The Voice - Match preview #24: Blackpool vs Bradford City Sunday 4th January 2026 3:00pm

He wasn't really though was he.

 

There’s always an air of sentiment towards players who’ve won you promotion but it’s quite normal that the majority of those players can’t make the step up.
Just look at Vale and Donny, neither have invested in better players and look where they are.
If we’d stuck with the team that beat Fleetwood I’m pretty certain we’d be bottom of the league right now.
Tyreik has got the ability to contribute at this level but only on the left, never again on the right.
Other popular players from last season like Cook, Halliday, Byrne, Kelly, Kav, Patto must be moved on for us to progress.

 

Of course he was, he led the line for practically that entire second half of the season? Not that it makes any difference to whether he’s good enough here and now

 

I’d say 9 league goals, none penalties, mostly after Cooks injury, were pretty damn important.

 

I feel for Kavanagh tbh. He's been mugged off in the inside left role. He did a decent job playing in the central role last season and he's not been given a chance there. I'd pick Swan or Humphrys over him but playing him in the role he's been given is like sticking Pointon at centre back.

 

I'd rather have rather seen Kav given less game time but in the right position, most likely as a sub, to see if he can repeat his poacher's goals from last season.

And if he can, he'd win his place back fair and square.

But he's never doing that at LAM.

 

His best work last season came from unsettling defenders and allowing other attacking players to capitalise. We scored a load of goals from his pressing last season so it's not even about just his goals but I agree he's not been given the chance to show what he can do. I'd never judge him in role he's been given.

 

I think the defender knew that if he took Swan down there it was very likely he would be sent off with the other defender being on the other side of the box, the only reason the defender got close to Swan was that he took an extra touch towards the defender presumably thinking the defender would dive in and he could go round the defender for an easy chance.

 

Solid performance today. Much more like the level we’ve come to expect from the team this last 12 months.

I liked the back 3 today, thought they were immense, with a great goal from Baldwin and Tilt was a brick wall. Once again Baldwin’s distribution from the back was a big bonus vs when he isn’t in the team. I do think we are much more comfortable defending against big physical attackers rather than strikers with pace and movement.

I liked seeing Swan up front, he was a real pest all game and took his goal well. Kav continues to struggle in the wide position, I can’t see him getting much more game time once we’ve strengthened the team this month.

Overall, a great Christmas period. Onwards and upwards.

 

That was certainly a much more enjoyable watch than Mansfield... 3 wins out of 4 over the holidays is a record I'll take any day.

The club usually mentions milestone appearances for players, but I haven't seen anything announced today for Alexander. As far as my records go that was Alexander's 100th League match as our manager. We've won 49 of those. (Of the other managers of ours with 100 or more League games, only O'Rourke, Cherry, and Mulhall have managed to even get into the 40%-win range, with Mulhall the best at 41.82%.) For all our occasional bafflement / frustration / exasperation at GA's line-ups and approaches, he's getting the job done, and by now over a long-enough period that it's no fluke.

Well done GA! (Now keep it up...)

RCB

 

That’s fair for sure . As @Bumblebee_Tuna said , Swans movement and finish was top class. We haven’t seen enough of that since probably Cardiff away. Maybe he could see a run in the side , especially with injury to Bobby, Sarce being protected and others not up to standard ?

 

He’s the most ‘left footed’ player at the club. Has not once done a job on the right.

 

I thought my memory was still decent ? Thanks , it was just a plain wrong observation which stood out a country mile .

 

Does anyone know what was going on at the home end yesterday? Home fans were giving some grief to someone on the touchline, might have been a city cameraman or similar? Looked unpleasant

 

Great away performance from the lads yesterday showing the character and togetherness we know they can produce.
After the Mansfield defeat that was a great response from the team,more like the performances of old that have kept us in contention with the frontrunners so far this season.

 

One thing I thought was really noticeable against Blackpool was the difference in the pressing between Swan and Humphrys when he came on. Humph didn't seem to have anything like the same urgency or pace when pressing, although to be fair he didn't have Kav to help him.

 

Apparently the Blackpool boss says we are nothing special we just do the basics. I haven’t heard or read the the context but he is probably right. But we do the basics well

 

He isn't wrong. That's exactly what we do. All about energy and work rate.

 

The quote from Evatt is “Bradford are that type of team, nothing fancy just the basics of football, set plays and running and second balls, which they do really well"
It's a accurate description of what we are and what Alexander wants us to be.