The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Stockport County Friday 29th December @ 7:45pm

The geography of the ground and the very adverse weather conditions have played a big part in that

 

Our playing budget is probably greater than all you mention, its just been used very poorly in my opinion.
We have at least half a dozen players in the squad not good enough and stealing a living.

 

Defence was excellent and well organised.

Only criticism was Smallwood's corners hit Paddy Madden at the front post every time. Truly shocking!

 

Another point towards promotion for both teams. Suck it up.

 

Half a dozen? You spoke of us mere mortals whom can't change things yet my previously quoted teams whom surpass us, are led by mere mere mortals

 

Well said
Battling and organised.
Forgot the stats, we were the better team by a mile tonight.
I'm not talking footballing wise and keeping it on the ground.
The pitch and the conditions dictated the way we had to play.
Did Lewis make a save?
Were we ever under sustained pressure??
No to both.
Only way we were denied was through a really good save.

 

Anyone that owns a football club, most be a quite wealthy mortal.

 

Pointon was never getting on, he’s off next week for big money.

 

City isn't getting promoted this season. SUCK THAT UP.

 

A bit of a nothing game and in all fairness not worth the effort put in by the ground staff, who did well to get the game on.

Not sure why both teams decided on trying to play through the mudbath when the other side of the pitch was perfectly fine but hey ho, probably shows why they are league two footballers.

I certainly think by trying to understand Bradford city, Alexander has made a point to try replicate Parkinson's Bradford city, that was a very parky like performance. No frills, get the ball forward, try feed off any scraps. Not a lot in the way of creativity unfortunately.

Back three solid enough, wing backs did their job defensively whilst seemingly being employed in different roles to the previous games.

Thought ridehalgh did alright on his return to be fair, solid defensively and put in some great crosses. To the poster blaming him for Halliday not getting forward, don't be such a plant pot.

Midfield held their own despite being out numbered at times. Booking ruined gilleads game a bit, Smallwood was Smallwood, odour showed bits of skill here and there , but also went for periods where the game passed him by.

Smith and cook were dominated really, cook didn't really win an header all game against their number 6, I thought it strange when Oliver came on that he didn't switch with cook and try win that dual but he seemed to target the number four with varying degrees of success.

Not sure that particular sub works, cook and Oliver have no cohesion, no pace to get behind and when played in this formation have no service from wide so stands to reason we aren't getting a great return other than hoping for playing the percentages as they say.

Would I have taken a point pre game, probably, did I come away slightly disappointed, probably more so.

 

I enjoyed that today, entertaining game as far as
0-0's go. Smallwood and Oduor were very good today.
Unlucky not to come away with 3 points but I would of been happy with adraw before the game so pleased with the result.


More happy clapping from me tonight! Utfc

 

The game was of a poor standard but mainly because of the pitch.

We needed the 3 points and didn’t do enough. 2 points from 6 is a poor return but doubt we will go up this season anyway.

We’re not good enough.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0h24by4

Alexander on Radio Leeds after game.

 

No need to shout RC-chill.

 

8 unbeaten. Thoughts?

 

Another sh1t ref tonight from the school of sh1t refs .....

 

11th in the league. Thoughts?

 

Thoughts? We never got going this season under Hughes -- for whatever reason(s) -- and by the end of his tenure we were more likely to be worrying about a relegation scrap than a promotion challenge. Perhaps he could have turned it around, but the numbers and trends were not good.

McDonald stabilised things, but after an initial improvement we were trending downwards again.

This continued under Alexander, to the point that after his first two matches we were headed straight towards a relegation battle. But since then he's managed to turn things around, to the extent that in his 8 league matches so far, we are playing at a guaranteed playoff position pace. Defence has been solidified, offence is no longer offensive. Will all this continue? Too early to say. But at this moment the numbers and trends are heading in the right direction again.

Given where we were, and where we seemed to be headed, I'll take 11th and 4 points back of the playoffs with half a season to go. 6 in a row unbeaten in the League is good, too. Yes, a win and a loss over these last two matches would, pointswise, have been better than two draws, but in terms of putting confidence into the players, perhaps two draws, one in which we came back from 2 goals down, and the other against the league leaders, to continue an unbeaten run maybe makes up for that other point, and might just pay dividends later on.

RCB

 

Agreed with that @River_City_Bantam. We now look like a team that will win more games than we lose. To perform as well as we have over the last 2 games without Walker and Pattison, shows that we should continue this upward trend. If we can get 3 points at Crewe, get Walker back with an additional replacement for Pattison then I'd be really hopeful for the 2nd half of the season. I enjoyed the game last night, played in terrible conditions and after the initial 5 minutes, we grew well into the game and they ran out of ideas. Cook was unlucky but still managed to get on the end of a couple of half chances where he could've possibly done better. Those bemoaning of the quality of game should cut them a bit of slack. It was never going to be a classic when there was a pitch inspection hours before kick off and the ground staff were removing water right up until the first whistle, and then again at half time. I'm really looking forward to seeing how far this squad can go with a couple of quality additions added.

 

After barely a peep and seeming distraught after beating Doncaster, I see the usual suspects have crawled back out of the woodwork after (checks notes) drawing against top of the league