The Voice - Match preview #29: Luton Town vs Bradford City Saturday 7th February 2026 12:31pm

It was a better performance than the ones at Lincoln and Huddersfield but thats no great accolade. I think we started off both halfs well, got stuck in to Luton and seemed to have a decent grip of the game. The major issue? Surprise surprise, our midfield was getting shot to pieces

think this goes without saying at this point but 3-4-3 does not work away from home. The home team will have the majority of the ball and far too often, we get cut open, as we did in the first. Not really sure what Metcalfe was doing for the second, but he has earned some credit in the bank from his performances over the last 3 months

Walker needs to seriously up his distribution

another shock horror here but Tilt should not be played on the left. His positioning is game play is too aggressive for the role. But alas, what do I know

The less said about Power the better to be honest. If he can’t get voluntarily booked, which he’s tried to do a few times now, you’d like to hope that the manager would step up and make a decision

I am a bit worried that the Wheatley chance was a butterfly moment. He scores with his first touch and he hits the ground rolling, gets some confidence and is unplayable from here to May. He fecks it up and he ends up being a shell of himself for the rest of his loan spell. We’l have to wait and see. Crap shot by the way. You gotta bury that. No excuses

Decent goal from Humphrys to be fair. This day has been full of surprises; he plays better when he isn't the sole striker. Who would have thought?

The biggest surprise today to be honest was Tyriek Wright. I think he played well, beat his man a couple of times and looked threatening. fair play to him


Long story short -
Distribution from the back is shit
A 2-man midfield does not work away from home
Tilt should be played in the centre of a back 3
Humphrys should not be played as a sole striker
positive signs. Lets hope its a step in the right direction

 

No coincidence we looked better with Touray at LCB.
Luton aren't a long ball, target man team so why did Tilt start??

 

He was attending a City game at Preston in 2014 supporting his ex team mates and as he climbed the stairs to his seat some fans applauded the lad but others were far from complementary, I thought it was uncalled for.

 

There's me forgetting city taking him and backing him from a nothings man and launching his career

Nah the lad is now a very well paid twonk who lacks any degree of respect of that.

Too quick to criticise those travelling down and spending hard earned....just like that has been peacock.

 

This, 100% this. Can't remember the last away game where we've had control over the midfield. Too many times Palmer had free reign to do whatever he wanted to today, Power and Metcalfe nowhere to be seen.

 

So after getting home and looking back at the highlights they have shown a few things that you don't see in real time from the stands.
First goal, what the hell is Sam Walker doing.
He steps over to the right side of the goal leaving his left totally exposed and easy for their player to score.
If he stays central he probably saves it.
Second goal deflects off of Baldwins foot but why did Tilt dive in??
Stand up and their player never gets a shot off.
All game both their wide players we playing inverted so Morris was always gonna cut back cos he was left footed.
What I did see with my own eyes was how poor Neufville was today.
Why take Wright off who actually played ok?
It is amazing I'm saying this as he normally looks weak but Wright as LWB bar the Cardiff match, is outperforming Neufville and gives us more going forward away from home.
Neufville has had one and a half good matches since September.
Why play Mullin up top against 2 quality centre backs??
He never stood a chance.
It's him plus Wheatley and no one else cos Humps won't win any headers.
Metcalffe was having an ok match till he got caught for the second goal.
Baldwin and Touray were ok.
Jackson was anonymous today and really fluffed his lines with a poor miss at the back post.
I liked Wheatley despite his miss.
He wins his fair share in the air, and is quick and puts himself about.
I think starting him he will come good.
For those moaning about the system, not for me.
If players play as they should and do what they are paid to do then we would never have been 2 down, and might have been 2 up.
For them, Clark and Palmer were streets ahead quality wise and really made them tick.
Their keeper was quality as well. Really good positioning whole match and commanded his box.
What i would give for us to have a quality keeper as Sam Walker is really pissing me off ATM.
We need 3 or 4 real quality players, signed not loans.
Keeper, CB, CM, Striker.
Have those 4 and we win today.

 

As a side although we aren't world beaters the frustration is I believe we are capable of much better than this. Did Mullin get any chance to show us his finishing - no, and it's no surprise and thats not a criticism of the players, more the manager.

You can predict how we play and it's getting tedious watching us try and pass down the flanks when everyone is closed down in a nanosecond and then the opposition midfield pick the ball up and break through midfield. Where is the quote 'sexy football'. It's absolute dross away from home, very much looking like we are in a false position in the league and will obviously now do well to cling onto where we are. Yes before the season started staying up was amazing but these insipid away performances really take the shine off.

 

at this division unfortunately, you’l get a choice of 3 keepers
1) a decent shot stopper but poor with distribution
2) class at distribution but shaky at keeping the ball out of the net
3) or the best of both worlds. Usually a loan who ends up going to a champ team

having watched the replay back, Walker does make an unnecessary two steps to the right. No clue what hes doing there. Im more worried about tilt, who should be closing down and blocking the shot, not running around in a circle

 

We needed 3/4 quality players in January and didn’t get them.

Instead we got 3 players who can't even make the squad.

 

They were just better than us on the day, it's pretty simple.

 

Potty mouth

 

Or where was our midfield who should have been marking the lad who scored, let say if Bobby Pointon had that much space on the edge of the area he would have probably scored.

 

Well in the last 3 or 4 weeks, most of the teams have been better than us on the day. I know we have been playing teams with big budgets but the performances at Mansfield, Huddersfield and Lincoln, we wouldn't have beat a team in the bottom half of division 2 with those displays. The first half today was the same crap with the long ball with abit more energy from our players. I thought Luton played some good football but if you give the freedom in the middle of park like we do in parts of the match then results like today happen.

 

I agreed with most of the above. Let’s give them a few weeks to sort out a fighting team of 11. GA has stop imagining that the midfield is functioning ok, it isn’t. It is the engine of any good team it has to defend and attack.

 

A few weeks to gell and all that nonsense

 

TBF to GA he said he’d consider changing things in the midfield going forward. People need to listen to the full Radio Leeds 12 minute post match interview. The guy knows what he’s doing. He’s played or managed 1500 games for Christ sake, a lot more than all of us armchair experts.

 

Is the loan market still open we need to shore up our defence, Power and Baldwin having a right argument about whose fault the goal was

 

Only free agents can be brought in now I think?

 

My overriding feeling today was frustration ! There’s an element of claret tinted glasses here but it didn’t feel like the ball was falling right for us , the ref was questionable at times and we shouldn’t have been in a position to concede that 2nd goal - momentum was with us and the goal came from nowhere! After Wheatley doesn’t score , it was all a kick in the teeth.

We look more controlled with Sarc on the pitch and I hope he finds a formation / combination with the front players he now has - there has to be goals in there. Tilt can’t be LCB and Baldwin can’t be RCB - needs to make a choice who’s going in the middle, I think Curtis needs pulling out.

In my calculations, I had a point from today and including that , 11 for the month - it’s recoverable.

 

Because he's probably been our best centre half until the recent wobble.