The Voice - Match preview #37: Wigan Athletic vs Bradford City Saturday 14th March 2026 3:00pm

I am sure Parker said the three half time subs were pre planned,and would have happened whatever the score was.

 

Shame we didn't get that Taylor lad ourselves.

 

Rather than blame individual players I think we need to acknowledge that there are other managers who actually do their homework and set up their teams to beat us. (Both home and away)
For me, last season and this season we have never overcome that fact. PV were a poor team and we were easily better than them that was the reason we won. Manager’s with tactical nous find it very easy to get the win against us.

 

GA said it in his post match ramblings

 

Interesting stat after yesterday's game.

Since we played Leyton Orient away on the 20th December, we have played 18 league games.

9 wins and 9 defeats with no draws.

I don't know if this is a bad thing but we could do with putting another unbeaten run together.

 

Humphrys certainly didn't look like he wasn't bothered to me, if anything I think he was trying too hard to get involved and to create something. In a game like yesterday where Wigan were happy to sit deep in a 541 you need players in the 10s to get into the spaces between the lines and let the other players get the ball to you. Because he was so deep he was rarely able to get into the box.
If he's going to play the role as the left 10 then open games will suit him better where there is more space. It's probably another example of him not being tactically disciplined enough to be a regular starter in that role.

The back ups for the 10 roles is a concern for me. Against Port Vale and yesterday Swan looked lost in that role, Lapslie doesn't seem to be favoured enough to have a place on the bench, White is nowhere to be seen and same with Sibley.
Jackson will be a boost when he is back but until then we need to protect both Pointon and Sarcevic.

 

Yeah to date the January window appears to have not done much to boost our cause. Jackson has done well, Wheatley has shown some promise but to now is goal shy. The others have a lot of work to do to be considered a success.
Fingers crossed they can improve - over March/April/May to help strengthen the squad and our bid to be in the play offs

 

January transfer window

Before: W12 D7 L3
After: W7 D0 L8

 

Understandable, I posted at half time this game was not over, which it wasn't until Taylors goal, but generally it was a poor game.

 

There was no way Huddetsfield would have loaned him to us

 

On that, January transfer window not great, I like the signings of Jackson and Wheatley but our bad away form started before January, The Leyton Orient away wasn't great, the shock FA cup defeat at Cheltenham, the Terrible Performance at Doncaster in the group stage of the Football league trophy with that result sent us to Bolton away and the hammering we took there.

 

Resting players is rubbish. The more you rest a player the more he becomes less game fit and performance will drop. A player is either fit or unfit to play. Resting makes it harder to keep match fitness

 

Yep and some fans are worried that we played our best team available against Wigan and hope the players in doing that haven't knackered themselves out for our next home game. Just remember guys, Mansfield played midweek games.

Our front three had a rest of 15/20 mines against Port Vale, second half against Wigan, these lads should be up for it against Mansfield.

 

Mullin must have a clause in his contract to immediately foul a player when he enters the field of play. It's the only thing he does well.

 

His comment was something along the lines of 'Stefan has added an additional £0.5m to the playing budget'......

 

Aka money saved on wages and increased revenue

Did we not get 500k for our cup run ???

You could tell early January that he wasnt willing to push the boat out

 

Sarcevic has been our most important player this season. If he's playing Tues / Sat for six weeks flat we lose him long term and at best we get a blunt version of the player that he is. You can't deny that. That simply is the reality.

To say that players fit into a binary fit / unfit category is way too simplistic. It's a sliding scale from 0% to 100% and everything in between.

 

Yeah as have most other teams in the league but when they come to VP they lose because our players are fresher and physically fitter due to the fact that they have been given more recovery time.

 

Btw whats with the heavy handed police after the game.
I fooked off after there 2nd but heard tales of them being heavy handed and not letting people out