Bradford City: Matty Foulds targets new deal as good times return under Mark Hughes

Matty Foulds sits down to speak to the media with a big smile on his face.

The 24-year-old is playing for a club in Bradford City which is less punching, more slapping below its weight, winless in the last seven home matches of what was supposed to be a promotion campaign, but will instead be chalked down as another disappointment. He is waiting to hear if his contract will be renewed at the end of the season.

Despite the negatives, though, life is pretty good.

The Bradfordian who recently welcomed a second child into the world is playing regularly for his boyhood club – featuring in 11 of the last 12 matches, 10 from the start – which surely suggests he has a good chance of a new deal.

UP FOR IT: Mansfield Town's Rhys Oates and Bradford City's Matty Foulds battle for the ball at Valley Parade last month. Picture: James Williamson/Getty ImagesUP FOR IT: Mansfield Town's Rhys Oates and Bradford City's Matty Foulds battle for the ball at Valley Parade last month. Picture: James Williamson/Getty Images
UP FOR IT: Mansfield Town's Rhys Oates and Bradford City's Matty Foulds battle for the ball at Valley Parade last month. Picture: James Williamson/Getty Images
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More than that, he is playing for a club reinvigorated by the appointment of manager Mark Hughes after the depressing and divided end to Derek Adams’ reign. And not just playing, but playing the positive, possession-based football he was reared on in his time in Everton’s academy.

As a left-back Foulds knows his main job is keeping them out, but under Hughes he has even scored the first two goals of his senior career, the first at the stadium he used to watch from.

“Everyone’s upbeat, the crowd are behind us, everyone in the changing room, the staff, there’s always positive vibes,” says Foulds, who also has Bury and Italian Serie C side Como on his varied CV. “There’s no negativity and I don’t think there can be at the moment because we got an unlucky result on Saturday, we’ve just come off the back of a two-game winning streak.

“We lost on Saturday and the fans were still behind us.

GOOD TIMES: Bradford City manager Mark Hughes Picture:  James Williamson/Getty ImagesGOOD TIMES: Bradford City manager Mark Hughes Picture:  James Williamson/Getty Images
GOOD TIMES: Bradford City manager Mark Hughes Picture: James Williamson/Getty Images

“We know they’re going to be there for us and we’re not going to be abused or booed. You’re not nervous or hesitant to do something.

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“If you’re doing well in training and there’s a good atmosphere there it’s going to lead into a game on Saturday.”

There will be lots of pressure on the final eight matches of the season, but most of it will be on the opposition. Tomorrow’s visitors Newport County, Bristol Rovers, Northampton Town, Tranmere Rovers and Sutton United are all chewing their fingernails about winning promotion, but hold no fears for the side who recorded back-to-back wins against Forest Green Rovers and Hartlepool United this month.

Scunthorpe United are cut adrift at the bottom of League Two. The Uniteds of Colchester and Carlisle will not be counting their blessings yet either.

BACK IN THE GAME: Bradford City's Alex Gilliead 
Picture: Tony JohnsonBACK IN THE GAME: Bradford City's Alex Gilliead 
Picture: Tony Johnson
BACK IN THE GAME: Bradford City's Alex Gilliead Picture: Tony Johnson

“There’s no negativity going into the last eight games of the season, everyone’s buzzing for the games coming up,” is Foulds’s take. “We’re playing against top teams looking for play-offs and promotion.”

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When the football is more attractive than attritional, it is not just the fans who enjoy it more –the players do too.

“I’d like to think I can adapt to both sides of the game but a lot of the football I’ve played is passing, possession-based,” says Foulds.

“It’s always nice to get an assist or a goal and help the team but on the other side it’s always nice to get a clean sheet too and we’d had two on the bounce (against Forest Green and Hartlepool) so it was disheartening we didn’t get one last Saturday.”

Putting smiles back on faces is, says the vastly-experienced Hughes, “a huge thing.”

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“We’re trying to play with a little bit more passing but it’s always with the view to get it to the top end of the pitch to enable us to create goals and score chances and win games,” stresses the Welshman, who will have Alex Gilliead and Elliot Watt back tomorrow. “We’re not messing around at the back.

“Players can be a little bit in limbo and not quite sure where they stand with a new manager.

“Change is good for certain guys, others don’t like it and it affects them adversely but I just think if you come in and you’re positive and give them good direction and an understanding of where you expect them to perform and how, very quickly they recover from any issues they have with the change of management.”

Foulds certainly falls into the category of players who have enjoyed what the defender calls “a fresh start”.

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“When Ryan (Sparks, the chief executive) came in and told us Mark Hughes would be the manager we were, like, ‘Are you having us on?’” he admits. “When he walked into the building everybody was a little bit shocked.

“I got quite a lot of messages saying, ‘Oh my God, Mark Hughes!’ I just replied saying, ‘We’re thinking exactly the same.’”

And the home form?

“We don’t really talk about it,” says Foulds. “We want teams to fear us as the home side. I think it’s just a matter of time.

“It will click. It’s just hard to explain. We’ve just been unlucky at home.

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“It was a disappointment to come off the back of two wins and lose but from the week we’ve had we can still take a positive from it. In the last 20 minutes we were decent and we looked ourselves again.”

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