The Voice - Match preview #34: Reading vs Bradford City Saturday 28th February 2026 3:00pm

So does a headless chicken. Does not believe in himself. He is a big unit but cannot do the centre firward business. Needs to put his body on the line but seems scared or reluctant.

 

Attack is the best form of defence. Lots slag Bobby away frm VP but he chases the ball down all the time. Defenders dont. Thats why we conceded.

 

My wife keeps wanting away tickets but thankfully we have too few points. I love away days as a rule but Bolton , Mansfield have done it for me.

 

Mullin would scare the opposition. If taking a midfielder off put a nasty player on who can scare defenders and opposition managers.

 

So just 4 players moved then.....in defence....plus Baldwin earlier....no wonder nobody had a scooby doo...

 

On the topic of January and strengthening. We bought in 3 attackers, and insist on playing them at striker, with no true competition for the 10 roles, which should have been a targeted area seeing as our chance creation was a glaring issue. Of our attackers, we have

Jackson - who looks decent in both strike and on the right

Wheatley - who also looks decent, but looks better deployed as a 10 but GA wont deploy him there. Does also feel the butterfly effect from that miss against Peterborough is coming to fruition

Mullin - who is not suited to our style of play and GA has made no effort to accommodate

Humphrys - Who is not a striker in a million years but GA refuses to play him elsewhere. Including his actual position

sarc - Great football IQ but needs legs around him

Pointon - our most effective outlet but gets targeted

then theres our signings

white - who looks crap

Sibley - who actually looks worse

Evans - decent cover but not being used effectively

Ashby - who must clearly not be displaying much in training cus Neufville couldve rightly been hooked in the last few games yet Ashby hasnt had a look in

moral of the story is, our January recruitment is turning out to be crap, and clearly went along the scatter gun approach, rather than focusing on positions we needed to strengthen (i.e. a ball playing CB, a box to box midfielder, a creative CAM etc)

 

That defeat hurts and was totally undeserved. If there's any positives to take from the game, we were comfortably better than Reading on the whole, but panicked as the clock ran down, which to say is surprising as Alexander and the recruitment team deliberately targeted proven winners and experienced players who'd been there and bought the t-shirt. In my opinion we should have shored up the midfield with Evans and then we'd have one extra in there, seeing that they matched us that department. What is obvious though, is we lack effective replacements for Bobby and Sarcevic. Of the players brought in during January there's no one who can be trusted to replace them despite Alexander's trust in the squad. This result will sting for a bit, but it was an improvement performances wise compared to recent away games.

 

Could have been top 2 given our position in December. We’ve thrown that away. We ain’t going up we all know it. Wouldn’t trust this lot away from home in a playoff leg and certainly not At Wembley.

 

It was so frustrating to see us cave in like that. Like you if he wanted to replace Pointon he should have put a toughie like Evan’s in, who can defend and attack. It will be painful for awhile but having fought well during the match, they now need to learn not to cave in at the end.

 

It does, we had no cb who can pass a ball. At least with another midfielder, a man is available for an easy pass thus keeping the ball better. Also, it becomes harder to go through our midfield.

 

He did his tinkering at 90 minutes instead of when writing the team sheet
Just can't help himself
The big question is has he taken us as far as he can
Poor decision to take off Bobby and pack in another defender especially as Reading didn't look like they would score if still playing now another 3points he cost us yesterday

 

Couldn’t watch yesterday and avoided the result until watching the replay of the game this morning. What a blow! I thought Reading were really poor but even though we were decent, don’t think we did enough to kill the game.

Seemed the 5-10mins after we scored the game was there to be taken if we had scored a second. Yet we coasted a little and ultimately paid the price in the end.

I backed Wheatley pre-game but thought he needed to offer much more. I’m not sure why Mullin isn’t getting a look in but if he really doesn’t suit our style of play, why have we brought him in?! Bower called it in the commentary as soon as we scored Humphrys role probably had to change. If he’s that limited, was he really the right choice in the first place? I always fear us at 1-0 been susceptible to conceding and again yesterday it’s cost us 3 points.

 

I think GA needs to think about having alternative plans when a player gets injured. Baldwin is essential for our back three but yesterday taught all who witnessed it that you cannot just put another defender on unless you have trained and practiced for the what if’s moments in a game. Clearly their manager saw how effective Baldwin was and may well have asked his players to get tough with our defenders. Baldwin definitely got an elbow in the face which the ref didn’t see.
Nevertheless, we should have had a plan.

 

Benefit of hindsight of yesterday’s game, I admit you’re right re Swan.
IMO Can’t understand why Mullin has barely featured. If he’s not suited or up to it, why sign him???!

 

Those of us who saw the opportunity in front of us said we needed to make 2 to 3 real quality signings in January in order to capitalise on the position we found ourselves in. It didn't happen and we are where we are. We still have a very good chance of finishing in the playoffs but if we do, I just don't think we'll have enough to get over the line. An opportunity wasted imo.

 

For me, the result was down to GA breaking the golden rule. You NEVER make an unforced change to the central defenders when protecting a slim lead.

They'd coped absolutely fine all day and as soon as we put Wright on who wasn't up to the pace of the game it just all fell apart.

If he really needed to shore it up, stick Evans or Ashby into the midfield for Bobby and sit them in front of the back 3.

 

Touray didn't get outjumped. To be outjumped you first have to actually jump yourself.

 

Same old story. Trying to defend a slim lead. Puts as many defenders on as possible. Forgets that he needs a midfield to protect the defence and never brings on another body there. We concede and draw/lose. Thought he’d learned his lesson last year, when we almost blew promotion at Swindon but clearly not

 

It was a better performance than previously. We competed well, passed the ball well and gave them nothing at the other end (until the last five minutes).

We didn't do anything with the ball though. It was neat and tidy in comparison to the aimless hoofball of recent weeks but absolutely no threat on their goal whatsoever. If the game ended 0-0 neither side would've complained. Our goalscoring record is absolutely honking and our inability to create chances is significantly holding us back, leaving us susceptible to results like yesterday.

Somehow we've managed to come out of January with Humphrys still as our best striker. That in itself is a damming indictment of our recruitment.

I wasn't a fan of the Wright sub. I get it if we're under the cosh but we were under no pressure whatsoever and all it does is add uncertainty into the back line.