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Bradford City’s early onslaught brought back some bad memories for Phil Parkinson at Valley Parade.
The Wanderers boss revealed he had fallen victim to ‘former club syndrome’ before after taking Hull City to his ex-employers Colchester in 2006.
After watching the Whites go two down inside 16 minutes on Saturday, Parkinson admitted he feared lightning was going to strike twice.
“I didn’t want to mention it in the build-up but many years ago I took Hull City back to Colchester United and got beat 5-1,” he said.
“Layer Road was a much smaller version of Valley Parade but the place was bouncing just like that and it was a very similar start to the game. I said to the lads that we needed to stand strong. We couldn’t let that sort of thing happen.
“Josh Vela and David Wheater, for me, were absolutely outstanding out there in the spine of the team. We stayed strong and got a good point.”
Parkinson put part of Bradford’s earlier superiority down to their familiarity with a difficult playing surface.
“The pitch is really, really poor and they mastered it better than is because they are used to playing on it,” he said.
“When you are playing on a pitch like that you have to take a little bit more care with your touch, make angles that bit quicker, but they were that little bit sharper. But you have to give our lads credit for their second half performance. This team haven’t been beaten here since I was in charge and they lost to Colchester last March. You can see why.”
Wheater, who signalled the fightback with a goal on the hour, was also fearing the worst when Charlie Wyke put the Bantams two goals to the good.
“I don’t know what was running through my mind,” he said. “We just needed to start again. They weren’t the best goals to concede.
“At half time the gaffer told us if we started to play with the ball we’d get back into it, and we did. We’d looked at the pitch and decided to start playing it long. We thought they’d do the same but they passed it a lot better than us early on.”
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The Wanderers boss revealed he had fallen victim to ‘former club syndrome’ before after taking Hull City to his ex-employers Colchester in 2006.
After watching the Whites go two down inside 16 minutes on Saturday, Parkinson admitted he feared lightning was going to strike twice.
“I didn’t want to mention it in the build-up but many years ago I took Hull City back to Colchester United and got beat 5-1,” he said.
“Layer Road was a much smaller version of Valley Parade but the place was bouncing just like that and it was a very similar start to the game. I said to the lads that we needed to stand strong. We couldn’t let that sort of thing happen.
“Josh Vela and David Wheater, for me, were absolutely outstanding out there in the spine of the team. We stayed strong and got a good point.”
Parkinson put part of Bradford’s earlier superiority down to their familiarity with a difficult playing surface.
“The pitch is really, really poor and they mastered it better than is because they are used to playing on it,” he said.
“When you are playing on a pitch like that you have to take a little bit more care with your touch, make angles that bit quicker, but they were that little bit sharper. But you have to give our lads credit for their second half performance. This team haven’t been beaten here since I was in charge and they lost to Colchester last March. You can see why.”
Wheater, who signalled the fightback with a goal on the hour, was also fearing the worst when Charlie Wyke put the Bantams two goals to the good.
“I don’t know what was running through my mind,” he said. “We just needed to start again. They weren’t the best goals to concede.
“At half time the gaffer told us if we started to play with the ball we’d get back into it, and we did. We’d looked at the pitch and decided to start playing it long. We thought they’d do the same but they passed it a lot better than us early on.”
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