The Voice - Match preview #38: Bradford City vs Mansfield Town Tuesday 17th March 2026 7:45pm

Take no notice some of the comments on here tonight are baffling.

 

They used six subs. Only five allowed ! What happens in this case

 

I think Alexander has realised he can't rotate the squad anymore. Certain players are indispensable and the squad players are just nowhere near the level. We might have to risk a bit of tiredness or an injury here or there but I think its the right thing to do.

Re Wheatley, he's got some decent attributes and in a year or so he'll probably be a good player at the top end of this division. But that's useless to us right now, we needed proven quality at the top end of this division and we simply didn't get it because we were unwilling to pay for it.

 

We must be only team near the top end without a striker ...............

 

Typical horrible Clough team. They were time wasting early doors, the ref too weak to clamp down on it, but couldnt wait to book Tilt, Sarcevic for nothing.

How on earth was they only 5 mins added time, it must have taken over 2 mins just making that ridiculous 4 substitutions where they filed off one at a time.

We cannot afford to start Wheatley again, it was like playing with 10 men that first half. He is too raw for a promotion chasing team to be the main striker.

Much better 2nd half, lots of possession, good tempo, but apart from Wright's cracker, we didnt work the keeper at all.

8 point gap with another game ticked off, we should limp home into the playoffs.

 

First few months he had but hes been off it for a while now

 

I think one must have been a concussion sub

 

No chance. He just went down because he was blowing out his backside. No contact was made.

 

I get that we don’t want to sour the relationship with United, but sod it. We can’t keep starting Wheatley. Still zero goals. He’s another Kai Bruenker. At least Theo Robinson bagged a few. Kurtis Guthrie, Rayhaan Tulloch, Chisom Afoka etc - he’s on a par with them for goalscoring instinct, even if he runs around a lot and briefly looks a player.

metcalfe and power not at their best tonight.

mansfield were garbage. Don’t think their lad knew much about the goal.

great strike from Ty for us. Frustrating night overall.

 

Overall I felt that was disappointing, the last 15 minutes papered over the crack and raised the level to disappointing as opposed to bloody rubbish which the first 75 minutes were.

Listening to Alexander moaning about the game being slow and no tempo, he's an idea Graham, it's your job to do something about it.

Those first 70 mins you'd be hard pushed to say which team were pushing for promotion and which team were meandering about in mid table with nothing to play for.

Mansfield were stronger, faster, had more of a plan and to be honest would have probably made a better fist of it had Clough not given up the ghost by making the changes he did.

Yes fair enough we had a go late on but apart from a few scrambles we created absolutely nothing.

I think one chance (pointon header) was the sum total of our efforts.

For a team desperate to win every game at home, tonight wasnt good enough

And a other thing......it really winds me up that our defenders have so much of the ball and it's them hitting balls to wingers when we have two so called creative players in the middle of the park

 

Biggest laugh of the night was their lad celebrating the ball hitting his leg without him knowing and trickling in like he had scored the winning goal in a world cup final.

The second biggest was the 5 mins added on time at the end. The amount of times the ref told them to hurry up should have resulted in at least 8-9 mins. You have to wonder what actually goes through the refs mind. We have paid to watch a game of football not incessant ball cleaning at throw ins or the goalie adjusting his socks at each dead ball kick.

The third is unfortunately Wheatley-didn't put a glove on any defender and spent the game watching the ball pass him by.

Mansfield are up their with the worst I have seen at VP this season.

 

Mansfield and their anti football, football and a ref that allowed them to do it on top of a poor ish performance from us , made for a below par game
One thing is for certain the Wheatley starting has to stop, is that 3 home games he has been hooked at half time . He might be quick but he has very little hold up play or strength in the challenge and has no finishing ability . He would be better coming on against tired players
The other striker options are not much better to be honest, other than Jackson
The January window is turning out to be a complete flop,
What is the point of the Mullin signing, the most experienced striker at the club has spent virtually all his time here getting splinters in his arse
Sibley has disappeared and the two Newcastle lads , words fail me

 

Rather have Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu upfront than Wheatley
Know he’s a young lad but seen better strikers come out of packets
Not the time for kids upfront at business end of season.

 

I think you are allowed a sub for concussion. If that was the case the player involved should be prevented from playing under the medical rule in the next game(s)

 

May aswell stuck with Cook rather than the pointless signing of Mullin

 

Playing against 12 men tonight and a load of cheats and that includes the ref.
The Sarc one, through on goal and in their penalty box about to shoot and ref blows for their defender feigning injury.
We get a drop from 35 yards out!!
Mansfield also the luckiest team I've seen all season.

 

Maybe they are, but in isolation of tonight I cannot agree. We’ve done enough tonight to easily win that without much coming from Mansfield other than a terribly poor goal on our part. Wigan the same. Bower contextualized it fairly post game that over the course of the season 1 point from these two games isn’t a disaster. If he’s correct. However based on the games I’ve watched, I’m disappointed we haven’t taken more.

Good thing is, a season is 46 games and not

 

Worked really hard there, full credit to Neufville and Ty in particular on that right hand side in the second half.

Sadly that crappy goal in the first half allowed them to sit in with their nonsense defending that the referee should have really been wise to. Sweeney in particular, what a poor footballer, literally a League Two lump, but with the blessing of the ref he was able to keep us at bay.

Ah well. You can see why Mansfield concede few, but you can also see that they don't have a lot of firepower - unfortunately, today, neither did we. All of our threat is from the wing backs/attacking midfield with nothing coming through the middle whatsoever.

I absolutely cannot wait for Kayden Jackson to come back, he's a different level to our other forwards. Pleased to see Humph is looking much more creative in an attacking midfield role, that's another absolute beaut of a ball he played late on today.

Just left it a mite too late. We move on.