Keeping up with the Jones
As announced earlier in the media and written about on The72, Bradford City have signed ex-Liverpool and Australia goalkeeper Brad Jones in what the Bantams are rightly terming a “marquee signing.” The 33-year old Jones moves to Valley Parade on a one-year deal and finalised the details of the move at City’s Apperley Bridge training ground. Jones arrived at Valley Parade on a free transfer after being released by Liverpool when not retained by the Anfield outfit.
However, Liverpool’s loss could very well turn out to be Bradford’s gain as Jones is straight into the City squad for the home game against Gillingham. 6′ 3″ Jones, although not fully match-fit, will bring with him a wealth of experience from his time at Liverpool, albeit limited to 27 senior appearances, and before that at Middlesbrough before his £2.3m transfer to Merseyside.
Thanks for getting here early
Bradford City extended their thanks to their fans for getting to Valley Parade early to avoid any potential crushes or queuing issues. With over 18,000 supporters in the stadium, the Bantams said that they “hope that supporters will see the benefits of arriving in good time and keep up that approach for all games this season.”
Upon leaving the club said there were some expected issues with exiting the North West corner and would like to remind all supporters that they can help the Club and themselves by making use of the One-in-a-Million school compound as they leave. With another bumper crowd expected for the Gillingham game tomorrow night, Bradford City are asking fans to exit through the compound in order for quicker and smoother access to Burlington Street and Manningham Lane.
In the local press
Bantams skipper urges fans to turn nasty
Bantams skipper Stephen Darby is urging fans at home games to turn nasty, in a sporting way. Darby is encouraging fans to help create a ‘bear pit’ atmosphere to Valley Parade in an effort to find that ’12th Man’ atmosphere that puts opponents off their game. With City losing a wining half-time advantage for the third time on Saturday, now is the time to crank up the volume. Darby reckons visiting teams have gotten too complacent when visiting Valley Parade and are revelling too much in the large-crowd atmosphere. Darby spoke about this to the telegraph and Argus saying,
“We’ve got to try to make it a horrible place to come to this season. We’ve got to make it a fortress. With the crowd, the size of the stadium and the history, teams do enjoy playing here. They often do raise their games. We know they will do that so we have to make sure we are on it every week. We didn’t win enough games here last season. The away form was really good on the whole so it’s up to us now to add that ruthless streak at home.” Stephen Darby – Telegraph and Argus: August 17, 2015
With the crowd behind them, City will hopefully be looking to push on.
Video news
Bradford City defender Alan Sheehan speaks ahead of the Gillingham clash.
