The Voice - Match preview #11: Rotherham United vs Bradford City Thursday 2nd October 2025 8:00pm

The answer is simple the fans don’t rate Byrne but it’s clear GA does

 

He was that well "marked" that he scored and received the sky man of the match award?

 

If you asked Alexander of course he'd big up Byrne, he wouldn't degrade any player but the fact is he hasn't had much choice but to play him, has he?.. think about it, should we be using a different player out of position, or a youngster?.. As has been said, once we have our injury's sorted Byrne won't be near the bench, nevermind the team.

 

I was actually delighted with the point in the end yesterday, given the circumstances. Missed Power and Pennington massively and as a result we were too frantic in the middle and all over the place at times at the back. We still did more than enough to earn a point and the thing I really like about this team is that there are goals in there so even at 2 down I never felt we were out of it.
There will inevitably be games when we are not quite at it. The important thing is then to make sure we get something out of the game which we did.

 

No it's not a straight choice Lucketti and Alexander himself are still better options than Byrne and Kelly, and if we're still struggling ill dig up my parents who could still put up a better performance than them 2

 

He got little change playing down the right he was much better after the changes

 

As sad as this is, at 2-1 me and my mate decided to keep track. 13 seconds was the longest time, with a few over the (8-second?) time limit. It won't be enforced further down the pyramid often, the refs are just of such a poor standard sadly.

 

You can see the keepers pushing the boundaries further every week just as the outfield players now ignore any limits when it comes to throw ins....

 

Why is the corner not awarded along with the yellow card though? I'm fairly sure that even with a goal kick, the ball doesn't have to be in play to award the corner for deliberate stalling of the restart?

 

I don't think it was anything to do with his position. I think the whole team was better after the changes when Metcalfe helped us gain more control in the middle and essentially gave us the platform to get players like Sarc the ball in areas he needed to influence the game.

 

Absolutely , so begs the question , why is the adherence to the protocol so damn lax ?

 

I was thinking about supporter “ expectations” earlier this morning oddly coming to the same conclusion.

A win is “routine” at home whereas an away point seems like a defeat as a result . Thankfully only one “catastrophic “ defeat to complain about.

Our momentum since Fleetwood has been pretty amazing in its continuance and the bar has been set incredibly high 10 games in………

Considering the crazy amount of backline injuries , we are doing incredibly well . We just need a SETTLED back three and it could well continue , calling on people like Kelly and Byrne (and Touray playing out of position) as a LAST RESORT, turning draws into wins?

 

I am presuming they are going on a set of symptoms rather than he has a bang on the head?

 

Why arnt other clubs I believe is the question ….I don’t recall one single prem player who has laid prone for 5 mins after a “ bang on the head” missing a game through the concussion protocol. Is it me ?

 

Yeah was a strange reaction although I think he got a bit of stick from missing the earlier one

 

For me when you are dealing with the brain it is better safe than sorry. If other clubs are not following the protocol then it is up to the EFL to look into it.

There is a set of symptoms that you would expect to see after a bump on the head, pain(headache) nausea, dizziness, double vision, etc., there could be more. The player needs to rest up, lie down and relax. These symptoms disappear over a period of time and there will be interest just to be safe. Our footballers have no doubt been told to report if they experience any of the above. If they do then they cannot play, and it is then up to medical staff to tell us when they are fit.

 

It's a new rule that the Premier League and EFL have brought in this season meaning that if the game is stopped because the player is holding their head the physio comes on and they have to go off. They've said it was brought in to help with concussion monitoring but really I think it's because so many player were cheating the system knowing they can get the game stopped if they hold their head to stop an attack or slow the game down. I can see why they've brought it in and I agree with it as it was getting ridiculous how often games were stopped for a head injury then the player was magically fine as soon as the referee gets to the play.

 

I think ultimately it comes down to the culture in football still being to ignore it unless it is very obvious. I also think players are a part of the issue as you will often see them wanting to stay on when they are clearly not right and the physio is telling them they need to go off. Pennington's looks like an example of a player ignoring the signs until being forced to act on them by someone else. It sounds like with him if he lived alone we probably would have ignored it and played last night.

 

It’s a man “ thing” I suppose… ?