The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Harrogate Town Saturday 16th September 3:00pm

We'll keep getting the excuses defending the garbage we're having served up, until the last few stragglers have seen the light and finally come on board around xmas time.

We're now getting told once the cavalry in the form of Cook and Pattison return all will be well. It wasn't that well at Morecambe when these two took part in the 3:0 hammering

 

He is a professional footballer and he was woeful. He may come good but Saturday he was atrocious.

 

I felt sorry for Afoke as he's not a striker at all and he was asked to play his first ever professional game as a lone strike up against 2 very experienced CBs who probably won't have an easier game all season. When he got the ball in the wide areas he looked like he wanted to try and take on their players but then there was nobody in the box. I worry after that performance that we are going to rush back either of Smith (also not a lone strike) or Cook for Saturday.

 

Very telling that it was Brad Halliday wheeled out to explain what happened on saturday and not our current captain.
Brad nailed it pretty well so at least our players have an idea what is wrong at the moment

https://www.bradfordcityafc.com/news/2023/september/halliday-not-what-we-wanted/

Have City got a vice-captain?

 

How often does Smallwood do the post match interviews? I don't remember it being that often, if at all.

 

You already did with Connolly. I hope you do better with the current crop!

 

Sadly some folk simply forgot that they played in some of them games ..............last two home games how efforts on target ?????? Yet an out of touch Cook will create goals out of nothing

 

This is why fans are worried. For me this isn’t about how we played this season; I kept waiting last season to start blowing teams away but it never happened, we sort of limped into the playoffs after blowing are chances to go up automatically, then we blew the playoffs. How long do we wait for a winning team to emerge? In my view we have actually regressed since last year. No Cook 30 goal bonanza and we will be fighting relegation.

I am fed up of the manager merry go round as the next city fan. However, we can’t just keep going to Christmas limping along. The City Board need help, they need outside help and they need it fast!

 

Out of touch and still carrying an injury. It's criminal Hughes is considering bringing him back early and putting all that expectation on him when he isn't fully fit and at the same time, risking him making the injury worse and being out for even longer.

 

The saviour Cook, is the same Cook who hasn’t scored all season, nor has he looked anything like the Cook of last season. That penalty miss and the following one on one chance, weren’t down to injury, but lack of composure and confidence. Throwing him back in the side early because we’re not scoring goals is not going to work. He’s a confidence player. Sadly I can’t see goals coming from anywhere. What a farce that transfer window was.

 

I think it's was partly down to injury TB. He took a knock in the Crawley game and seemed to require physio attention in every game after. You could see he wasn't moving right and I just don't think he was allowed to let his body recover properly after Crawley. That's obviously due to us having no other options but flogging him on top of him not being fully fit was clearly affecting his performances which then affected his confidence once he's gone a few games with a goal.

 

Another sad indictment of the current set up is the fact that a half fit Cook probably still offers us the best option of a goal with the way the team is asked to play.

Don’t think anyone thought he’d be anywhere near last seasons numbers but if it’s a half fit Cook who still hasn’t scored or a fully fit Derbyshire I know who I’d prefer.

However,I don’t think he should be risked and his current issues potentially made 10 times worse.

At least we’ve got Oliver to come back soon and take the pressure off Cook.(that’s sarcasm btw)


And some people still think our summer transfer policy was a success.

 

Yes I liked Gareth, steady and away.

 

It is extremely frustrating how little noise the board of directors actually make when things are going awry. Every season we see it, and every season Sparks' infamous "we don't settle for mediocrity" statement will keep coming back to haunt him

But it is all fine, because we have launched a membership scheme specifically tailored to suit students

 

Its funny how the memory fades. I remember the time, in the Premier League, where Lee Mills was getting a bit of stick for not quite being good enough. Watch the highlights clips of our promotion season, and remember where our bar used to be. Now, we have Derbyshire on empty legs and Afokah, or some other random youth loanee leading the line.

 

The fact we're waiting on Oliver to come back, completely sums up the transfer window. And tbh, I feel Chapman is going to be the same as Cook. He's also another confidence player. When he was out of sorts last season, he was a complete passenger. He only bucked up once he'd scored, and then played well in the next few games until he got injured, but prior to that, he was pretty hopeless. He's not going to save our season.

 

The matches I saw Oliver play were far from satisfactory. Maybe he is limited in the style of play, but then you could say that about all our squad. It is ludicrous to say we are awaiting Oliver or Chapman as they started on the bench even when fit.
Why do we have a 30+ squad? We were promised a good squad where all the players could replace injured players, my question is where are they? We shouldn’t be waiting for injured players. For goodness sake can we have a bit of honesty from the Board and manager. What is the point of filling the stadium with ST to add to the coffers plus generous sponsors only to waste money? Or haven’t we been prudent?

 

I get the feeling some of the loan players are only here because, their club will be paying their wages.

 

MH's is a thoroughly likeable chap, he's media friendly and connects well with fans.
It was easy to part company with DA's, when it comes to MH's I will watch with an heavy heart.
I really hope all comes good.
However, I just can't see it happening, it will be sad to have to start again... But I'm sick of this league.
I don't even ultimately want Premiership footie, I'm happy with Championship footie, with tasty fixtures against the like of Leicester, Leeds Wed, Sheff etc..

 

I think Chapman came good when we eventually played him in his natural position instead of trying to make him into a No 10