The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Crewe Alexandra Saturday 26th August 2023 3:00pm

A) Mansfield miss 10 gilt edged chances, we have hardly any possession, they have 2 goals unfairly disallowed, we fail to register a shot on target. We score from a freak own goal after being abysmal. Score 0-1

B) We create 10 clear chances but their keeper has the game of his life, we boss the game, we have 2 penalties turned down, they never threaten us all game but score a wrongly awarded penalty. Score 1 - 0

You'd go home feeling more confident about our season after situation A? You need to think harder.

 

Not on your nelly. I would take the 3pts all day long. Id look at the fact we played crap and still took home 3pts as a positive - and of course Id hope the performances picked up.

You need to stop overthinking and finding something to moan about.

 

Only if you take games in isolation.

Over a season, the team putting in good performances and drawing a few will almost certainly yeild more points than the teams sneaking wins with "shite" ones.

 

I'd say my approach is fairly measured. I'd be applauding the team even when we don't win if the performance was alright. I suppose you'd be moaning then if we played well and failed to win seeing as performances count for nothing. Seems a bit unfair to me.

Anyway enough of this silliness.

 

Three points is better than one in all cases. I'd rather blag our way to promotion with a series of underwhelming performances, but enough points to go up, that a set of encouraging draws that leaves us stuck in League Two. I don't think it's even a point up for debate.

 

Your rationale shows you have completely misunderstood my point. Am I going mad here or is it really that hard to understand? @NorthernMonkey help!!

 

That doesn't tend to happen though does it. Teams don't repeatedly put in poor performances and get away with it.

 

In the end, I think this summarises the point everybody is making. Is a 1-0 victory on the back of a shocking performance and defeat considered an improvement? Of course it is, and should be.
Was the performance of that victory indicative of a team who will be typically challenging for auto-promotion at the end of a regular season? I find it hard to believe anyone would say yes.

In a results driven business, there has to be some style added to one’s performances in achieving positive results. In return that puts the faith into those around you that you are able to consistently deliver. That style doesn’t have to be anything special - but it’s just about been well drilled, organised and consistent. This is the part I’m failing to see from us so far this season.

 

I'm out! I'm off to look for a brick wall to bang my head against instead.

 

There's a saying in football, that good teams can play badly and win.

 

I fully understand your point, and you are wrong. It's as simple as that.

 

I was just being flippant.

 

The performance against Crewe is completely irrelevant and forgotten about. We got 3pts, we went to Wrexham, we got to round 3.

 

And after a much better performance against Wrexham I'm feeling more optimistic than I did after Crewe. I'm not sure what you're not getting.

If we lose to Mansfield but play really well are you going to criticise me for being optimistic?

 

You'd be Derek Adams after the match talking about being top of the xG league, whilst Stevenage go up sneaking wins with "shite" performances

 

I am being a bit silly btw, over the course of the season you do need a lot of great performances and but also plenty of really awful performances where you win anyway - they're probably the more important ones in the shakedown - plenty of pretty teams don't get anywhere

 

I think you're confusing good performance with attractive football. They aren't one and the same. I'm not sure where you get the idea that Stevenage went up with loads of 'shite' performances?

 

So the Crewe performance is now utterly irrelevant. It was easy as that - one decent performance and thats all it took....

Id feel 10 times better playing poor and winning than playing well and losing. A loss is a loss. I want points on the board.

 

Interesting that you mention xG. The bookies make substantial use of this measure when compiling forecast odds. I suppose they don't know what they're doing.

 

No that's exactly the point I'm making, Stevenage scored the same number of goals as us last season and they were pretty agricultural so there's going to be dozens of games taken in isolation look like the Crewe game but taken in total all you remember is that they got promoted and therefore their performances can't have been shite