Hopkin accentuates City must avoid needless concessions
AS PART of a facelift that has seen the walls of Bradford City’s training ground recently decorated with images of Valley Parade and the club’s badge, manager David Hopkin ensured pride of place was given to one of the most iconic photographs of the 20th century.
Lunch atop a Skyscraper depicts 11 men seated on a girder eating lunch, their feet dangling hundreds of feet above the streets of Manhattan during the construction of the Rockefeller Center.
It can be found in City’s new media suite at Apperley Bridge and Hopkin makes a point of stressing the underlying message to his players about the value of teamwork when 11 men go to work together, often in difficult conditions.
Bradford’s league position – they sit second bottom of League One with 14 games remaining – may be nothing like as precarious as the one captured by Charles C Ebbets in 1932.
But there is no denying that the Bantams need to get a move on if they are to avoid a costly fall of their own.
“Every team is scrapping for survival,” said the former Scotland international to
The Yorkshire Post ahead of tomorrow’s home game with Plymouth Argyle.
“We are at a stage where it is down to nerves and who can come through games without losing their composure.
“March and April will be massive because you are playing five or six games in each month. We need to pick up as many wins as we can now.”
Just three points separate the Bantams from Walsall in 17th place. Plymouth are a further two points and two places above the Saddlers, underlining just how concertinaed the bottom echelons of the third tier have become with even bottom club AFC Wimbledon giving their own hopes of survival a big boost in midweek with victory at the Bescot Stadium.
With the teams packed so tightly together the battle to avoid the drop is expected to go all the way to the final weekend.
Asked if he felt the 50-point mark usually considered enough to guarantee safety would be sufficient this time around, Hopkin replied: “I don’t know because there are a few teams in it now.
“That was the main thing when I came in, to make sure we were still in it December and January.
“We are into February and nearly March now and we are still round and about it. The players deserve great credit for that.
“If you were asked maybe 50 points would have got you safe, but it might be a bit more. We just need to keep going. We have got everyone to play around about us still.”
Hopkin’s men have a golden chance to drag a couple of their rivals deeper into the mire.
City head to Walsall a week today then comes a tough start to March that includes tackling Portsmouth, Peterborough United and Luton Town before the meetings with those also in trouble resume via a trip to Oxford United.
The likelihood that the scrap for survival is likely to go to the final weekend – when Bradford host Wimbledon – means every point is going to be crucial.
With that in mind Hopkin has stressed to his players the need to avoid making life hard for themselves with unnecessary suspensions or by gifting the opposition cheap set-pieces.
“Injuries and suspensions are a big thing now coming into these busy months,” said the Bantams’ chief, who continues to assess trialist David Edgar in training.
“It is important we don’t lose players to silly bookings or red cards. I say to the players, ‘Discipline is paramount. Keep your best 18 players available every week as then it makes your job easier’.
“This is when your discipline, both mentally and physically, comes in to how you are going to do things and how players look after their lives between now and May.”