Watt rescues late point for troubled Bantams
THE angst surrounding Bradford City’s current inability to mount a promotion challenge from League Two deepened last night despite a late equaliser to rescue a point against Leyton Orient.
On Saturday, Bradford conceded goals from two crosses in squandering a winning position against visiting Crawley. On Tuesday,
it was another cross, swung in from the right, that was not properly dealt with and the old Championship campaigner Darren Pratley thundered home the loose ball from 16 yards.
It sparked anger from the stands but a bit of urgency on the pitch, Derek Adams throwing on Alex Gilliead and Theo Robinson and at least getting a response via a goal from Elliot Watt whose deflected shot seven minutes from time arced past the reach of Lawrence Vigoouroux.
It rescued a potentially uncomfortable situation for Adams whose relationship with the fanbase is on thin ice.
One point from two home games in four days leaves City six points off the play-offs which is the bare minimum of expectation of what Adams was brought into achieve in the summer.
On each occasion the concession of the goal and the full-time whistle was greeted with a chorus of boos and last night, with a chant of ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ aimed in the direction of Adams.
That it was followed by chants of sack the board from a section of Valley Parade points to real dissatisfaction among a portion of Bantams fans.
Coming 24 hours after club captain Niall Canavan was sold to Barrow on transfer deadline day merely heightens the concern about the club’s chances of achieving promotion this season.
Jamie Walker had carried Bradford’s biggest threat before being withdrawn to further boos from the home crowd in the immediate aftermath of Pratley’s goal. Watt’s strike from 20 yards though ensured a 13th draw from 28 games this season.
Bradford: Bass, Threlkeld, Songo’o, O’Connor, Foulds, Watt, Sutton, Walker (Gilliead 70), Cooke (Elliott 77), Daly (Robinson 67), Cook. Unused substitutes: O’Donnell, Ridehalgh, Kelleher, Cousin-Dawson.
Leyton Orient: Vigouroux, Mitchell, Beckles, Happe, Khan, Kyprianou, Coleman (Brown 90), Pratley, Archibald, Drinan, Smith. Unused substitutes: Sargeant, Moss, Sotiriou, Young, Nkrumah, Ray.
Referee: D Handley (Lancashire).