The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Carlisle United Tuesday 21st March @ 7:45pm

We are in massive danger of not even getting a play off place.

Our home form is shocking
We are counting on Cook
Defenders can’t score
Midfielders can’t score
Smallwood is like Josh Wright
Midfielders are slow and safe on the ball
Hughes is slow to make changes.
It’s Cook or nothing or nothing for Bradford City.
For the squad we have we are a poor side.

 

Fair result on reflection. I wouldn't like to play Carlisle at Wembley just due to how fit they still look. The press never really ended and those wing backs never stopped getting up and down, we looked completely overran and stretched in midfield most the first half, wouldn't like to see those tactics play out on a much wider pitch.

One thing most fans are seeing is that if you stop Cook, you stop us. So teams like Carlisle who play 5 at the back throw 2 men on Cook most the time and just stop any forward play. Glad Hughes changed it in the second half which gave Cook more room to play and tried his best to create, but if teams carry on that tactic, Cook is going to need a proper partner for the run in.

 

No it wasn't.
3 of the next 4 are must wins.
Look at the fixtures of teams around us and work out why.

 

Lets hope he carries us into League One then!

 

Watch the game again. He broke up play all night long and his well weighted passes set up many of the chances we had. But I won't cream my pants and support him blindly just because he waves at me Bronco!!!!!! If he has a shit game I'll say it. Last night he had a good game. I know Sparks has sacked a manager every year on average and we are in the fourth division. He wasted a fortune on changing the badge without asking the fans first.

 

I think it was a must win for automatic promotion however I think at least they gave it a real go and played with the intensity required. Playing like we did in the second half we would have won a lot more home matches this season

 

Good morning happy clappers.

On reflection of last night's game and the last 3 beforehand. Simply not good enough.

That is a reflection of many reason already highlighted all season.

Piss poor tactics.

A lack of goals across the team.

 

Has it been taken away or the referees just ignore it ?.

 

It was a good game of football between two evenly matched sides. Both had a great half. That’s football. Even Moraise and Raynor said it was a fantastic game for the neutral during the latter stages of the game.

 

My missus commented that all the 'oohs' and 'aahs' and near misses made it sound like a game of FIFA - it was non-stop towards the end.

I don't think anyone can take anything away from the game as a spectacle, to be fair!

 

You've lost me fella care to explain.

Smallwood wasn't sh1t but he also wasn't MOTM, both Gilliead and Cook before him, 3 minutes to go he takes a corner and once again can't get it past the first defender, not for the first time, a player who has played most of his career at a significant higher level should be capable of delivering better quality set pieces on a consistent basis.

 

Yup, he let him stay on. Two successive games and two refs get the basics entirely wrong!

 

Follow your own advice and you will see this was a must win. You must be sleep deprived to write such a contradiction

 

And some say Costello offers nothing to Cook?

 

You are serious? Not heard that before.

 

Yes @bailiff bridge bantam posted the rule regarding injured players getting treatment from a tackle where the opposition player got a yellow(Oliver in this case) and it clearly says they are allowed to stay on the pitch after treatment, I wasn't aware of the rule Kev, you learn something every day.

 

Wonder if all the posters who were happy with us sitting on a draw and not going for it in the last 20 mins against Newport, still think it was a good point gained. Carlisle was always going to be the harder game to get 3 points

 

I was wondering why the kid was not even on the bench as I said after Hughes positive comments about the kid, apparently he had a knock which explains it.
From what I've seen with regards getting Cook a partner up top we only have Costelloe & Derbyshire let's hope our little break with no game against Crewe can get both back fit.

 

I hope I’m wrong Broncs but we’ve used up our games in hand and are five points adrift of not just Carlisle, but also Northampton now.

We have to win at Northampton and hope they drop further points, and then hope Carlisle do similar.

Carlisle do have a very tough run in and Northampton’s looks harder than ours. But the bizarre thing is we are better against better teams that don’t park the bus and set up for a 1-0 at VP.

We’ll have to wait and see I guess. If Cook stays fit, we may well do it…..

 

We certainly weren't at the races first half but nobody can honestly say we didn't give it a go second half. Just a shame we are so toothless!

I have been wanting Chapman to start for some time as I thought he'd grasp his chance; unfortunately he proved me wrong as his decision making and overall demeanor let him down

Interesting to read the views of Carlisle fans on twitter after the game, didn't see a single comment saying they deserved to win, and that we were certainly the better team second half, with most saying it was a hard fought point against a good team...