The Voice - Match preview #42: Swindon Town vs Bradford City Saturday 12th April 2025 12:30pm

That exact comparison struck my mind at three o’clock oddly.. Too many cooks!

 

Pattison as you say wasn't great last Saturday, Alexander said several players were effected by illness during the week and that was why Pattison was brought off at half time, which again was a strange situation if Pattison was not 100% why start him after just coming back from a month or so lay off.

 

Would we have anyone to cover him on the travelled squad that set off yesterday. Sarcevic wasn’t fully fit , maybe Walker?.

 

Because Pattison is in our best XI.

Let's not over analyse. Just suck it up, dust ourselves down and move on.

We're winning this league. That's just a fact.

 

According to Alexander theres been an illness going round which affected 5-6 players.. including Pattison… why play him then ? Lapslie and Baldwin were out due to the same illness..

 

Khela could have dropped in alongside Smallwood then Walker comes in to play on the RW

 

Lets hope he's keeping his cards close to his chest, as I posted I was told the club doesn't always get the referees report back immediately and with us having a game on Thursday I'd expect Alexander would like to know the out come of the referees report, did the referee class it as reckless/out of control or classed it as violent conduct, Smallwood won the ball so I fail to see it as violent, but who knows.
Todays referee booked 4 City players and sent one off whilst only booking Smith well into extra time, yet there were only 18 fouls in the entire game Swindon committing 10 of them hardly a dirty game but I found those stats weird to say the least.

 

Pattison's got two problems that he needs to rid himself of. One is the red mist one of piling in to situations he should keep out of. The other is declaring himself fit when he isn't. He's done that before and I strongly suspect he did it today.

 

Crazy result Smallwood sending off to GA panicking at ht with his substitutions but we are Bradford city and do nothing the easy way.

We won't win the league 40 years on from the fire was the dream go up 2nd 3rd playoff we are behind the lads as we always are and go again next week.

 

Sarcevic will be captain

 

Shepherd always underperforms at CB.
He's the best at LCB

 

What is frustrating really is that we are a good team and should be promoted BUT we are doing everything in our power to feck that up.

 

Of course he'd be in our best starting 11 when fit but taking him off at half time suggests he wasn't, now after hearing Alexander post match comments about illness in the camp and there being no Baldwin or Lapslie either maybe playing Pattison even though he was nowhere near 100% was the best option he had available.
I agree although today hurt mainly because I believe we would have gone on to put a few more past Swindon having Smallwood sent off changed the game completely so we'll never know, I believe the title is between us and Port Vale, Doncaster have a massive task playing 4 games in 11 days three of those games are against teams who are fighting for an auto place, a play off place, or to stay out of a relegation spot, so yes I'm with you as far as League winners are concerned.

 

Anyone noticed that promotion is still in our hands?

Relax everyone. We've definitely got this.

 

Can't disagree with either comment but that's the nature of the guy, asking a pro if he's fit Alexander is only going to get one answer, all ifs and but's, maybe Pattison thought he could get through 45 minutes without any problems and then we change things which could have been the situation without the sending off, we'll never know, but we need to make sure this illness doesn't effect more in the squad, Notts County is a must win game if we want to stay in contention as League winners.

 

Ah bollocks. And PV also score 5.

To add insult to injury, I cashed out my ht/ft bet on Swindon at 94 mins. 8€ is better than 2,50€ right? And then I watched Shep kick my potential 88€ into our goal.

 

As much as Smallwood has pissed me off with that retarded challenge. the blame lies with GA. What the feck was that substitution?

Johnson? Shite
Kelly? invisible
Byrne? Haven’t got a clue

we had 4 midfielders on the pitch
One got sent off
Two got subbed off
Who are we left with? That’s right, the only one of the four on a yellow

you can put 10 defenders on the pitch, but if there’s nobody to protect them, their gonna be useless. Hence why Swindon had time to pick out crosses from wide, and were able to get to the edge of our penalty box every attack

it’s just brain dead game management. You can’t score 4 goals and still come out with 0 points.

 

I know this will go down like a lead balloon but if we knew there were players not 100% wouldn't taking Leigh have been a good move then ask the players on the day about how they feel with regards playing "X" minutes then again was Leigh one of the lads with illness.
This is not a pop at Alexander but their defence was hardly rock solid so why give them the advantage by inviting them on with the two half time subs, Walker and Wright would have given us a more balanced side and not what looked like to most giving up on getting forward by defending the lead we had.

 

Is it brain dead management to be top of the league before today and after 41 games?

Just asking for a sensible friend.

 

Aye, he’s done well for the majority of the season, but knowing that our captain is now out till Fleetwood, he’s put us right in it with that substitution. No need to go so defensive, well I wouldn’t even class it as defensive, it doesn’t make sense.

look back at the goals, I’m really struggling to see who’s responsible for marking who, who’s supposed to be in what position of the box and where everyone is playing