Sutton United v Bradford City: Mark Hughes seeks drastic improvement on the road from Bantams

Having finally ticked off their first Valley Parade win since January last week, Bradford City now need to avoid a second consecutive away disappointment.

The Bantams make their first visit to Sutton United’s Gander Green for their final away match of another disappointing League Two season.

Avoiding a repeat of the way they lost 3-0 at Colchester United last month will be a priority, but manager Mark Hughes is confident his players will respond in the right way to their biggest defeat under his management.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Very fresh in our mind is the Colchester performance and what we produced was poor, I think we’re all honest in that regard,” said Hughes. “We’ll endeavour to make sure we don’t perform anywhere near that level again because if we do, we’ll get beaten again.

Bradford City manager Mark Hughes Picture: Tony JohnsonBradford City manager Mark Hughes Picture: Tony Johnson
Bradford City manager Mark Hughes Picture: Tony Johnson

“Because it’s fresh in our mind I don’t anticipate a repeat of that. Clearly I was unhappy with the level we produced last time out away from home and the players were as well. I think we’ll all see a vast improvement in our away performance.”

The appointment of a new head of recruitment is imminent, and at that point the full-scale overhaul Hughes has planned to finally make the Bantams into realistic promotion contenders can get started.

“We’re very close to publicising a head of recruitment appointment,” he said. “That will probably happen at some point next week and we can start in earnest.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“It’s an exciting time. It will be a lot of hard work for a lot of people.”

Even though it only came by a one-goal margin against already relegated Scunthorpe United, last Saturday’s victory was a big one.

“We maybe had a little bit of scar tissue to a certain extent,” acknowledged Hughes. “You’ve got to have a little bit about you to play at Valley Parade.”

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.