The Voice - Match preview #21: Bradford City vs Wigan Athletic Friday 26th December 2025 15:00

Another 3 points from a home game, not exactly flowing football but I thought Wigan got what they deserved from the game, the referee wasn't strong enough early doors which encouraged Wigan to keep clogging.
The sending off of Smith was the dumbest sending off since the sending off of Luke Murphy when we played Leeds your on a yellow you have to make sure you get the challenge 100% right and that was shocking and he thoroughly deserved his second yellow it could have been a straight red IMO.
Now we need to continue our home form by sending Port Vale back to the potteries with a convincing defeat.

Edit : Apparently it was a straight red for Smith ?.

 

It doesn't go by dates anymore, it goes by games and the cut off is game 37 so a long way to go and not chance he goes 16 games without getting a card. Unless he's going to go a long time without getting his 10th we need him to get it either against Port Vale or Mansfield so he is clear for the run of 3 games against Cardiff, Huddersfield and Lincoln.

It does frustrate me how many needless yellow cards he has picked up but it's one of those thing you've probably got to accept with him.

 

It seemed to be his left foot that was bothering him. He was asking the physio about it the first time he had treatment. I hope its not a broken metatarsal or broken bone.

 

The keeper situation has to be addressed now.

We’ve done it on numerous occasions so we are no saints but when you can clearly see a manager and his assistant not even trying to disguise that they are telling their keeper to pretend to be injured then that seems a step too far.

No idea what the solution is and refs can’t do anything at the moment as the rules say a keeper has to receive treatment if “injured”

Too many crying wolf now in virtually every game we see.

Karma can be a bitch though and today felt particularly sweet when we scored just after they had so blatantly cheated.

 

I think most fans could see Lowe gesturing to his keeper to go down, you have to wonder why the fourth official stood a yard away didn't.

 

We probably played better against Orient and lost but that is football. I thought we got away with it a bit today especially in the first half with the big chance they missed and at the time I thought they had a good shout for a penalty after Walker dropped the ball although I've not seen a replay so could be wrong. A costly game for Wigan with the 2 red cards putting them up to 7 for the season and the red card for Smith was his 2nd of the season so he'll be out for 4 games.

I didn't get the timing of Lowe telling their keeper to go down when a corner is just about to go in as it gives us time to plan and also likely their players will switch off.

I did worry when Power picked up his yellow so both CMs were on a yellow with no natural replacement on the bench but we were never really threatened with the 1st red card happening so quickly after. I hope Alexander has a word with Metcalfe about his yellow card as that is his 2nd of the season for simulation, it's a needless yellow card to pick up which puts him at risk of getting a 2nd so every challenge is a risk and rightly or wrongly he will start to get a reputation which could come back to bite him later on.

 

He was giving a clear x signal with his arms for about two minutes. It was shown on tv.

 

When Walker dropped the ball on the cross, thankfully it was very clear that their player was holding Wright as much as Wright was holding him. Thankfully, the ref was stood quite close and in a position where he could see both players holding each other.

 

The 4th official can't do anything about it, if the goalkeeper goes down when the ball is out of plan the referee is duty bound to stop the game. Nothing can be done about it this season as it will require a law change but IFAB are looking at it and it's looking certain something will be changed. the 2 options that are being considered is a nominated player has to go off in their place and the other is to ban players from going to the touchline. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cewjkn2ww8zo
For me the solution is both of them and incidents like today the ban on going to the touchline wouldn't be a deterrent and in other games when the 'injury' is to slow the game down I'm not sure the 30 seconds off will be much of a deterrent especially if it is just nominate any player then teams will tactically nominate players and it's a price worth paying to get tactical information on.

 

Win 12 and we will probably be top 2.
It's what we do in the other 12 matches that's key.
We don't lose many so you could be confident we might pick up at least another 8 or 9 points which would put us on 86 points.

 

If Metcalfe came from Goodison, I can’t imagine which other young ex-toffee might have influenced his tendency to hit the deck on feeling someone’s breath. As much as I rate Metcalfe, that is something we don’t need to see. That being said, if it’s 90+6 and we need a goal to up and he’s in the corner of the box…….
The horns of a moral dilemna indeed.

 

Captain should go off as nominated player. You watch it instantly stop.

 

When the keeper went down, Carragher was the quickest he'd been all afternoon in sprinting over to Lowe for instructions.....

 

Interesting take from Lowe:
Bradford City 2-1 Wigan Athletic: League One report - BBC Sport

Apparently we were throwing ourselves down all afternoon and got 3 booked for it.........

 

Watching it on TV, it felt like the subs and someone from the bench all gave the same signal beforehand. It's just a shit show scenario of modern football

 

He could have made the referee aware and then if the keeper does fake an injury the referee gives the manager a yellow, surely its deemed as cheating ?.

 

He forgot to mention the blatant Maradonnesque handball in the second half. I know Metcalfe was booked for diving but Power?

 

Power's was dissent at the lino on the Midland Rd side when he gave a goalkick when there was a massive deflection that could be seen by us in upper tier of Kop near the NW Corner!! Quite clearly a corner!!

 

TBF they were time wasting all game. We should be used to this by now? Even their manager said their aim was to quieten the crowd. Our support was magnificent when they scored. I feel the whole club has turned a corner including those on here who are conspicuous by their absence tonight.

 

I mean, Halliday did at one point and then gave a stupid corner away and Metcalfe did, so, he has a point but definitely not the whole story!