BfB

The ability to shoot with accuracy was never one of Peter Jackson’s better qualities. As a player I struggle to recall any occasion where Jackson – who celebrated his first win at City’s manager in waiting by appointing Colin Cooper as his assistant this week – hit a ball towards goal as cleanly as Tom Adeyemi’s powerful lash at the Rotherham goal frame on Tuesday night.

When Jackson did unleash he picked his moment though – a part of a 3-3 draw at Elland Road against Leeds United which was the highlight of his second spell as a player at Valley Parade – but perhaps not as well as Adeyemi picked his.

Back in the early 1990s Jackson’s powerful lash found its way deftly into the goal with far more certainty than the strike which seems to have cemented his place in the Bradford City job.

In truth though while I wax lyrical about Jackson’s effort back at Elland Road I struggle to marry up the man and the moment. My memory recalls Jackson’s hand in that game, in that strike, but there is a blurring that comes with time to the mind – especially for events at the far end of Elland Road at that time where watching football vied with assuring one’s personal safety for one’s attentions.

Time becomes judge to us all and as Jackson takes over at Valley Parade there is only the certainty that at some point in the future, one game, one month, one year, one era later that he will leave and the kind of blurring of history will have its say.

Will Jackson’s running onto the field to celebrate with his players after Tuesday night’s phantom goal be regarded as the desperate Jackson celebrating outrageous fortune which promotes him above his abilities or as a turning of the tide in favour of the club by the man finally seizing control of his own destiny?

The theme of destiny plays strong in Jackson as he talks on his return to Valley Parade. If he once bled blue and white then he did so for a team which now – we are to assume – are defined as not being “a proper football club” as is the praise lavished on Bradford City this week.

Jackson the opportunist seizes his opportunity well. He has become Odysseus. Heroic in the siege of Troy he sets about returning home but the years of journey strip the man of all the trappings which defined him. Odysseus returns to a house run down and – with the unerring accuracy of Ademeyi’s strike – proves himself.

Like Odysseus, Jackson drifted but employs cunning and guile to make best of the situation ahead of him. Like Odysseus he fell into the thrall of temptation. For seven years forsaking his beloved Penelope he spent in the arms of Calypso.

There is an edge of the epic about Jackson, a touch of the pantomime, and time will tell if his story is the stuff of legend or passes into being a footnote.

Certainly it seems that anything less than a firm pasting at Morecambe will see Jackson carry on in the City job on Monday but as relegation fears still linger the would be manager would like to beat a rival and lay down a marker.

The manager will hope to have Lenny Pidgeley fit for Saturday’s trip to The Shrimper’s new stadium the goalkeeper injuring both thigh and thumb keeping Rotherham at bay on Tuesday. Jon McLauglin stands by to replace.

Lewis Hunt and Luke O’Brien seem to be enjoying the life of a full back more in Jackson’s 442 while central defenders Steve Williams and Luke Oliver look set to cement places as the regular starting pair. Oliver and Hunt represent curiosities. Loyal to Taylor thus far one wonders if they are waiting for the former manager’s next call.

One wonders too how Bradford City history will recall Luke Oliver. His critics have little impact on the player who shakes off mistakes to put in a consistently committed, if not consistently high, performance.

Jon Worthington’s 82 minutes was the longest the player had put in for the Bantams since joining the club and the best any player has put in all season. His partnership with Michael Flynn bodes well. Kevin Ellison will have no problems pushing Scott Dobie out of the way for a recall while Gareth Evans continues on the right hand side.

James Hanson seems to be enjoying playing alongside Jake Speight who in turn seems to enjoy a starting place in the side. Speight’s profligacy in Jackson’s first two games has bordered on the comical at times – his falling slow poke to goal risked being stopped by blades of grass – but his effort is apparent for all to see and makes a contrast to Dobie.

Indeed Speight’s effort recalls former Jackson team mate Sean McCarthy – history remembers him fondly – who went through a long period where he and the goal frame seemed utterly unfamiliar. The Welshman was shunted onto the right wing perhaps as a recognition of the fact that his aggressive commitment never failed, even if his eye for goal did.

In time McCarthy found the net again and went on a remarkable scoring run that ended with his exit to Oldham and the Premier League and wrote him a minor place in City’s folklore. History forgets his wilderness times.

For Speight to learn the lessons of Sean he need only keep up his being a nuisance and he will be useful. Goals will follow but only as a result of effort and commitment.

Speight, like Jackson, hopes for the blurring effect of memory.