Oduor: Harambee Stars wing-back makes losing debut for Bradford City
By Joel Sang, August 6, 2023Harambee Stars wing-back Clarke Oduor made a losing competitive debut after Bradford City fell 1-0 to Crawley Town in English League Two on Saturday, July 5, 2023.
The Kenyan featured for 90 minutes as they fought hard for at least a point, but they could not. Bradford City had to play for more than an hour with 10 men after Daniel Oyegoke was dismissed. Oyegoke was red-carded in the 40th minute following a second bookable offense after he brought down Danilo Orsi.
The opening-day defeat for Oduor and his teammate came following a 30-yard free-kick curled into the bottom corner by Will Wright in the 14th minute.
Hughes’ comments
Oduor’s manager, Mark Hughes, said the result was hard to take and the red card affected their game plan.
“It has been a hard day to take really. I thought we started brightly and had good width to our play.
“The sending-off affected our game and how we pressured Crawley – it got easier for them to control the game. Our game plan had to go out of the window, and the main aim was to stay in the game. We had a go for it, and the changes helped.
“Ultimately, we are disappointed with the outcome of the game. We made a mistake, and it affected our game plan. There are areas and details of our game that need to be improved. We are a pretty honest group, and we recognise the areas where we went wrong,” Hughes said in his post-match reaction.
Carabao Cup
Bradford City‘s focus now shifts to Tuesday’s Carabao Cup Round One clash against Accrington Stanley, and Hughes stressed the importance of winning.
“The mentality and my expectations for the players will not change when we play Accrington. It is not pre-season anymore – these games we have coming up now, are games of importance.
“We will not go there with the view of giving minutes to players for the sake of it – the aim is to go there and win,” he added.
Oduor joined the Bantams in June from Barnsley.