The Voice - Match preview Carlisle United vs Bradford City Saturday 20th May 2023 @ 3:00pm

This squad is certainly better than those in recent times.
Some of the loans didn't really work though (Periera/Nevers/Costello), although Banks & Wright were excellent.

You would think these would leave -
Eisa
Clayton
Songo'o
Ridehalgh
Threlkeld

Along with some extra season tickets being sold and some play-off money to throw in the pot, we should have some wriggle room to bring in some quality.

 

I'd say with Hughes and Gent, we've made better signings than the likes of Threlkeld, Angol, Kelleher, Robinson and Lavery.

Cook is about the only good player we signed last season.

 

Platt should be playing with the Don at Farsley next season. Useless.

 

Based upon what I’ve seen - NO

 

Totally agree. The midfield is the engine and ours is slow, and does not drive the rest of play. This is where it is going to cost us money this next season big time. They are just not good enough, they will do as a backup, but our main midfielders for next season we haven’t met yet! That is if our ambition is to gain promotion.

 

We have a young, forward thinking midfielder in Ryan East but Hughes has refused to start him. Hughes had the January window to address the lack of drive and need for a box to box midfielder and he opted to replicate what we already had in Gilliead and Smallwood, by bringing in Clayton.

 

If Cook, Lewis and Banks go we need 3 good signings just to stand still.

 

All in all there’s been some strange decisions this season. He’s given Derbyshire an 18 month deal. Can anyone see him lasting 90 minutes? Stubbs has gone from solid, confident defender, to one who seems to panic all of a sudden. Maybe Platt should have regained his place at the expense of Critchlow because the partnership with Stubbs was pretty solid. The signing of Oliver and not playing wingers. The loaning of Foulds and bringing in Bola. The signing of Nevers who was atrocious. The signing of Harratt and Young then not playing them. The loaning out of Songo’O who would have relished the challenge yesterday. The list goes on and on. I really hope we go for quality over quantity and youth over alleged experienced pros who can handle the big occasion “cough cough”.

 

Just got up and the highlights are on Sky. In the cold light of day that extra time substitution is no less baffling. Banks wasn't tired. He set off 3 yds behind the defender and absolutely skinned him over 10 yds. Had he stayed on Carlisle would have been bricking it whenever he got near the ball. Might have left extra men back. It may not have affected the result, but do you know what, it just might have done. Totally baffled. I haven't heard Hughes interview. Did he say he brought Platt on to try and hold on for penlties??

 

The strangest has been that substitution yesterday!

 

We will never know. As you stated Banks would have given Carlisle something to worry about especially after just creating a goal. It was such a negative substitution and essentially sent the message that we were defending for penalties. It gave all the incentive to Carlisle to come at us. A few minutes later it was game over and our most creative player was off the pitch. Madness.

 

What like Salford you mean

 

The morning after the night before and I'm still fuming. I can handle losing - we've come to expect it. But to spend 170 mins not trying to attack is pathetic and its on Hughes. I think he needs to go. I can't really take another season of watching that 'style'. Id get on the blower to Steve Evans. He'd take us up and the football would be better to watch.

 

Yep i felt over both the games with Orient, that they have a similar playing style to us, but they are just far better at it. Pace and movement in abundence whereas w

He said Banks was tired but even if that was the case the assist would have given him an extra yard and there waa only 15 mins left. The argument doesnt hold water anyway as he replaced him with a defender! He had Nevers and Pereira on the bench. Neither have been great but at least it would have been like for like

 

I ended up switching the game off after the 90 because I couldn't stomach the torture any longer. I have felt all season that it was autos or nothing so although it still hurts, it isn't a surprise to me that we are were we are this morning. Right now, I don't have the appetite for another season in the khazi but I know it will be back come August. It's what we do isn't it?

