The Voice - Match preview #27: Lincoln City vs Bradford City Tuesday 27th January 2026 7:45pm

The attacking stats from the last two games are absolutely horrific. 0.03 xG and 5 touches in the opposition box is astonishingly bad tonight.

Alexander has a lot of credit in the bank but that doesn't mean he can't be criticised. This current 'style' if you can call it that is a crime against football and not one that gets anything out of our players. Nobody comes short to receive the ball, nobody looks to dribble with the ball and its even painful watching us try to take a throw in. There's no patterns of play, we can't make the most simple of passes and nobody knows what the plan is to score a goal.

I've thought it for a while but I don't think Metcalfe and Power work together as a partnership. They end up occupying the same spaces and are too similar. If I'm honest, Metcalfe has been carrying Power for a while who has been really really poor.

This window has wrecked us. There's still time but we all know what will happen in the next few days. To have a window this bad (ins and outs) takes some doing, it's actually impressive.

 

Good post and perspective Old Man.
The silence from those running the club and recruitment has been deafening, but I have worries about Alexander. He is a good man, a decent manager and his calm personna has shone through our season - until the past week or so. Something has happened, he has become ultra tetchy, defensive and dare I add looked a bit clueless. Of course he is still talking up the players but there is something negative about it all whereas before he was positively promoting the togetherness. He has NEVER accepted and highlighted we are so much worse off than other clubs, now it's his every other comment. We've lost our mojo and he seems to be accepting it and telling everyone 'it is what it is'.
Something ain't quite right

 

Think the players have been doing their best played out of position system not working lack of bodies in midfield etc etc
but heads are now starting to drop and it's now glaringly obvious what's wrong but GA refuses to change his tactics
The main question is has GA taken us as far as he can given the obvious lack of backing from above, highlighted by the worst January transfer window for years
Is Mr Rupp still confident he can back us all the way to the championship
Are the transfer team scouting the correct players or are they simply hindered by financial restrictions
It took us what seemed an age to get out the khazi league and an unexpected start to this season saw us in the autos
Surely that was the time to push on and go all out for promotion could be a long time before that opportunity presents itself again
Instead we get rid of experienced players in Cook Halliday and Pattison (who lets be fair are as good if not better than the starting line up for the last two games)and replace with young kids who their parent clubs want match practice for
Yes the players are in some way culpable for the slide in form but bigger problems are evident higher up too

 

Noooooooooo

 

Is it too simplistic to suggest we've sacked off this season now that we've all but guaranteed safety so that we can cut the wage bill, cut costs on bringing players in and steadying ourselves for big summer recruitment ahead of a push next season?

 

Superb comments Bantam75, couldn't have put it any better. I agree, this is all on GA, he takes the plaudits when it's good, now he has to take the flack.
Humphrys should tell him to do one, he must be sick to death of being the only one up front chasing long, hopeful hoofballs with no help and three defenders all over him.
GA seems to start games like this then change it around at H/T when it's too late.

This is all on you GA!!

 

And yet next season we could be the other end of the table
Grasp the nettle and so on

 

Probably not saying anything here that’s not already been said, but what an absolutely shocking transfer window so far.

If letting players go with hundreds of games of experience between them and replacing them with players with a couple of dozen games under their belts is the way to go then I’m flummoxed.

Yesterday was a game crying out for Halliday, Patto and Cook. It was truly awful and the worst I’ve seen us play since…. Saturday against Huddersfield. (Two awful games on the bounce).

A few days left of the window to rescue the season.

Not looking forward to the Donny game at all, and it’s not often I’ve said in the last couple of years in debating whether to do something else instead. It just seems the season is imploding due to a poorly thought out January where key characters have been allowed to leave. Obviously having Sarc and Swan out hasn’t helped.

Feeling fed up - the situation seems totally unnecessary and completely of our own doing.

 

Maybe something happened in Seattle when Sparks and Rupp went there. Something has been off since they got back starting with the Rotherham postponement which was laughable.
Since then we’ve lost the last 3 in a bad way. Maybe GA and the players have got wind of something?

 

That would be a reasonable interpretation and an approach that could be justified by the club. Why don't they just say so if it's true?

 

If that is the case then Rupp needs to sell as soon as possible and openly look for a buyer. We were in spitting distance our the autos at the start of January. I want everyone out of the club involved if it were to be true, I don't think it is.

 

There are so many claims going around who knows whats true?, but with regards the lad Ward at Accrington the guy I got the news from said we put a bid in that Accrington turned down, I get everyone has a ceiling on their valuation of a player but his exact words were "Alexander is livid" and feels the club haven't backed his judgement apparently the kid was his number one priority signing.
When we went in with our offer was Alexander told that it was a take it or leave it there will be no further bids and it has festered in his head, we'll never know if theirs been a fall out either in the squad or with Sparks, Gent and Sharpe but there's one thing for sure we dont look the same team that performed so well in the first 20 for so games.
It's been quoted many times "its the next game were focusing on" so let's see the reaction from the manager and match day squad against Doncaster.

 

Maybe the reason for not signing anyone on a permanent transfer is because there will be a big investment in the summer once a possible takeover is complete?
Maybe it’s a fair point that reaching the Championship with this bunch of players would be pretty disastrous without ripping it all up and starting again?
I’m not saying I agree with the above BTW

 

That's what crossed my mind. And if someone had agreed a price to buy your house you wouldn't be spending a fortune on it before handing it over.

 

Top post Steve

 

We should never take a risk with regards our future or early season momentum hoping things might get better, haven't we as a club learnt anything from past experiences, so far Rupps promise of more commitment doesn't seem to have been what many fans expected, yes he's been to more games but as many have said at the present moment in time we are weaker as a squad that we were on January 1st.

 

One the button Dave

 

If there have been talks of a buy out (which I personally dont think there is) surely there has to be two scenarios agreed, if were are still in League One its "X" if we get promotion to the Championship it's "Y" ?.

 

Three abject performances, but I'm trying to be optimistic by telling myself these were the three hardest fixtures of the season.

I'm not going to start panicking until the Doncaster game. If we look as bad in that game, then I'll be very concerned.

 

Yes and it stinks