The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Walsall Saturday 3 September @ 3:00pm

I assume you wanted him on for Smallwood?

 

I actually forgot Banks in mine. Either way, good to see we got a result today

 

No…I couldn’t see the game , so working from memory of Tuesdays game.

 

I can take it.. I want to know what’s wrong with Gilly…all seems hush hush?

 

Nearly Harratt could have done better one on one.

 

3 points and two good goals plus an outstanding performance from Lewis. Otherwise it was pretty poor stuff.
Walsall will come away from this game wondering how they lost given the amount of chances they created.

 

Did they save that display for us, if they play like that on a regular basis the'll be up right up there for at least a play off place very impressive Mr Flynn.

 

We struggled today but got the win. Will take that but we need to improve.

 

If winning when we're poor is the exception, then it'll be an important part of our season. But our performances need to improve. We've generally been underwhelming in the league so far. Plenty of time to go, but we need to up things, because our performance levels so far won't be enough for a promotion campaign.

 

He's injured I think. Some kind of contact injury and Hughes didn't want him rushing back to quickly and make it worse. No midweek match this week so that will give the players a bit of a break.

 

Critchlow was poor today. It was a pen. He let the man cut inside too easily. Lackadaisical. He was culpable for the goal and didn’t clear his lines leading to panic in the box.

Sutton was good first half stretching play beyond cook. Should have been subbed second half earlier for Songoo as he kept getting caught wrong side as Walsall broke on us leaving Smallwood and his lack of pace exposed. Songoo calmed us down. We saw the injury time out better than the previous 10 minutes.
Lewis was excellent and he had to be. Walsall unlucky not to win today. Lewis performance was the best I’ve seen since we’ve been back in this division. Rightly MOTM.

 

Well MH wanted a team to come and have a go at us, and he certainly got that from a powerful Walsall side. I could only see them scoring from a set play though and that proved to be the case.

Fantastic performance from Harry Lewis, what a signing he is proving to be.

Not sure what Sutton offers, he was very poor, and until Songo'o came on, we were bullied and outfought in midfield.

Impressive cameo from Wright when he came on and great to see Pereira back.

I'm starting to feel a bit uneasy about Crichlow, far too casual at times and he is not very good in the air. He needs to improve or I can see Odusina taking his place soon.

Definitely a game we would have lost last few seasons. So fair play for battling and seeing us over the line when we were second best for most of the match.

 

I think Odusina will oust Crichlow. He's done well, but there's a casual element to his play. When we're on top it comes across as very composed, but when we're up against it he looks a bit lax.

 

A wins a win but let’s hope that we ain’t gonna have to rely on our keeper to win us games week after week ............. Walsall didn’t deserve that today but how many times had that happened to us over the years

 

Sutton is shite.

We have to improve CM in Jan. It’s a must.

 

Crikey Moses, we get a win there, but that was too close for comfort.

Did not like Platt today, Cook struggled until he scored a belter (so who cares), Levi Sutton though, what was he doing all game?

We struggled with Walsall, it was a nice open game, but that one-two at the end of the first half killed Walsall.

That referee was chronically bad.

 

To be fair we've played several teams over the last couple of seasons who ended up promoted in the top three and we wondered how they'd been up there.

Transfer window is closed. Good time for Hughes to get working on them. I feel there's good opportunity for improvement in this team. We'll do it, FB.

 

Sutton very poor…….Shocker! Someone being honest! Only kidding.

In fairness MH and the back room team guessed that East would be lightweight against a big powerful midfield, so he had no option to plump for Sutton who is decidedly light weight himself. Strange MH didn’t go for a Smallwood Songo’o pairing from the off? ( Pace or lack of most likely?)

 

This is the best squad we've had for years, I'm sure of it. And I think we have a couple of gears that we haven't yet found, so I'm not too worried at this point. But we do need to start motoring soon, we haven't been entirely convincing in many, if any of our league games so far. Mansfield next week will be a real test

 

Entertaining game of football where we will find we'll play a lot better this season and lose. Credit to Walsall, they came and gave it a real go and to be fair deserved all three points.
Positives were Harry Lewis who looks better and better each game. Andy Cook who put in a shift and scored off the only chance he got with a good finish off a first time cross from Halliday. Was also impressed with young Wright when he came on, looks quick and not afraid to run at defenders.
After that I'm struggling, I thought Suttons workrate and running was good first half and Chapman in patches showed good touches.
Negatives, first home game in the league I've seen a team have a go and they ran us ragged for large periods. Central midfield was wide open and our centre backs looked dodgy against some quick and physical opposition. Bar the goal our two wide players in Young and Banks were completely anonymous which put a lot of pressure on the others.
In the end a great result which probably asks more question than gives answers. I came away enthralled but knowing we can't afford more performances like that if we are to be taken seriously as promotion contenders.