The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Morecambe Tuesday 26th December 3:00pm

Platt badly caught out for second goal, as was Smallwood don't think he is any more than average.

 

They were caught out by the pace and movement down the left they were very pacey on the break

 

First game in 10 weeks and it was ok. For the correct criticism of Osadebe, I felt it was much of the norm first half with the wing backs pushed back and the ridiculous punts upfield in the air, which had little effect but to give up possession and be put firmly on the back foot. Not enough movement off the ball but we kept it on the deck, we looked more dangerous.
In reality Morecambe could have been out of sight at half time.

I feel GA must have give them a fair few stern words at half time and eventually worked out that keeping the ball on the deck and working the flanks was much much more productive and we deservedly got a point from the game.

Im not gonna cover Osadebe who had an absolute mare but glad GA took him off at half time, which imo was good management and didn't hike him first half , which would have been more detrimental to the young lad.

So positives, Kelly, Halliday and the tireless Gilliead, my MOTM.
Good mental reaction to the deficit and a great level of fitness and energy with some excellent tackles and working hard as a unit.

Negatives, opened up far too many times across the middle and down the sides. Tactically poor first half. Not enough movement off the ball for me.

One last thing, credit to Morecambe who played well and look a decent outfit. Really impressed with Slew and Bedeau , there movement and ability to use the deck and get the ball out of there feet quickly. Lacked fitness in the latter stages mind.

 

Agreed with most of that.

Had to look up which one Bedeau was, though. Centre back. Can't remember him too much, think he did okay though?

Slew was a right bugger, constantly fouling and being fouled. Seemed stronger than he looked, and pretty fast, though I think his predisposition was definitely on wanting a tussle rather than running free from our CB's, which was an interesting choice.

We were battered in the first half, and it should have been 3-0. That said, we battered them second half, and that should also have been 3-0.

A draw was the right score, but I walked away thinking the standard was pretty poor. An entertaining, error-strewn serving of 'League Two' football.

The main take away for me, Dave, was that we showed spirit enough to come back and match them 45 minutes for 45 minutes. That was refreshing.

Too much reliance on Smallwood in the game for me, which was irritating, and he seemed to find it stressful as he lost his head at times.

Final point: we missed Walker big time, and I thought Osadebe was shocking, and while Oduor was a bit better, he's just too similar a player to Osadebe - he's just not a Jamie Walker, and we were all the worse for missing Jamie in both halves, I thought.

 

I still don't think the second half was a "great" performance, despite the comeback.

There wasn't much structure to the side and the goals were more taking advantage of the general chaos of the scrappy game as opposed to us creating chance after chance.

I do feel Alexander is missing a trick with the bench. The subs he selected offered very little difference to what was already out there, meaning any sub is a like for like (position wise) as opposed to being able to be fluid with formations

 

Most baffling thing for me today were our fans applauding off Songo’o when he got subbed. Fans were actually standing up and clapping. The guy played a blinder against us at their ground, and had a good game against us today, but flattered to deceive all the time he was at Bradford and was an extremely average footballer for us

He is long gone and plays for the opposition team. Hang your heads in shame

 

A player that never lacked effort in a Bradford City shirt.

Even when he was out of favour, he put in 100 % whether he came off the bench or started.

If someone treats our club with that kind of respect, he will get it back.

 

He'll be at Ross County next week anyway.

 

Got to agree with Jon on this one. Only saw him play a couple of times but I saw him put in some proper tackles. Just loved his attitude on the field and finally, his reaction in the video when Dion Pereira turned up (unannounced) at Woodhouse grove last year. Good to see fellow football fans show the man respect despite him playing for the opposition. Maybe if he’d forced a move through I might see it differently but to me he was a first rate professional.

 

What was nice to see was that though we again fell behind early, we again came back to salvage something from the match. So far this season we had been very poor at doing that. To be fair, I suppose that most teams are poor in this regard, but one just notices it more with City!

Very early days, but one starts feeling more positive about the season now, with GA at the helm. The next two matches will be tough, though.

RCB

 

And Osadebe does.....?

 

I wasn’t making a case for Osadebe

 

I agree with you.

Morecambe were nothing great and when under pressure in the second half they offered absolutely nothing. Did Lewis make a save?

In the first half they weren't great either. They sat deep and waited for big balls up to Cook. When they won the ball they committed a lot of players to the counter attack, which made them look good but they just had a good plan really.

The problem in the first half was not really Morecambe's great play it was that we didn't play as we have done recently. As GA said, we tried to be too direct and pushed too many people forward too quickly. In the second half, Oduor connected the play better and Gilliead got on the ball more and started to play more with Halliday so we weren't launching the ball from deep like the first half but playing with the ball in their half and then putting crosses in. Our then fundamental flaw was the quality of crosses which were awful frankly.

I hope the team will learn from the first half yesterday. If anything, I would initially put it down to over-excitement or over confidence and forgetting the basics. Second half showed good heart and belief and should prove to them that if they stick to the plan then things will be OK.

 

I'd say he completely lost all control of the game but he never actually exerted any to begin with. The game was scrappy much of the time because Drysdale thinks "letting the game flow" means just not blowing for fouls.

I'm old fashioned and I like the game to keep moving but if it's a blatant free kick you can't just ignore it and move on or you end up with a refereeing performance like yesterday.

His only saving grace was that he was dreadful for both teams.

Also, 4 substitutions, 2 goals and players cautioned for time wasting yet he adds on ..... THREE minutes? By the FA directives the substitutions and the goals add on more than that alone? For me it should have been at least double and possibly more.

 

Sorry don’t agree I thought Morecambe were excellent first half. They were tight at the back and lighting breaking very difficult to play against. We had to stretch every sinew to get something out of the match. I think sometimes you have to give the opposition credit

 

As predicted by some at the start of the season the cases of adding 8,9 or 10 minutes have clearly stopped.
This was always going to happen when the so called “experts” on telly start criticising the excess amount that was added at the start of the season.
It happens every season.
New directives are soon ignored and we go back to normal.
I don’t think Drysdale is any better or worse than the refs we see each week.
He reffed the Crewe game in August which we won 1-0 and he was completely invisible and didn’t get a single mention post match.

Yesterday,however,once he didn’t book their full back (he initially reached for his pocket and then bottled it) for blatantly throwing a ball back on to the pitch to delay play he just went from bad to worse.
Booking Cook for diving was just ridiculous and he eventually ended up booking the same full back for time wasting.

 

100% Dave . The start was the pantomime villain full back at a throw in below the dug out . Then compounded it by tossing the extra ball on the field . A clear and obvious booking for time wasting and or ungentlemanly conduct . Drysdale just had a chat!

Yes he was dreadful for both sides but on balance they got the “ breaks” . . As you say the token added time was nothing short of a joke.

 

And don't forget, that same full back that was "let off" from the booking was cautioned in the second half for tine wasting.

It may or may not have changed the outcome but the referee has to at least enforce the laws of the game and in this particular instance I don't believe he did.