The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Swindon Town Tuesday 25 October @ 7:45pm

Think one of the reasons we looked so at ease first half was because Swindon were so poor. After 10 minutes they did pretty much nothing, no pressing, no attacking, nowt. Second half they actually came to play and made for a different game. That said our keeper had little to do again and that solidity is a good starting point for a strong season. We've just got to learn to kill teams off when the opportunity is there which is what we should have done first half as there is very little between the vast majority of teams in this division.

 

Robbed when it comes to the penalty decision.

 

It’s still giving me a headache

 

Seriously, so bad. He had clear options to pass the ball to players unmarked. He isn't good enough to score from there.

Been mega disappointed with him this season.

 

I'm not sure you know, we'd be screaming blue murder if we hadn't gotten give for us

 

On what basis? That it was blasted at him and his arm was by his side in a natural position?

“Most blatant penalty” is a bit disingenuous.

 

Wouldn't say it was a blatant penalty. The problem is the handball rule is all over the place.

We all would have been screaming for a penalty if it happened to us. It was handball but right decision no one knows.

It's one of them. It got given and we have to accept it.

 

Add Lee Angol to the players that are free to find a new club in January.

He doesn't suit us at all, and is doing nothing.

 

Very disappointed with the result last night. Thought we played pretty well for most of the game but yet again very few chances created. The game changed on our subs for me. I've no idea what formation we were playing after Chapman and Pereira went off but it sure didn't work. Our fullbacks suddenly had no cover and we were wide open down both flanks. This let Swindon right back into the game and they looked likely to score well before the dubious penalty.

 

Poor game management by MH, The subs were a dreadful choice, Where was Sutton to bolster midfield with 15 minutes to go? Sat in the stand watching, More importantly why was Songo left on the bench instead of protecting our lead with 15 minutes left. It was obvious we would not get another goal so the next thing is to protect the lead we already had, Instead we invited them on to us with no protection for the full backs.
It was so obvious what any good manager would see and react to, Beginning to think that while we have a good squad of players the management is not good enough to help them. A vital win thrown away and not by a penalty but by bad decisions on the bench.

 

Crichlow & Wright outstanding last night

Pereira well below par, by the 50th minute he looked to be struggling for energy. Drop him for the Crawley game

Cook too isolated, I detest the solitary striker setup especially when we're home

Chapman good on the whole but continues to frustrate with the lack of end product/decision making. Reminds me of Dylan Connolly with his inability to pick out a pass when bearing down on goal

WTF was Angol doing with the stepovers! Pulls it back for an unmarked Smallwood (I think it was him) and it's a goal

Ref abysmal but the equaliser was coming, we all knew it and cannot blame the officials for not killing the game. We have seen time & again over the seasons in this khazi league how bad the officiating is so the penalty award was no surprise whatsoever

Bring on Crawley, hopefully put this game to bed and hammer a poor team

 

I can understand the contention. Not nailed on by any means but I can see why it was given. I also generally don't look to blame the ref when you have 90 mins to beat an opponent. Unless they make horrendous calls, and for me that wasn't a horrendous call. It was a marginal one that went against us. We need to be more ruthless ourselves and more players need to chip in with goals. Do that, and the refs role will soon be forgotten.

 

Has Sutton come on to bolster the midfield once this season? He always comes on to play wide right. East on instead of Songo'o wasn't a change I'd have done, i for sure would have tried adding some steal to midfield.

The thing is, we could have had another goal. Angol not passing the ball to one of 3 unmarked men for an easy tap in was on, but Angol shot from a bad angle. He went down the right about 5 minutes after and drilled a shot from an angle right at the keeper, those aren't Mark Hughes decisions.

We defended them out well until the final cross came in at the end. Not sure why the left back had so much space to cross, Wright doesn't exactly bust a gut to close him down. Halliday is for some reason more central than Wright and Critchlow, the cross isn't exactly fired in and theres plenty of space between crosser and Halliday, but he decided to try a half arsed approach at chesting it and leads with his arm, but every Swindon player behind him was marked, there was Platt in a straight line behind Halliday if he missed the ball to clear it too, awareness seemed to go out the window. Theres also no way from the refs angle he could have seen thar right arm, or the linos angle as theres about 5 bodies between the linos sight and Halliday, so it's all on the ref who only gives it after Swindon react like mad men at the handball.

Managment cant help your attacker not seeing open passes, your full backs tired defending and a referee being easily influenced.

 

We can analyse individual ref performances but the onus is on our team and manager, to provide end product, defensive stability and game management.

Taking last night solely no, yes, debatable.

 

That the move where knocking the ball across the box was definatly Angols best option.

 

Halliday‘s arm by his side and his body is not “unnaturally bigger” (FA’s words not mine).

Plus how can referee Jeremy Simpson possibly see Halliday’s right side when Halliday is sideways on to the ref who can only see his left arm.

Frustrating isn’t the word.

 

Exactly how I saw it

 

Going forward he did some nice stuff but if he starts on Saturday just have a look at his lack of effort when tracking back. Hopefully it's much improved but if not then he becomes a liability and I'm wondering if that's why Hughes switched Chapman and DP for the second half.

His resistance to doing the defensive work will also be the reason he didn't get a sniff at Luton I'd imagine.

 

If that is PL and goes to VAR there's no way that's a penalty.