The Voice - Match preview League One Playoff Semi-Final: Bolton Wanderers vs Bradford City Saturday 9th May 2026 8:00pm

Think around 5 of their team are loans.

 

That’s what worries me the most, we aren’t the most prolific and we need 2 goals on Thursday to win. Pushing to get back in the tie could mean trouble with your two wingers.

 

I must have misunderstood a previous comment from someone.

 

So many posters here who know what you mean but pick at anything. We played not to lose but we did. It’ll be a different game on Thursday

 

Thats the worry. Do we go hung ho to get back into the tie, but leave ourselves open to concede another, or, keep them quiet for a bit before cranking it up?

 

It's not odd, it's good use of the loan system, which is what we need to do next season

 

With GA I think it’ll be the latter.

 

Wouldn't mind Humphrys and Sarc behind Jackson, but I don't think we'll do that.

If the stage is set for anything, it will be the return of Pointon, I think they'll try to write that storybook ending if they can.

My concern with Bobby is, he seems to need time after an injury, so I don't think that will prove the answer.

Jackson, Sarc and Tyreik from the off, perhaps?

 

No need to go gung ho from the off. We need to be on the front foot obviously, which we generally are in home games. Just need to play our normal game and if it stays 0-0 we are still in the game. Don't need to do anything differently until the last half hour or of course if they score

 

Gane plan nearly worked tonight. For most of the game we restricted Bolton to possession with little created for it but they have bit of quality in their attack that we lack. We looked far better attack wise when Tyreik came on, I expect him to start on Thursday night if we have any ambition of getting to Wembley.
Thursday night looks likely to be a sell out, it has the potential to be night time classic. I can't wait

 

Watched the game, still in it is my take away and luckily I have Thursday off so I can watch it. Other observations, I know it’s all opinions but I thought Neufville did well against Sissoko, defense was ok. Walker not much to do but seemed a bit hesitant with decision making. Midfield a bit outplayed. Just for bumblebee I thought the first foul on Jackson should have been called , the “penalty” was 50:50 for me but the strangest one was the AR giving Notlob a throw when it never touched Neufville and finally, how many of our headers went directly to Bolton players?

 

I think that's fair, and that's exactly what they will do on Thursday.

We KNEW a draw would be a good result, they KNOW a draw is enough.

That kind of thing does mess with teams.

 

This looks a nailed on foul.

 

Shocking, that.

It's clear as day, I don't even understand how the referee can pretend he hasn't seen that.

 

After the performance from Humphrys against Bolton 2 weeks ago I would be very surprised if he started as the left 10, Alexander was fuming with his work rate and positioning and if we had an alternative for him I think he would have come off.

For me as Bolton are not the most physical side I would bring Pennington in for Joe Wright and moved Baldwin to the middle then that opens up the switches of play from the middle whilst Pennington isn't bad when getting forward.

The rest I think will stay the same as I can't see Tyreik being ready to start and Jackson is the trusted no 9 now

 

The difference tonight, that little bit of quality
Take the two wide lads out for them and they are not much better than us, although I thought Cissoko was quieter than at VP and Dubbery involved more
Poor defence for their goal, as an aimless ball travelled the full length of our 18 yard line, but great finish
Lucky when Tilt had a complete brain fart just after
It’s only 1 goal, so we don’t need to go crazy
What we need to do though, is find that bit more attacking quality
All to play for, which is all we could ask, meaning Thursday should be a cracker

 

I'm not sure re: Ty just because I didn't think he had a chance of playing, so we probably got fed a line.

He might easily be closer to a start than we realise. I'm not sure though.

 

I think its the right thing to do to play the game normal rather than starting all out attack. If we concede first especially early it's hard to see how we come back from that. 90 minutes is a long time to come back from a 1 goal deficit, we won't be able to win the tie in the first 30 minutes but if we leave ourselves open we can lose it.

 

We really need to get at their keeper on Thursday, he looked shaky the few times we got a half decent ball in.