The Voice - Match preview Most liked posts in thread: Bradford City vs Harrogate Town Thursday 29 December @ 7:45pm

Those that don't understand the beautiful game will call that another crap performance but those who know football will see this is a squad that cares. Even Cook comes on and chases everything down. You don't have to play well every game but we must always press at this level and do the basics right!

Very happy we limited the short passes and played some great balls into the channels and also put some crosses in the box. I think this formation suits us better as it allows Wright, Chapman, Sutton and Oliver to rotate and keep the energy of the press while allowing Smallwood to do what he does best and break up play. Very impressed with the attitude of the players and Hughes to know when it's not working, something needs to change and he did that tonight.

Not a world beater performance but the effort needs appreciation and we got three points!

 

Don't hang Oliver out to dry or Sutton something had to be done after Carlisle.
Good Luck to the pair of them tonight.

 

8:45am kick off for me, so I’ll buy an iFollow pass and watch us play for a reasonable time for once. My fiancée is watching it with me, so it’s her first time watching city!

 

Bye.

 

I don't really agree with this, I thought we looked comfortable in the end, Harrogate seemed to lose their belief in the last 15-20 minutes.

I think the character we have shown tonight would have been missing under previous managers after a prolonged slump (time if not number of games).

Tonight, we won an absolute must win game and dare I say, we deserved it against a side in form who were here to cause us problems.

They couldn't.

Good stuff.

 

Think we have found the best position for Tyreik Wright
Playing alongside Oliver and free to roam makes him twice the player who normally is stuck out on the wing.
We could have found a gem there, someone who could be a good goal poacher a la Nahki Wells (should have had two last night - never offside!!)
Hope that come the summer, the club can make moves to sign the lad on a permanent basis.

 

I wouldn't bother setting off if I was you. I get your sentiment though.

 

Seems a few are pulling Harrogates following to bits ............ bear in mind that it’s a market town and not long ago they where down the non league pyramid and let’s be right the place is full of Leeds fans anyhow ............. sometimes it’s the talk of being high and massive that fires these teams up ............amazing how we forget how crap our support went last season on the back of Adams 300 or so to Walsall hardly huge massive support from a club that has 15k season ticket holders is it ????

 

I didn't think it was that bad. Just an average league two match.

 

I agree it wasn’t wonderful but they had to find a way to win. They did; when you are trying to find your way back matches can be scrappy. Hopefully they can learn and get better. Management Team and players.

 

Headley was very good for them.

Talking of full backs, I thought Halliday was very good tonight too, my MOTM for City

 

I’m shocked reading some of the comments here. The performance was great last night and the team put a huge shift in to get those three points. Anyone who says it was boring or average needs to go support a Premiership team or get their head out their backside and realise we are a League Two team and last night was a great team performance.

 

Post match Hughes says he's lost 4kg with this illness he's had so is likely to come back as a sub rather than starting initially.

 

Have often critised Gilliead over the weeks but with another helper in midfield he put in a near MoM performance. With Sutton's workrate and closing down we won the ball early in midfield. And gave Gilliead more room to work and at last create. Hughes said he was delighted withe midfield and rightly so. Sutton played well selfleshy in midfield and kept us moving forward so hopefully same again Sunday

 

Tough call leaving the leading scorer out but the team looked better balanced and it allowed us the option of the long ball but they mixed it up much better. All in all the sort of performance that gets results at this level. No complaints tonight but tougher test to com.

 

Although Wright probably edged it, due to being our focal point of attack, I think Gilliead deserved the MOTM. several perfectly timed challenges, broke play up, organised the players around him. Excellent performance, although it was helped with the addition of an extra player in the midfield. Oliver was a solid addition to the attack. Gave us an option to get the ball forward. Crichlow was class. Cook came on with that hunger you want to see in players when they come off the bench. Credit to Sutton also who ran himself into the ground, literally.

Negative aspects were Chapman had a poor showing. credit where its due, he puts in the milage. Links up play here an there, but he needs to be taking his man on more times an improving his output. Otherwise, the burden to create is left to the other winger, in this case, Wright. I am worried about Smallwood’s mental state. Didn’t perform again an I worry about the pressure the fans put on him, albeit he is an experienced championship level player but nonetheless he is still human.

All in all, not the best of performances, but we were in control for large portions of the game, only gave Harrogate one real chance. Hopefully this gives us the momentum needed to carry on with our game against Rochdale on Sunday

 

I'm just happy for the 3 points which keeps us in the mix. Performance wise we are where we are with what we've got. Mark may well get a bit more out of them by upping the confidence levels and with the impending return to fitness of Osedebe and Walker we could be stronger. But if they can get it right in the January transfer window we could be revitalised for the final run in.