07.02.08
Bradford 8 Swindon Dolphin 9
Swindon, who will be entering the National League for the first time in September, were shocked as Bradford took a 5-1 lead in this friendly. In fact, Bradford were always in front until the last 90 seconds, when Swindon equalised - then claimed a winner with 30 seconds remaining. Very frustrating! Five goals for Jim Robinson.
28.02.08
Bradford 15 Bath University 8
A great start to the campaign for five-goal Andy Coombs and by Chris Maslen, whose four goals beat his total for the whole of last season! A nervy start by Bradford, who took control from the halfway stage.
06.03.08
Bradford 11 Frome 14
Winning the last three quarters was small consolation for Bradford, who lost the first 5-1. Frome relied to a large extent on Brad Poole, who plays National League polo for Bristol Central and finished the game with eight goals. Andy Ogg was Bradford’s leading marksman, with three.
20.03.08
Bradford 9 Exeter 21
Championship favourites Exeter fielded a team of National League standard and were always in charge after leading 6-1 in the first period. Another promising display by Chris Maslen, who scored four.
10.04.08
Bradford 14 (6 goal start), Weston-super-Mare
9
Set aside the handicap and this was a close game all the way through - as confirmed by the quarter scores of 2-2, 0-1, 3-3 and 3-3. A feature of Bradford's performance was strong defence by Martin Post and goalie Simon Durrant, plus a frustrating ability to hit the Weston woodwork on at least eight occasions.
14.04.08
Bath University 4 Bradford 8
Tim la Touche emerged from semi-retirement to play in goal in answer to a crisis – Simon Durrant, super athlete that he is, announced on the day of the match that he had sprained his neck and wouldn’t be available. How did it happen? “Cleaning my teeth,” he revealed, which turned out to be true. Bradford were two goals down before adjusting to the all-deep pitch. Chris Maslen’s excellent distance shooting – he scored four – plus busy performances from James Bancroft and Tom Shoebridge ensured a comfortable win. Advice to Simon: Go easy with the toothbrush.
22.04.08
UWIC 7 Bradford 7
From a deep water pitch at Bath to the miniscule UWIC pool with knee-height shallow end… such is life in Division Three of the B&W. Another snag - no refs. So up steps brave Tim la Touche to wield the whistle with a UWIC rep on the other side. Trailing 6-4 after the third, Bradford finally got the better of an outstanding UWIC goalie to snatch a point thanks to Andy Ogg’s late goal.
01.05.08
Bradford 8 UWIC 9
Quite how we managed to lose this after leading 5-2 and then – half way through the last period – 8-6, must remain a mystery. Unfortunately, this is not a new story. Look back to the Swindon friendly at the start of the season and you will see that we were never behind until the visitors scored to win 9-8 with 30 seconds left. On this occasion, there were 47 seconds remaining when UWIC went ahead for the first time. Grrrrrr…
15.05.08
Bradford 12 Harlequins 7
That’s better! Eased into a 7-4 lead before the now familiar Bradford jitters set in and let the Bristolians back to 8-7 three and half minutes from the end (old gits on the table getting decidedly vocal at this point). Fortunately, sanity prevailed and four late goals put the game in perspective. Three goals apiece for Jim Robinson and Andy Coombs, plus a first appearance of the season for Chris Auburn.
07.06.08
Newton Abbot 8 Bradford 7
Grrrr… again. Unfortunately, only eight dedicated souls made their way to sunny Teignmouth and we paid the price! At the end of the third period with the score level at 5-5, both Mike Garland (on his first appearance of the season) and Andy Coombs notched their third majors, leaving six to battle on. Amazingly, we then took a two-goal lead – with two super long shots from deadly Jim Robinson. Inevitably, the home side then caught up and finally overhauled us just before the end.
08.06.08
Exeter 19 Bradford 3
The sooner Exeter claim their rightful place in a higher division, the better. Their counterattacking game was just too much for Bradford although, hurrah, we did win the third period, 2-1! Debut for Ian Chesworth, of RAF and Combined Services fame!
22.06.08
Bradford 11 Newton Abbot 4
Maybe our slow start was down to the fact that James pulled out at the last minute to read his many kids a bedtime story. Naturally, he forgot he had our match hats at home, leaving us to play in a ragbag of training hats that really should carry a Government health warning. Bradford trailed 1-2 after the first period and it was only 2-2 at half time. Then, bingo, we came to life. Goals by Jim Robinson (4), Andy Ogg (3), Chris Maslen, Tom Shoebridge, Clive Milner and Ian Chesworth, plus excellent goalkeeping by Roger Chapman, clinched a really good win.
11.09.08
Frome 10 Bradford 5
The summer lay-off has done Bradford no favours at all! With a full squad travelling to Frome (plus three reserves/supporters) we were optimistic of success. But we rarely moved out of second gear. And what about those man-ups? 14 to Bradford and just four to Frome! No more comment necessary.
Swindon 16 Bradford 20
Victory in the Bristol & West KO semi-final! OK, we received a 15-goal start, which some of us thought rather generous. But so did experienced Swindon when, quite apart from the handicap, we grabbed a 3-2 lead after a very positive first period display. Eventually, Swindon began to play catch-up, but not at a sufficiently rapid rate to deny Bradford victory.
Harlequins 6 Bradford 9
Once again, failure to convert man-ups meant that Bradford made hard work of winning the final league fixture of the season. It was 5-5 at the halfway stage, but we then dominated the rest of the match and Andy Ogg finished with four goals.
