The Voice - Match preview #35: Bradford City vs Leyton Orient Saturday 7th March 2026 3:00pm

You are right , a minority of one so far ?

 

I’m pretty sure Baldwin, Wright and Sarcevic have one year options.

 

Genuinely amazed he's never played a minute higher than this level.
A talisman for us since he's arrived

 

Agree. I kept thinking about this through the game.

TBF Wheatley had his best game in the starting XI. Thought his strength, movement and pace was good and found himself in some good positions. It’s his end product, either a shot or pass, which lets him down. Keep saying I think he’s still raw but also a goal or two and he could go on to bag a few. There’s a player in there for the future.

The predicament is we look better with pace (Jackson, Wheatley, Swan) from the start. Humphrys is more impactful from the left an Mullin looked to be blowing even after the few minutes today.

I think GA will stick with the press which he trusts, so I’ll be surprised to see Humphry or Mullin start anytime soon however much I’d like to see Mullin given another go from the start. My bet is Swan starts Tuesday.

 

Similar to us at Reading?

 

He certainly made some strange calls during the game.

 

He just lost complete control of the game so started blowing up for everything after he missed the second yellow for their player - which then meant he kept getting a mix of right decisions but then really poor ones. That said he got the Sarce dive and booking right - we’ve seen him throw a few of these out in recent games. Never really noticed him do this before

 

He didn't miss it though that's the issue, he saw it and then deemed it fit not to give him a second yellow.
Completely inept display

 

The short corners were a good ploy in principle. We have two players on the ball against one defender. That should be a golden opportunity to get near the penalty area unopposed. The trouble was after the the first short pass our player delayed, allowing a second defender to come out and opportunity goes. They needed to be much sharper. It might be quetioned whether they had practiced the routine.

 

Said the same in the group chat I have with a couple of friends.
In the 2nd half he completely lost control of the game. He got a lot of simple stuff wrong and was inconsistent.

 

If the formation and tactics remain the same, i can’t see Mullin starting ! I’d like to see him score as well as Wheatley but i can’t see the chances arising for Mullin and Wheatley have any finishing quality. Sarc and Bobby are the only ones who seem to know where to be and Humps and Metcalfe are the ones with an eye for a shot.

 

Another point re the ref. Orients#19 got booked for his confrontation with Tilt around the 55th minute. 10 minutes he got booked again. We expected a red. Yet nothing happened?Nobody referenced this? BBC website showed him booked in 54th minute. Yet he was shown a yellow around 65?

 

I thought that too at the time but apparently for the 2nd incident, the card was to Power for dissent.

 

I think much of that is down to age and confidence. He certainly needs to mature his finishing and goal threat, but much of the raw ingredients are there.

 

TBF Mullin looked a yard of the pace BUT his game nouse more than compensated for that. Especially when he twatted their player within the first 5 second of coming on.

 

Most people are raging because of his decision not to send their lad off first half. Looking at the replays, I think it was just about the right call. I'm not saying he was good, because he wasn't. But that was the right call, just about.

I've always like the idea of ex players being refs, but the problem is there seems to be no room for using interpretation and being situational. The FA seem to want a robotic application of laws, without context.

 

He completely bottled it, presumably because he didn’t want a sending off so early in the game. There’s no doubt in my mind that he’d have booked him for the high, late tackle on Tilt if he hadn’t already booked him.

 

How the other half saw it.
https://lofcforum.boards.net/thread/17920/richie-post-bradford

 

He can be a right 'orrible *@?$ and is why I disked him as an opponent.
We'll need those traits in this run in.
Something no one at that end of pitch has for us.