The Voice - Match preview Most liked posts in thread: Bradford City v Hartlepool United Sat 18 March 2023 1pm

He was injured for about 30 mins and Hughes for whatever reason kept him on.

 

Most of that creativity came after the substitutions. Hartlepool are notorious for being weak at the back yet we choose to go safety first for 60 minutes. Thank goodness we have Andy Cook on fire because without him this team mid table mediocrity at best.

 

Walker was injured and down 3 times in the 2nd half.
Why didn't he get taken off after an hour.
He'd not done much anyway.

 

He isn't going to get a rest due to yellow cards. Once 19 games have been played in a season you have to accumulate 10 yellows before you are suspended.

 

I know I may be putting the cart before the horse but if we do get promoted this season and hopefully bring better quality into the squad will we see this type of football in league one, our home form but more performances have hardly been something as fans we should be breaking a gut to get down to Valley Parade to watch.

 

I think they may have come across better than they were because they came here and had a go rather than park the bus.

In truth, we created a bucket load of chances against their back line that had more holes than a sieve. Up top their number 9 was an absolute donkey who must've been on an offside bonus and his strike partner was arguably more useless than Costelloe.

Granted, their midfield three of Cooke, Sylla and Kemp had good games.

But if we were even remotely clinical we would've put 5/6 past them today and they couldn't have complained.

 

The goal was their only chance of the first half.

 

And with virtually the same personnel.

 

Tbf we weren’t as solid at the back as usual today they had good chances

 

Aren't you a Bradford City fan ?

 

Please ignore his little squeaks for attention. Any reply to him is a little victory for him.

 

For me the performance yesterday wasn’t as bad as others at home this season. We played better yesterday that we did vs colchester. We should have been out of sight in the first half. The pools scored with their only chance. Walker and Smallwood need a rest, and Costelloe needs replacing permanently by banks or Oliver. He is not league 2 level at the moment. Yes he’s young and learning but we’re not here to teach young lads. We need support and a proper finisher to partner cook. Yesterdays dropped points were down to MH. How costelloe stayed on that pitch as long as he did was poor, and cost us 2 points. I called it on this thread after 30 minutes into the game. Smallwood is also extremely disappointing. Given his pedigree, I’m surprised he’s our worst midfielder out of the current 3. Needs replacing with East, who impresses every time he plays. On Tuesday we must replace Smallwood, walker and costelloe with East, Chapman and banks. We’re just too pedestrian.

 

If MH had made all those substitutions 15 minutes earlier we'd have won that game 3 or 4-1.
So frustrating!

 

Pools did look a bit lost for a while after we'd gone 1-1, but then regrouped and with a more positive attitude again pressed for the win, but yes, unbelievable to see those subs on just seconds from injury time ...

 

The thing I can't understand about Hughes, is, when Cook was having a bit of a leanspell, he dropped him from the team for about 5/6 matches, why doesn't this happen to, Smallwood, Costello, Walker etc, Cook certainly benefitted from it perhaps it will work the same magic on our lack lustre midfield

 

The quality and flair may not be there in league 2 but the desire to attack and create chances needs to be better.
Fans turn up in numbers hoping to see goalmouth action not 5 yard passes between defenders then back to keeper, then launch up field hoping Cook might score a solo goal.

 

Doesn't sound very Loyal, mate?

Let's hope for a proper performance on Saturday and a 6 point haul with a few goals.

 

Moronic fans perhaps? From both sides.

 

The fools didn’t boo against Colchester why should they start again?

 

Wonder if hell will freeze over?