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

Different incident, that? This is the Sheehan one earlier on, where Sheehan drags him down outside the penalty area.

https://bantamtalk.com/threads/league-one-playoff-semi-final-bolton-wanderers-vs-bradford-city-saturday-9th-may-2026-8-00pm.9972/page-19#post-1072035

This one

 

Agree about the linesman, whether the referee can see it or not, it's a stonewaller from his POV.

Criminal, really.

 

I mean if we can register a shot ln goal.. we might have a chance on thu… we need to test their keeper.. something we hardly did today

 

Disappointing performance against an average Bolton team. I would start Tyreik and Humps on Thursday, their defence can be exploited and lacks pace.
Neufville will be important, as he can outstrip Johnston for pace 1v1.

 

We need the first goal Thursday or I think it's mission impossible. Worried we'll have a slow start and concede. I think they have the players to finish us on the break if we have to just go all out.

 

Everyone attending Thurs need to be up for creating a cauldron and getting on top of the Bolton players and staff from the start whilst also supporting the lads on everything they do.
This tie is far from done.
The way we played we wanted a 0-0 but knowing that 1-0 isn't the end of the world.

 

We did alright tonight, nothing more, nothing less. We had to suffer in a lot of moments but for all Bolton's good play, we did restrict them to only two big chances - one of which gifted by a Tilt brainfart.

It's with the ball that we need to improve. We made their back line look uncomfortable at times but never capitalised on it and looked hesitant to have that final cross/shot. We don't create many chances which is a worry when we're chasing the game but managing to limit the damage tonight leaves us still with a chance.

 

This. We’ve got the twelfth man on Thursday. We just need to believe we can take the game to them. If we get that first goal, then it’s going to be a wall of noise. One thing I’ve noticed about Bolton, is how much they go into their shell when on the back foot. They don’t like it up em!

 

How much have we paid Mullin, Ashby, White, Powell, Evans.....?

 

Alexander needs to go all out,
Start with wright,
And Humps.. bench sarce he is looking tired.. bring him on second half if we need to

 

like to see humps and swan given a start thurs.cant be worse than the shower up front Saturday.

 

I totally disagree. In a 2 leg tie where both teams strengths are their home form, a 1 goal defeat in the away leg is a neutral result imo.
Bolton would have been seeking a minimum 2 goal lead to give them a significant advantage.
This leaves us with the task of having to win a game of football at VP - something we have done successfully 15 times already this season.

 

Yes agree re getting the shot off and the pass. As @Park bantam says, looked like he ran out of steam so all the more reason to hit it first time when he had the advantage.

I have noticed Jackson doesnt need a second invite to go down a little easily - that said the first half one on him was plain as day after a great run and pressure. The ref gets deserved stick for a poor decision but how the liner didn’t see and flag is absolutely beyond me! The same for the throw in the corner when Neufville was left mind blown it was given against him.

The game or result wasn’t defined by the officials, but certainly didn’t get the run of decisions last night.

 

Got to try something new, we looked toothless for far too much for last night's game. Our 3 efforts on goal were in the 9th, 54th and 90+4 mins, need to find a way of creating some sustained pressure on Thursday, should be easier to do that on your own patch but they really need to figure out a way.

We're going into our most important game of the season with 1 win in our last 6 and 1 clean sheet in our last 11, I have an awful feeling we will need at least 3 on Thursday to go through because we just dont keep clean sheets too often either lately. Just 3 clean sheets in our last 16 games and they were against Rotherham, Vale & Northampton.

 

We have not been a big scoring team all season and unfortunately the loss of Bobby couldn't have come at a worse time.
I think Thursday will be tight once again. A 1 goal victory gives us extra time and potentially pens which is a scenario I can really envisage.
Its going to be an emotional roller coaster Im afraid!

 

A lesson on how to sit back and defend.

Don't buy your train tickets for Wembley. You won't need them.

 

Such a shame it didn't end 0-0. I thought we completely absorbed their attack first half. They played like a team desperate for an early goal as you'd expect and we managed it. We handled the two wide players better than I thought we would. One loose moment and we paid the price. My biggest fear was that they'd really rip into us and we'd have a bad away day and be out of the tie. It didn't happen and to br honest if given the choice between replaying that leg and staying with what we have, I'd definitely stick.

We go into the second leg with the task of doing what we do best which is winning at home. Those moments like Cozier Duberry's miss at 1-0 tend to have a habit of coming back to haunt teams. We're on course then for what I thought would happen which is penalties.

The dilemma left like others have mentioned is whether we go all out for an early goal at VP. I don't think we can afford to be anything other than patient. As soon as Cozier Duberry and Cissoko get us on the break the tie might be over. Need to bide our time. We always score at VP. Just need to make sure they don't.

 

Also an offside decision against Sarce in the first half when he would have been in the clear behind their defence. It was never offside.

 

After 200+ minutes against them in the last few weeks, we just havent looked like creating enough chances to give me too much hope on Thursday. There seems to be something in the air around the fact we are at home so we will do something, but the plan so far in the last 2 games against Bolton just hasn't had enough intent to show we can actually pull it off.

I'll be blindly optimistic on Thursday but something tells me we will stick to form against these lot and struggle to get through the gears.

 

I'd add that the last time we scored 2 goals at VP was at the start of March and in 4 attempts so far this season, we've yet to beat Bolton. Thursday night would be a great time to put that right but my head ruling my heart says it's not happening.