CITY 1 WYCOMBE 2

“FORGET about passing, shooting and all that. The first thing you have to do as a professional footballer is run around.”

The exasperation dripped from every word as Gary Jones delivered a scathing half-time assessment on City’s latest limp offering.

Unfortunately, Jones was baring his soul on the radio and not in the Valley Parade dressing room.

There was a telling passage of play just before half-time that summed up sorry City in a nutshell.

Anthony O’Connor, five yards inside his own half, turned and played the ball back to his keeper.

Arms outstretched with obvious frustration, it was clear that nobody was showing for him to take possession.

Twice in the next 30 seconds, City’s vice-captain received the ball back. On both occasions, he had little option but to once again return it to Richard O’Donnell.

It was turgid, timid stuff.

Jones had been in the City team on Wycombe’s last visit five years ago – a win that would launch the surge to play-off glory to finally escape League Two.

That night in March 2013 had not been pretty. A scrappy 1-0 victory achieved with hard work, effort – and plenty of running around to set the tempo for what would ultimately follow.

The current Bantams are unrecognisable from that. They remain a team without an identity.

Wycombe, just like Southend the week before, were no great shakes.

But they came with a clear plan – unlike their muddled hosts.

Yes, there have been a boatload of changes in personnel but those sent out there in the claret and amber seem unclear what is expected from them.

There is a lack of direction as equally as alarming as another apparent absence of any appetite for the fight.

Forget the Burton win representing some kind of building block, it now resembles more of a sticking plaster trying to hold together an open wound.

Saturday felt much worse than Roots Hall – a shambolic performance that drew a chorus of boos at half-time and the end.

And by the time referee Mark Heywood put the game out of its misery, plenty of others had voted with their feet and sacked it off well before.

Michael Collins admitted he couldn’t blame the vocal dissenters. But where does he go from here?

The word “unacceptable” has become depressingly regular in the post-match verdict.

But having railed against the “negativity and nonsense” surrounding City’s bitty start, his public rating has taken another significant dip.

In the six-match losing run that did for Stuart McCall at the start of the year, it was the Valley Parade defeats to Northampton and Wimbledon that chairman Edin Rahic pinpointed as justification for considering the change.

These are the games that teams with any ambition should be winning. Beat those in the lower half and dropping points against the likes of Barnsley and Sunderland has far less impact.

As Wycombe bossed matters, Collins stood in his technical area, arms behind back.

In contrast, his opposite number Gareth Ainsworth was Mr Perpetual Motion.

With his flowing locks and decked out in shirt and jeans, he is every inch the ageing rock star on a comeback tour.

But the second longest-serving manager in the game never stood still. Even with the result seemingly in the bag at 2-0 up, he was in the fourth official’s ear screaming his players’ case over a throw-in on the halfway line.

Touchline passion and its supposed impact may be a fallacy to an extent. But the differing natures of the two men in the dug-out seemed to typify what was going on with their respective teams.

A suggestion from Collins afterwards that there may have been some fatigue from Tuesday cut little ice against a side who had been to Plymouth before making the journey up to West Yorkshire.

And yet Wycombe were still willing to run and run.

Having switched to a solid 4-4-2 to dig out a result in midweek, Collins had tinkered with a switch up top. George Miller’s energy for harrying defenders was sacrificed for the unpredictable pace of Sherwin Seedorf, fit again after his foot injury.

The plan was to play the winger centrally to use his speed to get in behind a back four who weren’t the quickest.

But in reality, it became a five-man midfield leaving Eoin Doyle in an increasingly familiar scenario of having to plough a lonely furrow.

Switching Seedorf around with Jack Payne worked no better as the little man found himself crowded out on a difficult day when his set-pieces were equally ineffective.

An early half-chance for Seedorf proved illusionary as Wycombe took a firm grip.

Quicker to the ball and playing with far more intent, Valley Parade fell silent barring the knot of travelling Chairboys fans who sensed the long trip was going to be a worthwhile one.

Wycombe did not look a team without a win since promotion. City were the ones out of their depth.

The opening goal on 28 minutes was woeful watching for home eyes.

Joe Jacobson’s inswinging corner was misjudged by O’Donnell to present Craig Mackail-Smith with the simplest of headers virtually on the goal-line to end a personal drought stretching back 17 games to February.

With the mood around the ground darkening, Rahic was confronted by a couple of finger-wagging fans during the interval.

But it got worse for City when Wycombe doubled their lead seven minutes after the break.

It was another ridiculously soft goal as Dominic Gape helped Matt Bloomfield’s cross into the path of Bryn Morris eight yards out. The midfielder scuffed at it but the shot ricocheted off Joe Riley to totally wrong-foot O’Donnell.

Collins made all his subs and Jordan Gibson’s cameo in place of the injured Sean Scannell put the rest of his colleagues to shame. At least he was prepared to take the game to the visitors.

Miller was on by now and saw a header clawed off the line by Ryan Allsop before Doyle could pounce.

And there was a flicker of hope when Gibson’s wildly-miscued effort found its way to the feet of Luca Colville to dispatch his second senior goal.

But a full comeback failed to materialise and would only have patched over the cracks. This was deeply worrying stuff.

PLAYER RATINGS

CITY: O’Donnell 5, Riley 4, McGowan 6, O’Connor 5, Chicksen 4, Scannell 5 (Gibson 64min, 7), Akpan 4 (Colville 56min, 6), Wright 4, Payne 5, Seedorf 4 (Miller 56min, 5), Doyle 5. Subs (not used): Bruenker, Mellor, Staunton, Wilson.

WYCOMBE: Allsopp 6, McCarthy 6, Stewart 7, Jombati 6, Harriman 7, Morris 7, Gape 6, Bloomfield 7 (Saunders 84min), Jacobson 6, Williams 7 (Freeman 75min), Mackail-Smith 8 (Akinfenwa 71min). Subs (not used): Bean, Kashket, Thompson, Ma-Kalambay.