The Voice - Match preview #32: AFC Wimbledon vs Bradford City Saturday 21st February 2026 3:00pm

Stay away mate, not worth the away day grief, Odds on Alexander makes more changes in the name of tiredness, may get an injury and probably a lot of other excuses!

 

You are completely wrong. Between the fixtures from yesterday and midweek there was an average of 3.5 changes between the 24 teams.
With 13 clubs making 4 or more changes.
We were one of 5 clubs who made 5 changes.
Rotation is perfectly normal. It’s just a stick to beat Alexander with. Touray we would have all wanted to play and I don’t recall anyone up in arms that Mullin had come in for Wheatley before KO.
Imagine if Sarcevic had got injured yesterday. You’d be the first crying on here that he shouldn’t be playing 3 games in a week with his fitness record.

 

Dare I say the teams we are competing with have greater quality and don't have to be playing at their peak to pick up points. We are massively out performing where we were expected to be. I know it's not a popular opinion but we have a freakishly good home record and the no shows like the ones we've seen recently away from home are the pay off for our home form.

 

Or with our limited wage budget we've had to sign players with fitness issues. The top teams can sign players that A) are top L1 players when played B) stay fit

For what it's worth, I do think we rotate too much. But it's clear some players in our squad can't handle consecutive games with a few days break.

 

Out of interest, which were the other 4 clubs to make 5 changes?

 

That, or he’s right…

https://widthofapost.com/2026/02/22/self-sabotage/

 

It's where the changes are which is more important than the number for me. Lincoln & Cardiff have made changes in their recent games, but the back line and keeper dont change.

Every team expects changes as the fixtures mount up, but you dont change a working defence unless you need to. And yesterday, as well as many other away games lately, we didn't need to but made changes anyway and saw the balance completely crumble.

 

Nail on the head comment. That’s why we are always brining in players on the downward spiral or with injury issues cause it’s all we can afford.

 

Luton, Northampton, Mansfield and Port Vale.

8 teams made 4 changes. One being Wimbledon.

 

What did I say ? The left sided personnel were trashed and so it proved .

Match of the day last night

“ The best defence is a settled defence”
“ The most effective defence is one that knows each other .”

The fact he keeps tinkering with Kelly boils my wee. We know , all of us , that Dons have two pacey knock you about front two , yet picking Kelly against pace ……really . He’s akin to a fish out of water in L1, it’s been proven time and time again .

 

We do have 6 players that played but have since left. We all agree that those 6 players apart from maybe Cook were right to move on and be replaced with better and most were happy with the window we had.
Cardiff if I’m right we’re under an embargo in Jan so even if they wanted to couldn’t have made changes to their squad.

 

You don't need to read them. All you need to know is it was all Kelly's fault....apparently!

 

The pink kit was launched to celebrate the City of Culture title. At the launch it was announced that the pink look is designed to represent the bold and unique nature of proud Bradfordians.
Obviously the message hasn't got through to the players .

 

Exactly. I’m not sure why people are concentrating so much on the changes made. Touray was always coming back in. Pointon was visibly shattered on Tuesday and Sibley needed minutes. Did anyone really have an issue with swapping Mullin for Wheatley?

 

Didn't we bring a sports psychologist in a few seasons ago to speak to the players?
Perhaps we should try it again.

 

I agree that it's the tinkering thats costs us but I don't get the obsession with Kelly being the problem. If you want a defender to defend, win his headers and his tackles he's as good as the rest. I can't see that he was to blame for any of the goals yesterday. If anything Pennington was worse. That said I don't believe it's about the individuals. He rotates the back three and even swaps Baldwin and Tilt into different positions. There's no time to develop an understanding as to who goes for what.

 

Thanks.
I've no idea whether the 5 changes for others were enforced or through squad rotation like ours but they didn't seem to help anyone much, given none of those teams won.

 

That was when the players were scared of playing in front of big crowds at VP. Now they seem to be scared of playing anywhere else.

 

you’d imagine if 13 out of the 24 clubs made 4 changes or more then it was likely to the fixture congestion.