The Voice - Match preview #42: Bradford City vs Stevenage Saturday 11th April 2026 3:00pm

One of them for sure was their own player "fouling" the keeper. Ref needed to get his card out way earlier. Their number 8 must have committed a few petty little fouls in the first and then at the start of the second half carried on doing it and he never gave one warning or even a card for accumulated fouls. Then with the Tilt flare up, their 8 was probably the biggest aggravating player and he again didnt even get a card.

Their long throw guy even on a yellow, then proceeded to take 20/30 seconds per throw again, not one warning. Cant be having soft refs like that in the play offs.

 

My violin is waiting.. zzzzz

 

From where I sit in C Block main stand it looked like he deliberately kicked Tilt on the ground.
Mark Bower thought the same and said he was very lucky not to get a straight red card.

 

Or how we deal with Barnsley at their place, their fans were all over face book in a City group chat saying we'll get 3 points against them no problem then they go and win away today, even though it was at Rotherham, I can't remember many easy games at Oakwell, but hopefully Lincoln will keep their impressive run going at Stevenage.

 

Ref wasn't as bad as made out. The 'goal' from Wright gets chalked off by pretty much any ref though his failure to clamp down on the constant slowing down play could have been better handled. Had we have actually tried to play some football in the first seventy minutes or so and created some goal scoring chances then Stevenage would have to change their defensive game plan. As it is we played right into their hands and you have to credit Revell for that.

 

I watched on tele and would say you’re bang on. We’d be upset if that goal happened against us and would want it ruled out. You simply can not touch the keeper these days! A yellow card was right for Kemp but also booking Tilt was a stupid decision.

 

Also, their keeper caught a ball towards the end of the game and took about 20 seconds to release it. Did the ref even show his hand that he’s counting these?

 

As much as I could sit here and slate Stevenage's brand of football, there's no point. Their entire USP is centered around how long the ball can stay off the pitch and until the football authorities become interested in stopping it, we'll see it continue at all levels.

As for us, I'm concerned why our plan was to punt aimless long balls forward against a side who eat them up in their sleep. We gave them exactly the type of game they wanted and that is unacceptable at home. Put your foot on the ball, get it down and play. We did that in the first ten before Pointon went off and they looked rattled but for some reason, became rushed and panicked and showed no composure when it mattered.

 

The only reason I can think Lapslie came on is that Alexander wasn't sure if Jackson could do 70 minutes so didn't want to bring in him and take him off as he knew he would have to leave a sub window for it. As it turned out we ended up taking him off anyway.
It's been strange with Lapslie since he joined, always seems to be out of favour and out of the squad then appears from nowhere.

 

For the life of me I don't understand why there isn't some kind of time limit imposed on goal keepers. The referee should signal 10 seconds and 5 seconds. I do think the reaction of the crowd, especially a goal down, makes the 'time wasting' appear to be way more dramatic than it is. We were 'taking our time' plenty last week at Wycombe. It's hardly a shock that their keeper wasn't rushing to get the ball back in play. The problem the refs have is that the judgement of 'time wasting' is completely discretionary and therefore impossible to impose consistently.

 

Jumping up and getting straight in someone's grill is always a yellow card, every single time. He was psyched up already and Metcalfe was gesturing at him to calm down. Of course he was going to get booked.

 

I wasn't questioning the Tilts card, we're sat right in front of where it happened and Kemp was trying to get at the ball unfortunately it looked like the ball was never in a position to be played without possible injury to the player on the ground. but the first foul he gave on the keeper was his own player that he crashed into, as I say he could not be blamed for the result but he was weak through out the game

 

80% 'in touch' as in off the pitch just to be clear. The game was a never ending sequence of injuries, throw ins and goal kicks.

 

Lapslie summed it up perfectly for me, he has the ball by the tunnel, pulls their player back by his shirt and then complains when the ref gives a foul against him. Thing about him is that he doesn’t make the team often enough and thus is always off the pace of the game.

Posters saying we don’t want to to play them in the playoffs, would not want to meet them in the final….

I have forgotten about this game already…..

 

The Tilt incident was once again poor refereeing, he was not near enough to the incident to see what was actually happening as Tilt had his back to him, there was no way Kemp could play the ball without potential damage to Tilts "meat & two veg", I can understand why Tilt reacted as he did, I though both got yellows ?.

 

Lots of teams have failed against them. They give you no room to get on the ball have a very good defence and a good goalscorer in Kemp. Don’t want to play them if we reach play offs

 

Thing is, he’s been so far and away out of the picture that he can’t even make the bench lately. So for GA to put him on the bench and people (and GA), to expect him to just rack up and have an immediate influence on the game after 10 minutes is a little unfair. It takes a run of games to get up to speed and he certainly hasn’t been given that game time. There were quite a few today who were just as poor I felt. One example is my favourite Sarc who had no influence whatsoever (after Bobby went off)? I myself would prefer a footballing team if we make the playoffs as we just can’t hack it with teams that play the way Stevenage play.

 

They did, but then the Stevenage 8 (not sure on his name) was getting right in Tilts face for a while after, even when the ref was there trying to sort the situation, their 8 and Tilt still were talking aggressively to each other face to face and the ref still just let the lad walk free.

Seemed like he was just as aggressive as Tilt was for the whole period but only Tilt received a yellow for reaction