The Voice - Match preview #12: Bradford City vs Barnsley Saturday 18th October 2025 3:00pm

I thought Kav had a great first half so I wouldn't have had a problem giving Cook 45 minutes, but you could see the lad was running on empty and should have made way before Alexander eventuality made the changes.

 

The stats are probably a fair reflection of the game I watched. Plenty of chances for us but a mixture of poor finishing and good last ditch clearences/blocks have cost us.

Barnsley were decent on the eye but ineffective in the final third. Their first goal was one in a million stuff and their second goal was the first actual chance they created in the game.

Pennington and Baldwin continue to be big misses. Byrne is diabolical and Wright looks shit scared and hesitant currently.

 

I mentioned earlier that GA was going ballistic with Wright in the last 15 minutes.
Far too tight on their 19.
Spun him far too easily although he did make up late on when 19 created himself half a chance.

 

Feels like 2 points dropped to me. We had far too many clear cut chances to come away with just the 2 today. Then some brain fart defending gives them their goals.

Felt like we were a little too hesitant at times today too. I mean, we had Neufville, Sarce and one of Power or Metcalfe out there on the right for every attack and the amount of times it had to be Byrne crossing just feels like our planned play wasn't landing.

 

Thought he was excellent on Tuesday and again today. He's never gonna be an out and out goalscorer but he's more than capable at this level to chip in with goals and assists

 

This hatred of Byrne from some is baffling. What did he do wrong today?

Agree that Pennington and Baldwin are big misses though. I thought Pennington would be back today

 

He missed three chances today. Two of them in front of goal with no keeper in the net. Not clinical enough imo. Then again, Hump and Cook also had shots blocked. We didn’t get the running the green.

 

What a fantastic game of football. What an advert for league 1.

Credit to the ref who let it flow and allowed it to be the game it was.

Alexander has been a revelation for this club. We have an identity back and everyone who pulls on a shirt is fighting for every ball. Long may it continue.

Neuf could go a lot higher if he works on his end product.
Touray is a class act.
Thought Bryne sprayed a couple of quality passes around and seemed to be solid enough.
It was great to see Kav back with his energy. Like he'd never been away.
And credit to Max Power who holds it all together and pushes the team on.

There were a lot of positives.

Also a shout out to Shepherd who I can't help but still like. He seems like a great lad and a good defender (when he's not diving around. - loved the boos it got but we've seen it go in our favour enough last year).

The one negative from today for me was T Wright. He had space to run at their defenders at the end but seemed to always play back. He should like at what Neuf does every time.

 

Great game. Enjoyable to be playing games in front of a top atmosphere and against teams who actually attack us. So much better than L2.

Thought we looked better with Metcalfe in midfield. Prefer us with Leigh or Metcalfe alongside Power. We have more control in the middle of the park. Pattison is more of an impact sub for me, to add some energy when the opposition is tiring.

J. Wright continues to look shaky as well. Had some good moments but also a couple of really dodgy moments. Thought the defence was better with Baldwin at CB and McIntyre at CB and Touray at LCB.

 

Over the last 5/6 years i would have probably been pissed off at dropping points but yet again i walked away feeling happy that we have gone toe to toe with an established league one side infront of a huge gate again.

This club has made huge strides this years and lets not forget that.

A great game that could have gone either way

 

The ref should have given us at least one pen

 

I thought he did more than his share of the shitty defending stuff as well today.
A couple of times he tracked all he way back to our box to help with the defending.

It’s probably easy if your still getting fully up to match fitness to neglect the defensive side of the game but I guess every player knows that it’s also part of every players job to do the crappy stuff as well.

 

Agreed. Everyone around me could see that Kav’s pressing had tailed off badly from about 55 minutes but GA left him on for another 20 minutes, by which time they’d equalised. Bit baffling that he couldn’t see what we all could.

But what a game! And cracking atmosphere. Sure beats playing at home against Bromley or Sutton, bringing three men and a dog.

 

I'd ask why Wright, central of the 3 cbs was constantly isolated one on one with their lad in wide areas.

I mean, I'm pretty sure there is a player shaped hole in that gap meaning Wright had to constantly come across.

 

How about NO.

I'm not slagging the players off. I'm slagging GA off. Apart from the subs... But there again I've not said anything about that.

So stop being so sensitive... And relax.

 

Refs seem to only give pens when they're absolutely certain. We could've had one on Swan but t be honest I would've been surprised if he'd given it.

 

If Pattison didn't get injured I'm certain he would have come off. Alexander was shouting at him a lot, for one of their corners Alexander was telling him to stay on Keillor-Dunn on the edge of the area but he chased down the short corner which left Keillor-Dunn in a lot of space. Not long after he was telling Pattison to stop jumping up into the press so early as he was leaving us outnumbered in the middle and to sit on one of their higher up players. Also for the first goal he either has to get a shot away or find a pass. I think the reason why he struggled for starts early on this season is that he can get a little too eager to press which then leaves us open, Metcalfe looks like he's got the technical ability and just as important he's got the tactical understanding.

 

From E block in Midland Road it looked absolutely nailed on. I can't understand what the referee thought he saw?

 

Was there a minutes applause going on when they scored? 63rd minute? Not sure if I missed something on the scoreboard, to begin with I thought it was 56th before I checked. I seem to remember a couple of goals going in during minutes applause

 

He's probably looking at the incident from behind the players. Maybe he thought their defender got a toe on it? There wasn't much of an appeal.