The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Carlisle United Sunday 14th May 2023 @ 7:00pm

How poor was Patrick. Can't believe he starts games for them

 

I thought he played decent in p those earlier games and was certainly better than Osadebe and Nevers.

 

He was certainly poor yesterday but I have seen him do well for them in the past

 

Really happy with last night's result. I agree with Keefly's earlier post - Pretty gritty and we battled well.

I was disappointed we didn't go in 2-0 at halftime, to be honest. Disappointingly passive in the second half from an attacking point of view. We seem to tire and let teams come onto us.

Carlisle fans keep telling me about all these chances but bar the header late on, I never felt they were that much of a danger. It's a real shame the 'homer' of a ref didn't spot the dives by their wide men, or the lino spotting the ball being a yard over the line for one of their 'chances'.

Also, I can't stand Carlisle as a club. If we don't go to Wembley, I hope they get absolutely stuffed by whoever they face.

 

Thats exactly what they did and it smacks of a desperation borne of struggling for goals. First half I thought they moved it around well although their centre backs weren't in the same class as ours with distribution and I felt they could easily have been got at by an attack minded set up. Banks had them back pedaling but was in his own. It's also a reason I'm not that worried about the second leg, if we play to anywhere near our away from we beat them.

 

Simpson is well and truly rattled. I thought you were not supposed to criticise the ref? I hope that does not influence the ref for Saturday.

 

1.0 is better than 2.1 as their confidence erodes slightly by being unable to score.

 

I’m with you RT. If only we had Wright on the left. Did you notice in the Simpson interview ? You could see Chapman enter the background on full crutches. He was struggling to get around,.

 

He was bad.

 

Wouldn’t say he was rattled. He was right.

Saturday is a totally different game. Ref won’t be influenced unless he’s a Leeds fan.

 

The ref for the Salford first leg was almost certainly. He’d done over 20 CC matches this season from memory.

 

A pretty balanced interview I thought.

 

Usually refs who come to VP are determined to show they are not influenced by the crowd. I think this ref was at least fair

 

Nevers I totally agree. Osadebe not so much - we have only seen the guy play recently, and he has been fairly pleasing on the eye with the exception of last night

 

Couldn't have got injured at a worse time, was just starting to show why we'd brought him here.

 

We defend well but we are very poor at easing pressure. When under pressure we carry on with these little triangles often caught in possession or play a hurried misplace pass. Everybody drops deep and there is no outlet ball. Walker is usually nackered and Banks is back helping the full back out we need some real pace up front to play on the break

 

I think we have two options when we go 1-0 up in a game where we aren't head and shoulders above the opposition - which as certainly the case with Carlisle

We can either keep attacking, in which case games can become dangerously open (and we can lose our grip, ie, Crewe) or we can try to shut up shop like we did yesterday and against Leyton Orient and settle for what we've got.

I'd have to look into it more but lately it feels the better option is to avoid stretching the game to the point we can get caught short at the back. We've seen ourselves overloaded numerous times this season, and I suggest that's because we're not quite good enough to play open, attacking football

I think we picked the right option, but it was uncomfortable when they could carve out chances

 

Disagree we had them on the ropes yesterday we could have put the tie beyond them. Time and time again we give late points away hanging on. Have faith in the players. 1 win is as good as 3 draws. The trouble is once you are into those tactics it’s very hard to get out again and on to the front foot

 

I'm not sure we've been anywhere reliable enough in big games to gamble like that.

Although I think at Wembley, if we get there, the gloves will come off.

Can't see us trying to defend a 1-0 lead in the biggest, most important game of the season.

 

I think if we get to Wembley, Banks will be MOTM