FL2: Bradford City v Torquay Utd 8/12/12

I will see what I can do, but they're a stubborn bunch.

It was nice to meet up with Barton Downs today and also Wildebeest who is a thoroughly nice guy.

Not any reports from me but Wildebeests is spot on.

With regards to the sending off,I was worried as soon has it happened.
The Bradford player may of made a meal of it but I thought Brian did thrust his arm towards the players chin.

Here`s a few pictures I took.

It was nice to meet up with Barton Downs today and also Wildebeest who is a thoroughly nice guy.

Not any reports from me but Wildebeests is spot on.

With regards to the sending off,I was worried as soon has it happened.
The Bradford player may of made a meal of it but Brian did thrust his arm towards the players chin.

Here`s a few pictures I took.

Thanks for the reports guys. Will be interested to see if the red card is appealed against.

Looking at the T.V highlights I agree the sending off was pretty harsh. Saah was in a bit of a tangle with a Bradford player and wanted to take OUR free-kick quickly. Saah tried to shrug the player off using his elbow and caught the player in the face. He fell threatrically to the ground like he'd suffered a knock-out blow from Mike Tyson. Something you regularly see in the Premiership especially from foreigners but not at our level.

A good determined performance nonetheless from our 10 men. My main concern is how we will miss Saah for the next 3 matches, including Exeter.

First of all, a word of thanks to Wildebeeste for providing the transport to Bradford yesterday. On a gloriously sunny day we took the scenic route through the wonderfully-named Thurgoland and on to Huddersfield. We hoped to pop in at Odsal but missed the turning and had to content ourselves with the Victorian splendour of Bradford's Undercliffe cemetery. It was there that we found Bob Cryer MP and Stafford Heginbotham (former chairman of Bradford City) almost side-by-side. Contemporaries by both birth and death but, most likely, poles apart with respect to political sympathies. Our tributes paid - well, to Bob anyway - we dived into a cafe on Manningham Lane for a coffee to which we soon added a pizza and, at Wildebeeste's insistence, cake.

And so to the game. My view of the Saah incident was from the seat next to Wildebeeste and the one behind Timbo who'd clearly been enjoying the life of luxury holed up in a hotel in Huddersfield. A tricky one and it's been interesting to hear from those who have since seen the controversy replayed on TV. For me yesterday's most pertinent observation was from an old friend who I encountered at half-time. It was, in his opinion "a sending off in the current refereeing climate". That, I gathered, was quite different to him necessarily seeing it as a sending off. That's semantics for you.

But we know that the "current climate" regards the raised arm as a heinous crime. And, on yesterday's evidence, it was pretty clear that James Meredith of Bradford City understands that far too well. It was a curious affair and Brian Saah's arm wasn't in the best of places. Yet, with my declining vision, I was pretty sure that - as our man's arm moved in the general direction of Mr Meredith - the Bradford man had already started his descent to the canvas in the manner of Richard Dunn, once of those parts. Or, as I remarked to Timbo, in the fashion of the legendary Tim Sills in the parish of Exeter St James one recent Yuletide. But the less said about that, the better. I can only think that, when the referee consulted his linesman, there was only one question that required clarification: "was an arm raised?". The issue of the "Diving Bantam" may not have been aired but, at least, it provided us with a comic book villain as the pantomime season approaches.

It's a moot point as to how the loss of Brain Saah affected yesterday's game. This afternoon I guess I'm more concerned about the impact upon, pending any appeal, the next three games. More's the good management that Lingy had the sound sense to cover the centre-back position which - I have to say - always looked a sensible precaution. But, with eleven men stood standing at Valley Parade, my gut feeling is that we may still have lost. Bradford City, quite simply "had too much for us" in a way that, from memory, I've only seen from Rotherham on my away trips this season. With ten men - remembering we'd already lost Bodin and had to sacrifice (metaphorically if not ritually) Stevens - there was only one game plan: defend, defend, defend. We did so heroically and only conceded just as we started to dare think we may hold out. With eleven men I sense we'd have still played defensively - but less so - and may have succumbed to an earlier goal. Then we may have pushed forward against a Bradford team that would have had the ability to punish us on the break. But that's pure speculation and we may have retained the capacity to come back into the game. As it happened, yesterday's ten-man response could offer no chance of attacking save for a final flurry when a goal behind. This meant a fruitless and frustrating afternoon for Howe and Thompson and, overall, all too little possession for our team. All of which, with the single-goal victory, proved sufficient for the locals to serenade us with chants of "Bring on the Arsenal!"

So disappointing, frustrating and a tad annoying. Yet, if truth be told, not wholly unexpected. We'll live. And I must confess to enjoying my trips to Valley Parade and would probably go there rather more than Elland Road if I was ever to live in West Yorkshire. It'll be interesting too to see how they do against Arsenal and what will be the size of the crowd. A fascinating little footnote in the match programme was that, when Bradford played at Wigan in the League Cup, there were over 5,000 away supporters in a crowd of 11,000. And that's a curiosity: in which division would you say Bradford City "belonged". They're like Swindon in that sense. A sizeable club in our division and capable of doing well enough further up. But destined to fluctuate and flicker. Nice stadium, mind.

Confirmation of Brian Saah's Christmas holiday! ;D

www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/Brian-Saah-appeal-red-card-miss-Torquay-United-s/story-17556548-detail/story.html

You know what? Reading that makes me wish the Arse had whupped them. Hope they slide back down the table