Some on-field factors in the fall of Bradford City this term

But 11 months later, it feels like the Bantams have yet to truly recover from the hangover to end all hangovers, a catastrophic, and what felt like wholly avoidable, 3-1 semi-final defeat to Carlisle that led to the Cumbrians getting promoted at Wembley instead.

I often like to blame hangovers for my poor performances in life the next day, but just like City, I know I’m just deflecting from other more legitimate reasons.

So as City sit in 13th heading into the final four games of the 2023/24 campaign, with no realistic chance of making the play-offs this time around, we take a look at some on-field reasons as to why their difficult second album has fallen so flat.

WHERE THEM GOALS AT?

Other than fellow mid-table side Gillingham, who have somehow won 17 league games this season despite only scoring 40 goals all term, only rock-bottom Forest Green have found the net less than the Bantams.

Fifty goals in 42 games is a poor return from City, especially considering Andy Cook netted 28 on his own last season.

Cook has pulled his weight as best as he can this term, and while he has not quite hit the heights of 2022/23, he has still scored 15 times in the league, a solid return.

Similarly to last year, no-one has really gone with him in terms of scoring, so with Cook not reaching those stratospheric highs this time around, it has reflected poorly on the Bantams.

It feels harsh to pick out individuals, but Tyler Smith’s return of four goals in 36 league appearances really is not good enough, though to give him his due, he was a menace in the EFL Trophy.

Tyler Smith stretches but fails to score in City's embarrassing 5-1 home defeat to Mansfield last month. (Image: Thomas Gadd.)

Despite that alarming statistic, he is still only behind Jamie Walker, with five, as City’s third top scorer in League Two.

Goals win games, and City would have far more than 15 victories on the board if they could just find the flippin’ net.

LOAN DISASTERS

Any side at this level will tell you that a good loan signing or two can be the key to a successful season.

City got it right last season, Tolaji Bola, Thierry Nevers and Dara Costelloe maybe excepted, with Romoney Crichlow developing into an excellent, cultured centre-half under Mark Hughes and Scott Banks showing how there is still a place for elegant wingers in the game to fawn over.

Both were huge factors in the Bantams’ run to the play-off semis, with the withdrawal of Banks during extra-time of the second leg at Carlisle often cited as the deciding factor in the tie.

And when Tyreik Wright, back for a second, so far less successful loan spell, was on the other side to Banks in the first half of the season before being sold to Plymouth, the Bantams were a genuine attacking threat to pretty much any side in the division.

The players who have filled their positions on loan this season have been a fair reflection on City’s slide down the table.

A little less so in defence, where Jon Tomkinson is developing nicely as a skilful centre-half.

But unlike Crichlow, who played 36 times for City in the league and subsequent play-offs, Tomkinson has had a more hit and miss season.

The young American played FIVE minutes of league action until mid-December, which probably left parent club Norwich wondering why they had even bothered sending him to Valley Parade.

Things have picked up since, and he has racked up another 19 league appearances since being brought into the side for an away game in Gillingham.

But he was a victim of the appalling 5-1 home defeat to Mansfield last month and has only started one of the last five games as a result.

He is a talented player with plenty of potential, but probably less of the finished article than Crichlow, who is now playing for Peterborough at the top end of League One.

Daniel Oyegoke’s problems have been a little different, though getting sent off on debut at Crawley in August didn’t help.

He has only started 10 games since then, partly down to the damaged shoulder he suffered at home to Barrow in November, which is a shame as he seems to be a player that suits a Graham Alexander system.

But while his route in at right wing back has been blocked by City’s Player of the Season (surely) Brad Halliday, there are signs over the last couple of weeks, that in the right set up, he can work as a marauding centre half.

That move may have come too late to save the season, but it is a promising sign.

But while there are positives to take from the performances of Tomkinson and Oyegoke it is hard to say the same for Chisom Afoka and Rayhaan Tulloch.

The lesser-spotted Chisom Afoka on the ball for City at Valley Parade back in September. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

Though Cook and 20 clean sheet man Harry Lewis, were the obvious candidates for Player of the Season in the City camp in 2022/23, Banks was right up there, and was the kind of player that would get you out of your seat in anticipation and excitement.

For the most part this term, you were probably only getting out of your seat for Afoka and Tulloch to ask, not all that politely, what the heck they were playing at out on the pitch.

Tulloch did have one glorious afternoon in Wales in September, terrorising the Newport defence and producing a goal and an assist in a 4-1 win.

But that was only one of two starts for the West Brom man, who did not play a minute for City after their grim 4-1 defeat at MK Dons in October.

Quite what Shrewsbury saw in that spell that compelled them to sign him, only they will know, but the fact he has only had 44 minutes of action for them tells its own story, even if in his defence, he has missed a couple of matches with a groin problem.

At least Tulloch has had that Newport game and a move to Shropshire this season.

Afoka played just twice in a City shirt, and after starting one game up top against Harrogate, Hughes quickly realised he didn’t fancy the lad.

He managed a miserable 98 minutes of action in his Bantams career, including a grand total of ZERO under Graham Alexander, and sadly, will probably go down as one of the worst loan signings in City’s history.

BURSTS BUT NO CONSISTENCY

City’s problem is they can look, to coin a phrase from my native North-East, ‘proper mint’ for a few weeks before producing a pile of stinking rubbish out of nowhere.

Kevin McDonald was brought in to be a key cog and steadying presence in midfield, but it turned out he was a decent interim manager too after Hughes was sacked.

He won all of his first three games, with a battling EFL Trophy group stage win at Grimsby sandwiched by excellent league successes against Swindon and AFC Wimbledon.

A thrilling draw with promotion favourites Wrexham kept up the excitement factor, but then all of a sudden, City crashed to embarrassing defeats at struggling MK Dons and Sutton and the bubble was burst as quickly as it had formed.

Sutton had picked up just seven points from 15 league games before City turned up at Gander Green Lane in October and lost 2-1. (Image: Thomas Gadd.)

Alexander’s first game and a half after his appointment came straight from the box under the stairs labelled ‘nightmares’.

His new side conceded inside 30 seconds against Barrow, were beaten 2-1 and lost Oyegoke to that long-term shoulder injury.

They then produced genuinely one of the worst first-half performances you could ever see at Notts County, heading into the break 4-0 down.

But something clicked thereafter, as Alexander switched his tactics up, the Bantams hit back to only lose 4-2, then went on to win their next six competitive games up to Boxing Day.

Festive draws with Morecambe and Stockport kept City ticking over, only for them to suddenly stop producing, with no more wins in the league until mid-February.

They surprisingly ended that bad run with a superb last-gasp victory at Wrexham, then embarked upon a fine month-long spell, which included thumping wins over MK Dons and Accrington, as well as suffering daylight robbery at the hands of League One Wycombe in the EFL Trophy semi-final.

I covered that Accrington game on March 9, where City were genuinely outstanding in the first half.

After that comfortable as you like 3-0 away win, I could not possibly have foreseen the shambolic 11-day spell that followed.

Played four, lost four, scored one, conceded 13, and bang, City’s season was over just like that.

With three automatic promotion places and four play-off spots up for grabs in League Two, any team that can go on, say, a three-month unbeaten run, is almost a shoo-in to be one of that super seven.

But just when it looks like City have cracked it, they somehow manage to throw it all away.