Romoney Crichlow tells Bradford City: We have to stop taking our foot off the gas

On-loan Huddersfield Town centre-back Romoney Crichlow has detected his promotion-chasing side “taking our foot off the gas” and he wants to put a stop to it straight away.

The Bantams have taken the lead in each of their last three matches in all competitions – a two-goal lead at home to Leicester City's under-21s in Tuesday's Football League Trophy game – only to concede an equaliser in all of them. Critchow admits they have under-estimated their opponents at times.

They got away with it at desperately out-of-form Harrogate Town at the weekend but dropped two points to Wimbledon the previous weekend and were beaten on penalties by the young Foxes.

Fourth in League Two and with momentum on their side ahead of Saturday's visit of Stockport County, manager Mark Hughes is in a position to demand high standards – and with his background surely will – but his players are doing that themselves.

“That’s a trait that we’ve all identified and know we need to cut out of our game,” admitted Crichlow when the habit of conceding goals was raised in the press conference to preview the game against the Hatters.

“Even the last league game, we went a goal up and sat back and allowed them to get back into it.

“For us, it’s about realising we need to stop taking our foot off the gas. We did that in the Papa Johns, we went 2-0 up and collectively relaxed and underestimated them.

“Instead of being happy with the one or two goals we get, we need to keep pushing for more and make clean sheets a lot more of our focus.

“For me personally, we’ve conceded too many goals and, as a defender, I don’t like that. None of us do.”

Three of Bradford's four clean sheets came in August and whilst the prolific form of Andy Cook – deservedly rewarded with September's League Two player of the month award after five goals in four games – gives them a bit of leeway in that regard, they do not want to use it.

Hughes has preached an expansive style at Valley Parade which fans are enjoying after some of the dreadful dirges served up under Derek Adams but football managers are invariably perfectionists – they will not settle for goals at one end if they are leaking them at the other.

He even experimented with a back three in midweek, a hint that he is perhaps not completely happy about the balance of his side, despite the recent form.

"It gave us the opportunity to look at new things," argued the former Wales manager, who has favoured 4-2-3-1 in league matches. “There were a number of positives in working with a different shape and personnel."

It is not the number of goals conceded which is annoying Crichlow so much as the manner of some.

“They are simple mistakes which we can easily avoid when you look back at them," he said.

“It’s us being sloppy and we’ve got to get rid of those habits early on.

“It’s not an arrogance we have, we’re just very confident in our ability as a team. There’s not many in the league who play the same style as us.

“It’s about keeping to our morals and imposing our style for the whole game. We don’t let up and keep pushing on the whole 90 minutes.”

But trying to concede fewer goals will not mean compromising on the attacking principles of the former Manchester United and Barcelona striker in their dugout, which Crichlow has come to appreciate over time.

Perhaps, though, that gradual realisation partly explains the diminishing clean sheets record.

"At the start of the season, maybe we felt a bit of pressure and ended up going long and not trying to play our style," said the defender.

“The management team sat us down and told us, ‘This is the way we play and you guys are good enough to do it.’

“Now we’ve got to the point where we’re confident in the way we play and playing out the back we have a lot more trust in each other. It’s become a lot easier."

Left-back Liam Ridehalgh will not feature at the weekend with his calf injury proving more troublesome that first anticipated. it has kept him out since the September 3 victory over Walsall.

"Rides is still not on the grass and has a bit of an issue with his calf, which was a little worse than we first thought," explained Hughes.

The Welshman hopes to have on-loan Crystal Palace winger Scott Banks joining in with training again next week, but City are being careful with Abo Eisa, who missed Tuesday's game with an unspecified but minor injury setback.

The reason for their understandable caution is that injuries have limited Eisa to just one start in all competitions since joining from Scunthorpe United in the summer of 2021.