The Voice - Match preview Most liked posts in thread: Bradford City vs Barrow Saturday 18th February @ 3:00pm

Just got in and I'm thoroughly p****d off, once again 77% possession mostly in our own half we looked freighted to death of going forward and sorry to say this situation has got to be laid at the door of Mark Hughes, not one shot on target the whole game and on the few occasions we did venture forward there was that lonesome soul on his own against 3 giant CD.
Rochdale was bad enough and we could make excuses with regards the conditions they were bad on the night (for both teams) but no excuses today a totally inept performance, Hughes and his football is stifling good players not allowing them to play what should be their natural game, for crying out loud Mark let them off the leash before its too late, 4000+ going to Doncaster spending their hard earned cash to watch their team give them something to shout about Mr Hughes what were witnessing is not good enough,
Tuesday night those who expressed their disappointed with our overall performance we told (its all about results now not performances) well today we got neither and it's down to you Mark.

 

Has to rank as one of the most pointless games of football I've seen in forty odd years. 77% possession and no shots on target against one of the worst form teams in the division. Started slowish and by some miracle actually got slower. Barrow will not have an easier game than that al season. Maybe being away next week with a big following may inspire a better performance but Christ watching football at Valley Parade these days can be utterly painful.

 

Completely disagree this is not down to any individual player. This is down to a stubborn manager he is wasting what should be an automatic promotion challenging squad into an exhibition team 74% possession o shots on target. Boring ineffective and crap football.

 

It makes me laugh when people describe Barrow and other teams who score first against us and then try and hold on to a lead as “anti football”
We played for 90 minutes at home,had 77% possession against a team who had won 2 in 14 and have conceded 5 goals twice in the last 2 months and yet we couldn’t muster a shot on target or trouble their back 4 in any way.
We all watched one of the most turgid games of football any of us has seen for a while(and we’ve watched some shite recently) and we have the gall to label the other team as “anti football”

If not producing any worthwhile attacking threat at home for a full 90 minutes against a poor side is “pro football” then something is really wrong.

 

Sadly this is the opinion of lots of supporters. For some reason a lot bask in the glory of having the highest crowds in league two. We even wear it like it's some kind of medal whilst sides like Luton Town, with 9000 gates sit 4th in the championship.

I certainly know where I'd rather be if it was a choice.

 

Not sure what Hughes was having a ago at the ref about? None of them shouts we had were penalties. The ref added time on, made them hurry when wasting time etc. The fault is 100% with our manager and our players for getting 0 points from this match

 

I'm well past letting results and performances ruining my weekends.

 

What's more, Barrow were awful, absolutely awful.

They scored because Clayton fell over, and other than that offered nothing but anti-football bollocks.

I don't want to hear Wild's name mentioned in the same breath as our club for some time, that's once too often watching Barrow this year. I'm sure some will say "professional job" and "did what they had to", but no way.

Horrendous football.

 

There will be a fair few of the Pete Wild fanboys shufting one out tonight but, in reality, Barrow are a tinpot club and a poor side.

we gifted them the game. Starting Eisa - who is not up to it - was a mistake, and we dithered and played at a snails pace, like we did earlier in the season.

Gillead had a shocker but even worse were Smallwoods set pieces (again) and Clayton had a woeful game today. Got caught on the ball for the goal and at other times too.

Stubbs looked solid. Platt did ok, but Halliday was poor prior to his withdrawal.

You just sense we are sliding to a top ten finish as we’ve missed a good opportunity to steal a few points on a few of our promotion rivals today.

Awful game. Left early. Pass me alcohol, quick.

 

One of the things he said was we did not mess there defenders enough, I assume by that he meant physically, he knew the players/formation Barrow would put out yet he started Esia (who has pulled his hamstring fortunately not the one that's kept him out previously) every cloud has a Silver lining , so if Hughes observed we were not physical enough with their defenders why not put Oliver on instead of the young kid Costelloe when Esia came off which makes even less sense, Oliver on with the orders of him and Cook get physically stuck in.

 

Mark Hughes

NOT ONE SHOT ON TARGET

Change your shit tactics or feck off

 

Halliday was poor as was everyone else. Not sure why the crowd singled him out, he had no choice but to pass back to Platt as there zero bloody options in front of him. The problem wasn't any individual player, it was a line up without one midfielder who could turn and go forward with the ball.

 

I think Walker would be alright in league 1 but apart from Lewis, nobody else gets close unfortunately. What's even more stark is the difference between this squad and the last one we had that scraped into the play offs. Jones, Wells, Hanson, Meredith, Darby, McCardle, Thompson, Reid etc. If that's the standard needed we are a long way short.

 

Football at this level is a simple game, and Hughes is failing at it. It's not working, just go direct with costello & banks on the wings, Oliver & Cook upfront and Vlayton & East in the middle. So what is we lose games 4/3 it's better than watching non drying paint dry

 

Hughes has been massively supported in what he has wanted to do - not really been mentioned in the light of yesterday's debacle but our dynamic recruitment team brought in 2 players in January, one who was hardly ever fit (Boja) and one who came from the Indian League (Derbyshire) - and guess what, after 2 games each both are injured!

We still have a long, long way to go......

 

Because our negative and ineffective football is easy to play against. This lot haven't a hope in hell of going up. What a let down Mark Hughes has been.

 

I allowed myself to start thinking maybe we'd turned a corner, maybe, just maybe we were about to go on that mystical run that as City fans we so rarely get to see, but no, normal service has been resumed.
It's even more frustrating when results yet again have been fairly kind to us and we've failed to capitalise on that. I don't even feel angry about it, just flat. And I think that's worse.

 

It's criminal how East isn't getting a run in the team. Each game MH has selected him to cover injuries, he has done quite well.

Time to drop Smallwood and give the lad a proper chance.