 

Yesterdays substitution was just the latest in a long line of strange decisions perhaps made more obvious by the relevance of the game perhaps Platt is a better penalty taker than Banks
It's been happening all season long
Negative Tactics Trying to play out from the back Late Late substitutes with the soul aim of hanging on for a point never once have we gone "gung ho" and gone for all 3 points
It's been a season long pattern
His post match interview saying we have progressed this year was a classic we are STILL in L2 the khazi league where is the progression in that !!! Unless you can class avoiding National League as progress
We only finished in the play offs because excluding Orient the rest of the league has been woeful, with a little attacking flair a little drive from midfield tactical know how, etc (we had the players capable of it) like Orient we would have been out of sight
Hate to think we could join the managerial roundabout again but will he learn ?? I really don't think so !!!
This season's failure (progression or not everything was provided for him) is down to one man am afraid, doesn't bode well for next season whichever way you look at it
Will Hughes Learn
Will he still get the backing he has had again
Will fans stand again for a manager who WONT see what everyone sees
Who knows
The only certainty is that with a more progressive manager we could be Looking forward to Derby Sheff Wed/Barnsley etc
Instead Bring on Accrington Morecambe Forest Green Sutton (respect to those clubs) etc a sobering thought indeed

 

Hughes won’t hold his hand up to that one. The excuse of “knowing they’d come at us” is a poor one. Give it 5 minutes at least. Throwing Platt on and causing chaos in the backline lost us that game, but as others have said, over the 2 games we haven’t been good enough.

 

I also think their third goal resulted from uncertainty at the back at so who was picking up who. Chucking Plattv into the mix at that time confused things, leaving an unmarked man. Although to be fair, it was a superb cross.

Yeah, I'm still annoyed with Banks substitution. As @Faithful Bantam said above, our approach was so negative across the two matches.

I would also love to know why Hughes felt he couldn't use Dion Periera at any point across the two games. We were so unbalanced with no threat on the left, surely at some point it would have been worth changing it to give Carlisle something else to think about.

 

Even though its raw continuity of manager makes sense. Hughes has little experience of footy at this level so it shouldn’t be a massive surprise he gets decisions wrong - I’m not defending platt for banks BTW that was incomprehensible. But we have built some momentum this year possibly on the back of his name.
I said it before but trusting this team has proved difficult as they have malfunctioned when they’ve managed to get into a decent position.
Hopefully Hughes can bring some dynamism into the team. Quicker movement and accuracy. Orient showed the gap to us this season. They were significantly a better football team than us despite the draw.
Turning over manager again sets us back to square one. That’s not proved successful. Our most successful manager of recent years returns next year with Wrexham. Trust and continuity enabled him to build a positive environment to build consistently on. Hopefully Hughes can replicate this because today this really hurts. But based on the teams performances this season to lose in the playoffs was the level we were at all year.

 

Nail on the head.

I thought I would leave it until the morning after to post my comments on the match.

It was a very hard watch, and probably the worst I've seen from us over a full match.

I've seen City teams try harder to win pre season friendlies than they did yesterday.

Were the players playing strictly to Hughes orders, or did they freeze on the day. There was certainly plenty of experience in the side.

The lack of pace and mobility in the side was never more stark than watching us yesterday.

Players who have been consistently okay this season such as Halliday and Stubbs were absolutely shocking.

Gilliead was anonymous, Smallwood played like he couldn't care less, Clayton did okay, but his legs clearly gone and we cannot get 90 minutes from him.

I'm not fussed either way whether Hughes stays or not. He has certainly given us a much better season than the previous 3 in this league , however, I do question whether he is suited to this level of football.

I cannot see us sacking him this summer, if he decides to leave, I would try and somehow tempt Wellens back up north or perhaps consider approaching the Cowley brothers. Someone who knows the lower leagues inside out and has had success.

Evans would be a conundrum, I've always said I wouldn't want him anywhere near us and if results didn't go our way under him, we would see levels of toxicity from the stands we have never seen before, that said, I think we would have run Leyton Orient a close second under him this season.

Time to enjoy the summer and Cricket now and see what unfolds recruitment wise before we go again for another long hard slog in the 4th tier