The Voice - Match preview #28: Bradford City vs Doncaster Rovers Saturday 31st January 2026 12:30pm

I don't think he'll have been daft enough to look at the footage but he'll have had the Donny bench screaming in his ear that it was a blatant handball on the replays. I must admit it looked highly likely that it hit his arm in real time.

For clarity the 4th official shouldn't be having a say in onfield decisions.

 

The 4th official is another assistant so no reason why he shouldn't offer his view if he has a view the job of a 4th official is more than just holding up the board and listening to managers moaning.

Last home game Baldwin rugby tackled a Cardiff player in front of the dugout off the ball so neither the referee or assistant referees saw it but the 4th official did so why shouldn't he alert the referee to it?

 

That’s definitely the most likely scenario.
He’s suspected it’s handball but not been certain.
They get in his ear and suggest that the telly shows it conclusively.
I still think if he’s 100% certain it’s handball he immediately informs the onfield official.

The gap from the ball going in to the ref coming to the touchline was a bit long for me.

 

The technique was top drawer. Lovely view from the kop.

 

To be quite honest I have stood and sat through hundred or maybe thousands of matches where I have seen blatant errors by the ref and officials. Clearly it was hand ball but there was nothing Jayden could have done. It was ball to hand/arm. In my view if it gone to the proper VAR it would have been allowed. In any event it seems like Doncaster were making up their own rules. Protesting and screaming never resulted in a decision being reversed for City. The fact that they were able to the sway the officials would be a warning sign to all us.

 

I am sure Grant McCann will enjoy looking at it again on his iPad.

 

when you say ‘for clarity’ what do you mean because The Laws of The Game say that any official can speak speak to the referee about on field decisions if the think the have had a better view.

 

I found my mind wandering back to the unawarded goal against Salford last year, and wondering just how far we’d have got if our staff had started brandishing iPads in attempt to demonstrate that the ball had actually crossed the line. I rather suspect we’d have got precisely nowhere, and that surely has to be a good thing, regardless of how aggrieved we felt at the time. VAR has totally lost sight of its original purpose, to correct obvious errors, and now we have previously awarded goals disallowed because of a toenail being in an offside position. We have to go by the referee’s decision, regardless of how mistaken that decision may have been. The very last thing that we need in football is VAR via the back door.

 

As soon as I saw it was going out I thought of you

 

I'm with you on Lapslie. Thought he played some clever, composed stuff. I couldn't understand the earlier criticism

 

I have been Tyreik Wrights biggest critic, so here goes. Fantastic strike for the goal. Also shortly after coming on he got a yard on his man and put in a great cross. The two best things he has done in weeks if not months.

Fortunately he threw me a life line just before the end . He made an angled run into the box, could have made space to get a shot off or crossed it as we had players in the box, but instead he turned out and the chance was gone. I suppose you could say he was heading for the corner to waste time and see out the match, but I want out attackers hungrier than that. If they sniff an opportunity go for it. Anyway apart from that he did OK

 

Not to open up the whole defender topic again, but was it a mistake to sent McIntyre back?

Tilt has been really poor for a fair few games now. Kelly obviously isn't good enough for a L1 push. I think we look better with Baldwin center CB, but maybe a good ball player is needed in either side too?

 

I think so. I'm still a bit mystified why he didn't get more game time when he was here.

 

Yes. In my opinion.

best ball playing defender we had (Baldwin is decent too)

 

I think it's problematic for an official to be so close to a monitor.

 

I totally agree about Lapslie i thought his was a pretty useful cameo. Especially after we took the lead i think he showed his experience to help us manage the game

 

I mean to avoid accusations of being influenced by a monitor replay.

 

do the actually have iPads on the bench? Can not say I’ve ever noticed them

 

He did absolutely the right thing.

 

Agree on Pennington i thought he was our strongest defender today that goal line clearance was superb