The Voice - Match preview #23: Mansfield Town vs Bradford City Thursday 1st January 2026 15:00

Its the manner in which we lose which is the issue.. When we lose it does make the opposition think how the feck are we third.. because like today we look soo poor

 

No it’s how many we lose and we don’t lose many

 

I wouldn't get so wound up about what other people think of the club. We are doing OK and far exceeding anyones genuine expectations so far this season.

 

Think our recent wins justify a three nil loss? No! We are a form team. We are expected to win. Aim your bar higher.

 

Agree with this, can't remember the last time we looked like giving a team a good pasting like Mansfield did to us today, instead picking up wins via the odd goal. Nothing wrong with that when your defence is on song which ours has largely been, but today when it wasn't we needed the attacking side of the team to step up to the plate. Unfortunately in the last few months it's struggled to create much of note, the saving grace here that the division as a whole has very little consistency amongst the top teams.
I'm hoping we are fully invested in the January window, getting our business done early gives us the best chance to utilise the new signings.

 

Stat: we’ve never won a game with Byrne in the starting line up.

GA over to you.

ps Kav, you’re agent is calling,

 

Jamie Raynor said Mansfield brought on a sub who was not on the team sheet.Is that allowed?.

 

Watched the 2nd half on Sky and we looked like a team that was tired, rather than looking for excuses to blame either the players or manager I can accept that performance was one I was expecting to happen. You only have to look at other team’s performances to see that at this time of year we will get results like this. Fringe players can’t come into the team that have not played week in week out and be expected to play like they have been in the team week in week out, they are off the pace, mix them with tired players and this is the result.

The January window is a time to bring players into the team that can add to the team and hopefully win promotion. Now is the time of the season to start to see the league take shape and get some understanding of how the top half of the table will start to look come the end of the season.

 

Neither Byrne nor Kavanagh should be anywhere near a L1 team challenging for promotion.
The fact that we seem more intent on getting rid of Cook and Pattison than those two is a worry.

 

Who has said that?

 

Like every week then?

 

Like every week

 

Like every week

 

Didn’t watch the game…. Family time, but this was coming after the last few weeks.

 

He’s just not good enough. Every week the game passes him by.

 

Or me. Don’t get what anyone sees in him. Always out of position and looks clueless when he accidentally gets the ball. One great cross all season is a poor return for his continued starts.

 

Alex said: "I actually think J Wright was more of a liability than Byrne."

But as @banbrotam said in an earlier post (and I don't normally agree!!):

"Wright was left hopelessly exposed due to Byrne been poor at this level".

Here is my analysis, (for what it's worth (as an FA Level 2 Qualified Coach)) for the first goal....

Byrne tries to jump into midfield but is in 'no mans' land - not impacting the striker, who can turn easily and play forward but then also allows loads of space in behind him as well.







He is clearly the furthest 'forward' of 5 defenders!! But didn't once impact the opposition!!

He then 'compounds' the situation by appearing to just jog back....not assisting his team mates....does he give up?





You can blame Wright for his lack of pace one on one.....but Byrne shows no tactical defensive awareness and for me, it's on him:

• He runs out of position
• He has no direct impact on the attackers
• He leaves a massive space where he should be
• He jogs back

The things I was told to watch (see the picture) as a Level 2 Coach were:
On the ball,
Off the ball,
Away from the ball....

It's easy to follow the ball and see Wright outpaced but if you follow the above exercise.....

Anyway, I'm just an amateur coach with a brief analysis, rather than somebody who does it for a living so you choose to agree or not....

@NorthernMonkey please feel free to send on to Graham so he is aware!!

 

Yes we did it on Monday v Port Vale when Baldwin was 'injured' in the warm up and Kelly was brought into starting team with Byrne then added to the squad.

 

Alexander was a defender and automatically defaults to filling the side with defensive, or defensive minded players when he can. Our great start was predominantly down to the wingbacks getting forward and creating overloads down both sides. He's now abandoned Neufville (who was being marked out, but still has the ability to create a chance) in favour of Halliday, who as you say is an out and out defender. We have McIntyre who's a ball playing centre back, yet he goes for Kelly because of his physicality. Oates for Mansfield was a tricky, intelligent player and we had no one at the back who could handle him. When you look at the side yesterday, we had a lack of goals and a lack of any player with assists to their name. It was inevitable that we weren't going to score many if any, which is exactly what we saw.

 

Interesting analysis.

It's a shame that we have Tilt and Kelly competing for the LCB role but are really struggling for the RCB. I'm sure there will be examples, but I always feel that Kelly gets in the right place and doesn't over commit himself. His use of the ball isn't what we want, but defensively he does a decent job and it must give confidence to those playing further up the pitch on the left. The right hand side yesterday of Halliday/Byrne/T.Wright was a real weakness. I can't fathom how GA thought that would work.