The Voice - Match preview Hartlepool United vs Bradford City Saturday 20 August @ 1:00pm

You may well be more accurate than a 14 year old?

 

Glad to hear this. Been a few of us calling it for weeks. 4-4-2 best way to win with this squad. Scrap 4-2-3-1.

 

He likes possession so doubt he will do that. But it’s good to know he can turn to it if needed

 

To mirror what others have said, Cook looked far more threatening and proved as much when playing alongside Harratt.

Twice today Harratt deliver the ball to feet in the box, Cook put the first one away and the second one Angol got a weak shot off. Lots of intelligence in his build up rather than just lumping it in and cross your fingers.

Banks took his goal well and I haven't seen it again but I have no idea if the keeper knew anything about the save he made first half when Callum Cooke gave the ball away as it was at the far end of the ground.

Hartlepool offered very little, saying that so did Colchester, Newport and Doncaster. We've beaten ourselves so far this season.

 

Halliday made a simple job look hard today and needs to up his game.
Angol is either off form or trying to hard and needs resting for a few league games. Cook looks hungry and full of energy and Harrat looks a good player.

Oliver looked a bit down on the bench but he will get his chance. He would benefit playing with Harrat as well as Cooky does. Playing either with Angol is a waste of time because his style suits neither of them . Oliver am sure will come good as long as we find players to suit him
BTW thought we looked better when Songo came on with his physical prescence and passing

 

How could you see Oliver “ looking down”?

 

Had a few hours to think about the game, and not read all the replies but here goes.

For three games now, Banks has started well and faded. He’s a great player and I am sure once he gets up to speed with first team football he will last the course.

Thought the goal we conceded was poor, too easy to cross, Lewis flapped a bit, and scorer unmarked. Poor goal IMO.

Halliday and Ridehalgh did OK but didn’t really overlap as much as I’d like.

Crichlow - what a game. The guy is just composed. He’s very calm, but also aggressive when he needs to be. He plays the ball out well with feet, and is strong in the air. I was apprehensive when he signed but he’s growing on me….. a lot.

Similarly Platt - a bit of an unknown when he arrived but I like him - decent centre half so far.

Smallwood as usual, most things went through him. Hopefully he will keep fit and free of injury and suspension. A key player. If we ever lose him he will be a big miss.

Gilly - a decent game again, carries the ball well, and transforms us from defence into attack.

Angol I thought was a 6/10 today. The position he’s playing doesn’t seem to suit him. A bit of a moment when he hit the bar, and he showed plenty of endeavour, but his intentions didn’t always come off.

Cook - looked isolated at times but once Harratt came on he was transformed. Would like to see Harratt and Cook start from the off against Crewe!

Chapman - disappointed with him today and I’m not sure he’s really got going yet.

Overall, I think we were making hard work of it at 1-1, but the subs made a real difference. I think to be in with a shout of promotion we will need to step it up a gear as it looked a bit of a slog at times. Overall though you can’t argue with the result.

And a final word on Callum Cooke. Nice to see him again - a decent start but he faded out of the game.

 

Looks decent

 

Fair assesment that. I thought we didn't play much different to Tuesday night for about 60 minutes, wind didn't help but generally a bit sloppy with the final ball for that time. Harratt coming on changes the dynamic, he's just got that box office feel about him where something will happen. We'll play better than that this season and not come away with a win, we just happen to have a striker hitting a hot streak and now cannot be dropped. There will be a lot sterner tests than Hartlepool as well, they were god awful. They'll do well to avoid the drop playing like that.
As I've said before, once Hughes realises who he needs to start with and stays with that then we will become a team thats a match for anyone in this division.

 

I keep seeing Ridehalgh get dusted - hes lost a bit of pace and his reaction times are poor

Id throw Foulds in

 

Did Cooke get a good reception from the City fans?

 

Home51%
Away49%
Shots
Home5
Away11
Shots on Target
Home2
Away6
Corners
Home3
Away7
Fouls
Home7
Away9

interesting the stats show our possession was well down on previous games except Hull but shots on and off target were way up

 

The wind held the ball up quite a bit. Plus first half we were very sloppy possession, Angol most of the game gave the ball away. I don't think we played that much better than Tuesday, we just ended up taking our chances.

 

Usual city reject chants

 

Results do a lot for how people see the game.

If Angol gets a pen and we win on Tuesday and lose today the reaction would be simply reversed. As you say there wasn’t really much different in performance except for us being more clinical, I’d probably say the same for all our games except Barrow when we didn’t show up at all for 70 minutes.

 

Smallwood on three yellow's already. Two more this year and it's a suspension.
It seems inevitable.

 

Doesn't matter if Angol is playing out of position, his constant twisting, losing the ball and not bothering to try to win it back should equate to him being dropped.

 

Think he's on two mate, same as young Banks.

 

If you look at Banks he has form on the booking front…..I like that. He took one for the team today.