The Voice - Match preview #40: Bradford City vs Northampton Town Friday 3rd April 2026 3:00pm

Humphtys played one into box and a tame finish from Bobby I think. Not seen it again though so maybe im wrong.

 

I thought it was very poor game management when with less than ten minutes to go with a goal advantage we get caught with everybody forward leaving the centre forward on his own and we would have conceded if if hadn’t been for a brilliant tackle from Baldwin.

 

That was on Tilt IMO and Alexander hinted at it in his post match interview. It’s all well and good bombing forward when we are behind but there was no need when he did it a number of times second half. As you say lucky Baldwin caught Eaves, he ran down that LCB area and Tilt was way out of position.

 

Lets be honest, it was also Wheatleys fault for losing possession so easily. We got caught short.

 

Wheatley is so frustrating. He does some really good things but also some rubbish ones. At one point point yesterday he did really well to force a defender to cough up possession deep in their half, and then botched the simple pass back to Penno straight into touch, giving them the chance to launch an attack late on when we needed to be keeping hold of the ball.

 

That was such an amateur moment it actually looked completely out of place in the context of a football league game. I don't want to knock him but it was shocking.

 

Somehow the kid is on the books of Man Utd. I have seen absolutely nothing from him in his 12 appearences to suggest he has any chance of been a PL footballer. He will carve a career out of L2 or L1 at best.

He is young but all he seems to have is pace and average footballing ability.

 

I get the goal difference debate but we're on the run in 6 games to play and there's some difficult opponents amongst those teams, so without repeating myself I'll take 3 points all day long rather than entertaining me, I know to some that might sound "unambitious" or "accepting mediocrity" at 78 I honesty thought I would possibly not see us in the Championship again, there's still plenty to do to get there, but as @Rocket would say " keep the faith" .

 

Anyone who has been involved with football be that playing at amateur level, semi pro, pro level or as a football fan can see when a player is not happy playing a position that doesn't get the best of of himself and it frustrated the guy.
In fairness to Humphrys that's applied for most games Alexander has asked him to play the striker role.
Fortunately for us Humphrys took one of his chances yesteday and fans left Valley Parade happy, well most did .

 

For sure not giving Sarcevic a breather looked a strange substitution, although we were far from outstanding yesterday much of the attacking came through Sarcevic, some of his interplay first half was very good although some didnt come off you could see him gesturing to his team mates as if to say this is the way we done it in training all week.
On to Wycombe and yes I'll take a point now .

 

I agree we did what we had to to get the 3 points, which many will say we should with a p1ss poor side like Northampton, but how many times in the past have poor sides come to Valley Parade with an appauling record and got a result, Tranmere last season although Andy Crosby had the "new manager bounce " they were a very poor side and we couldn't do the job, although I accept on the day the referee was shocking especially the penalty he gave them that won them the game.

 

Did anyone see Humphrey’s interview ,on radio Leeds .hes a strange player and person listening to his interview .he doesn’t really fit in to the type of Alexander player he likes .hes got talent but where do you play him . If things were going against us , he would just lose interest and be lazy , because he’s not enjoying playing up front as interview confirms .

 

Oddly Dave I don’t think it was ever intended to play him at Wycombe ? Win home games, no matter how, and it would take a fluke to knock us off the top six? Bettersaving him for those home games and the run in?

 

Thought we were poor for a good part of the game. Around their box especially. Sarcevic looked dead on his feet at the end and so did Bobby. Which is strange for a team who’ve had a week off.

baffling that we had no number 10 on the bench, ie lapslie. Who would have come on and just slotted in. Such a strange situation, and I know I’m boring everyone with it… but still can’t wrap my head around it.
I thought Humps played well. So did Pennington and Baldwin.

 

Very honest interview, Alexander says he took him to one side and asked his opinion about playing him where Alexander thought he'd benefit the team the most yet the lad sounds far from happy playing that role believeing the team would benefit from him playing in his more natural role.
As fellow posters have said many times if Alexander is going to set us up as he's done this season and the last once Cook had his ACL we need a player who can not merely play the lone striker role and all what's required but needs to be able to score, if we do get promotion that would come with a big fee.

 

Although I agree our away form is not good for a promotion chasing team, without Sarcevic and what he brings would make our job harder.
Does anyone think our away games against Wycombe and Barnsley we might set up more defensively, hopefully by the time we play Barnsley Jacko might be back, I hope by the time we play Exeter their down and we're sitting 3rd in the league .

 

I disagree. It was refreshingly honest. He doesn't seem like the standard bland media-trained player of today. The night before a big game, there isn't one player who doesn't think about getting the winner rather than passing it or watching from a distance. They want to be the one with the headlines and who wouldn't want to be. In my work I want to be the best, I want to bring the most money in sod the others.

 

I don’t use X. Is the interview available anywhere else?

 

I had my head in my hands. Shortly before that he did a lovely shoulder drop, then did too much. He also lost possession which gave Eaves that one on one chance. Also got in the way of Sarce and generally looked like he was trying too hard (understandable given his form and it’s against his former team)., I’ll stick my neck out and say we won’t see him starting any time soon. The fella gets too worked up. He’s not in the right place. Won’t make it at Utd obviously.

interestingly enough, I’ve just started playing Football Manager again, and he’s brilliant!

 

The thing is if you want to be the best, you have to give 100% all of the time, not some of the time when it suits. Steve is right, there have been plenty of times this season when Humps has looked half arsed and not interested and I'd bet a considerable amount of money if he hadn't scored early on yesterday, that's the player we'd have seen a lot more of as the game went on.