Mark Hughes concerned by lack of protection for Bradford hotshot Andy Cook

Posted Sunday, September 18, 2022 by PA

Andy Cook added another two goals to his impressive early-season haul as Bradford made it four wins out of five by beating Stevenage.

Cook’s double in the 3-0 victory at Valley Parade means he is up to 11 in all competitions for Mark Hughes’ side this term.

But Hughes, whose team are up to fifth in Sky Bet League Two, feels that his in-form centre-forward is not getting enough support from referees.

The Bradford boss said: “I’m jumping up and down on the sidelines. I’ve been there before as a striker when you feel you’re not getting enough from the officials to allow you to play.

“I’ve got a lot of time for Andy. He’s up there battling against teams that are really physical.

“The way the game is refereed at the moment, a lot more challenges are going unpunished and that’s not helping good players.

“I think it allows defensive-minded players to get away with a little bit more than they have done in the past. That’s a shame.”

Cook needed only six minutes to open the scoring, nodding in from Richie Smallwood’s corner after Taye Ashby-Hammond had tipped over a Scott Banks header.

Stevenage came back strongly and Harry Lewis did well to save from Luther James-Wildin.

Carl Piergianni then nodded a long free-kick into Luke Norris but the Stevenage striker flicked it narrowly over the bar.

Ashby-Hammond denied Cook before Bradford keeper Lewis dived full stretch to keep out Alex Gilbey’s well-struck effort.

Cook claimed his second in the 56th minute after good work from Tyreik Wright.

On-loan Aston Villa winger Wright then got on the scoresheet himself six minutes later as his drive took a deflection to fly past Ashby-Hammond.

Bradford defender Brad Halliday was sent off after a second yellow card for a foul on Saxon Earley.

Hughes added: “They are a difficult side to go against. We had to stand up to the challenge because they ask questions of you physically.

“When we match the physicality that teams have, at some point our football will get the opportunity and that’s when we take games away from the opposition. We’ve got more strings to our bow possibly than other teams have.

“Scoring first obviously helps because we had something to protect. When the opportunity allowed us, we were quite dynamic in recognising when we could break with real confidence and effect and that’s where the other goals came from.”

Stevenage manager Steve Evans cursed his side’s missed chances as they suffered only a second defeat of the season.

“It’s happening most weeks and today we got punished by a better side,” he said.

“We never looked like scoring a goal. It was big chance after big chance missed – and we had a huge chance at 1-0 and didn’t even make contact with the ball.

“Luke’s going through a terrible time in front of goal but we won’t lose confidence in any player. We’ll have to lift our spirits and go again.

“Cooky does what Cooky does and that’s scores goals. If you look at his overall contribution and his heat map, he’s not done a lot but he’ll go away with two goals.

“That’s what every manager wants, a striker who can put it away from two or three yards. We couldn’t do that.

“Diehard Bradford fans will say this is deserved but it wasn’t.

“If I come out and say we were the better side for long spells then I’ll probably get put in a straitjacket and taken away in a wee white van. But that’s the reality of it.”

Evans felt Norris was fouled in the build-up to Bradford’s second goal and was critical of referee Lee Swabey’s performance.

“Big-spending Bradford have won and Mark’s done a great job here,” he added. “It’s a tough place to come, as we’ve seen and a very intimidating place for the referees.

“But we’ve had this referee before and I don’t think he’s very good.”