Blackpool v Bradford City: David Hopkin confident he made right choice with Bantams

EVEN the most die-hard Bradford City fan would surely find sitting through a re-run of all this season's six league games a step too far.
David Hopkin: Bided his time.David Hopkin: Bided his time.
David Hopkin: Bided his time.

Lucky for David Hopkin, therefore, that he has always been able to get a good grasp of how a match has panned out by watching just a snapshot of the 90 minutes.

“It has been a hectic few days,” said the 48-year-old Scot, who became City’s fourth manager of 2018 on Monday evening. “But I managed to watch a couple of games on Wyscout. I don’t need to watch a full game. I will watch 10 or 15 minutes and quite quickly see what has happened.

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“I am good at going in, looking at things and turning them round quickly. That is what I will be doing and the players have responded really well.”

Hopkin arrived at Valley Parade with back-to-back promotions at the helm of Livingston on his CV. He left the club shortly after the second of those successes had brought Premiership football to the Almondvale Stadium for the first time in 12 years.

Since then, the Scot has fielded offers but none tempted him until Bradford got in touch last Sunday.

“You speak to anyone in football who knows me,” said Hopkin about his brief spell out of management. “I am very comfortable, I make my own decisions about what I want to do.

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“I have got a lot of friends at big clubs who are chief executives and they started laughing when I left because they knew me well. They knew I was prepared to come out and wait for the right opportunity.

“I didn’t come out and start doing media saying I want to do this and that. I am very confident in my ability and I was prepared to wait for the right opportunity.

“This is the right one for me. I looked at the squad and maybe a lot of experienced coaches wouldn’t like the look of it because there are a lot of young boys. That gives me more satisfaction of seeing players develop in the long term.”

Last six games: Blackpool DWDWDD; Bradford City LDLWLL.

Referee: S Hooper (Wiltshire).

Last time: Blackpool 5 Bradford City 0; April 7, 2018; League One.