The Voice - Match preview #29: Bradford City vs Harrogate Town Saturday 8th February 2025 12:30pm

Very similar game to the Morecambe match.

Job done.

 

Made very heavy weather of that game after such a flying start.

 

Tough watch 2nd half but 2 bogey teams beaten in recent weeks

 

More later …

Why did we stop the fast paced short passing to long ball which constantly gave the ball back to them?

It brought them into the game when they were in danger of being blown away?

 

Thats a bit over negative Jon

 

Never in doubt

 

Exactly that. Great start and definitely was more to go for after the goal. But hussled and did enough to get over the line albeit felt quite laboured in the second half. Was hoping to see more from Mellon, looked rusty and a bit slow to the game. Good a few players were able to come off and not needed to do the full 90.

Crichlow may have had a few loose passes but on the whole I liked the look of him, Wright and Pointon down the left. Thought the back 3 were pretty decent today, Shepherd great again then Huntington solid and reliable when he came on.

All this said, we’ve got to take that result and get on to the next game.

 

Job done, if not the most convincing performance.

Thought Tyreik Wright did well today.

 

Poor performances today from Halliday and Smallwood.,and Bobby not at his best today.

 

Not for me.

We were completely hobbled by the very first change.

3 points is what matters, we move on, but that was dire.

 

It wasn’t a great second half I agree. However I don’t put that down to just Leigh. I think most of the front 5 slowed up but these games happen and we were able to rely on a decent back unit and we managed the game well.

Feels a bit harsh to single Leigh out. He wasn’t amazing, not many were, Mellon included who I was disappointed with in truth. But the result was the most important thing and everyone contributed to that - so job done IMO.

 

Thats my issue 3 points but in a play off game the other teams. will score them half chances..... we need to be more balanced....Lee is no forward midfielder maybe (were does he fit into that area) but Mellon man offers more direct threat and hold up play.... we need to get two goals minimum ....

 

Good first half, poor second but never in any real danger. We looked a bit tired tbh, the subs didn’t give us added energy. But important 3 points, against the teams near the bottom we’ve been grinding out 1-0 wins rather than throwing away points. Seem to still up our game for the bigger teams though.

 

Again, dire is a bit over the top but its your opinion

But agree after seeing all 3 of our strikers today it is probably fair to question whether Alexander has got this right

 

Smallwood was arguably our best player today along with Wright and Sarcevic and Shepherd

 

Excellent first half, we played some good stuff on the floor and ripped through them at times. Only criticism is we didn't score more.

Terrible second half. We allowed them to dictate the type of game it was going to be like we did at Wimbledon last week and it turned into a scrappy hoof fest where our productivity levels unsurprisingly fell to zero. We lost all composure in possession and looked a shadow of the team in the first half. Kavanagh to Leigh also had an impact because that lad isn't a striker in a million years.

We need to be brave enough to continue playing football even when the opposition try to stop us because when the ball is on the floor we look a good team.

 

Don’t think anybody came out of the second half with any credit but absolutely them 3 in the first half were head and shoulders our best 3 players.

 

We'd began to lose our shape before the substitutions, the subs made no real difference to that. Leigh has a decent first touch and layoff but is quite ponderous, not much opportunity for Mellon when he came on.

 

I think losing Sarcevic didn’t help either.
We were struggling long before that but he was so influential in the first half.

Not the best half of football but the first half shows we can play some decent stuff.

 

Very early days, but I'm really not sure about Leigh.