 30, was relieved to escape the scrapheap.

He said: “I was close to taking the kids out of school, cutting my losses and going home to Scotland, but my missus kept me sane.

“For the first time in 14 years, I didn’t have a club and they were difficult times. You hear a lot of stuff now about players suffering mental health and depression – I never got to that stage, but it makes you think.

“For 14 years, you are told, ‘Do this, do that, be here at this time or be there at that time’.

“That’s how you live your life as a professional player, but then it stops and you are wondering,

‘What do I do next?’

“You are waiting on an injury, or ban or a change of manager, and for some it comes to a point where the phone stops ringing.

“After a difficult two or three months since leaving Blackburn and trying to maintain my fitness, it was fantastic to get back on the pitch for the first time since August.

“I don’t know what’s gone on before, but Bradford City has not been a depressing place to work – the management have done everything to keep the mood upbeat and I’ve seen the quality in training.

“It’s up to each individual at the club to pick each other up.

“At a club like Bradford, working hard is the bare minimum, but we have the ability to push up the table step by step.”

Posh, one home win in seven games, were lucky.

Sub Ivan Toney’s equaliser should have been ruled offside after Anthony O’Connor’s early goal for City.

Chairman Darragh MacAnthony branded it a “s*** show” and disagreed with manager Steve

Evans’ claim that their territorial domination merited all three points.

MacAnthony said: “Possession is a fallacy, shots are what matter. We had one on target in

96 minutes at home against the bottom team in the league.”