The Voice - Match preview Most liked posts in thread: Bradford City vs Walsall Saturday 3 September @ 3:00pm

Thought Yann was excellent in that last 15 mins

 

Right....
We're fecking going for it Saturday...

Lewis

Wright Angol Oliver Chapman

Banks Periera Eisa Young

Harratt Cook

Then once Walker is fit he can come in for Lewis.

That should do it

 

We struggled today but got the win. Will take that but we need to improve.

 

Independent time keeper is the way forward. The refs have enough to worry about. Get them micd up and start the cautions early from ref. Too often they get away with it early in a game

 

First thing to say is to give credit to Wallsall they were really up for this match got people forward in numbers and were very unlucky to go away with nothing
That being said we won a match at last against the run of play and we very seldom do that it’s usually the other way round
Also at last we have a keeper who actually won us the points with a great display. Two great goals as well today the first won was a brilliant piece of work from the full back and the second a great shot from Young.
Just one last comment I thought we saw out the game well both new signings did well as did the much Maligned Oliver who for the first time in the match won a few headers and held the ball up well. Not a great performance but a good three points

 

The ref should have been booked for time wasting, strolling out a few minutes after the players were lined up and ready to start the 2nd half

Definitely a 'look at how important I am' moment from the idiot

 

Critchlow was poor today. It was a pen. He let the man cut inside too easily. Lackadaisical. He was culpable for the goal and didn’t clear his lines leading to panic in the box.

Sutton was good first half stretching play beyond cook. Should have been subbed second half earlier for Songoo as he kept getting caught wrong side as Walsall broke on us leaving Smallwood and his lack of pace exposed. Songoo calmed us down. We saw the injury time out better than the previous 10 minutes.
Lewis was excellent and he had to be. Walsall unlucky not to win today. Lewis performance was the best I’ve seen since we’ve been back in this division. Rightly MOTM.

 

A few of our players were bullied today. The physical element that Walsall possessed was something we never came to grips with.

 

Was a real struggle today. Never got to grips with Walsall's style at all and it caused us no end of troubles. Set pieces and long throws we didn't win the first contacts and then didn't win the second balls either which meant they could have us camped in our own box. Lewis rightly MOTM, superb again.

Thought we lacked energy in the middle of the park. Sutton struggled again and Smallwood wasn't much better. Didn't think I'd ever be pining for Gilliead but we need him back ASAP.

We were too slow in our build up play, Platt especially. Too many touches and tempo was too low. Yet when we speed it up a bit, we cut them open and score a great team goal from Cook. Second was a brilliant individual goal from Young who looked bright again. Credit to Wright too for a promising cameo.

Will need to be much, much better next week at Mansfield thats for sure.

 

Sutton isn’t shite. His job was to break the lines and play beyond Cook. He did this effectively in the first half and we looked more of a threat because of his running. Second half Walsall changed and Sutton was being caught wrong side as we gave up possession. Hughes made the change eventually but it could have cost us. Really that change should have been made earlier as Songoo sat in next to Smallwood and calmed play down. but just to say Sutton is shite and not be able to elaborate why says more about you than anything.

 

Totally agree Jon and with Park at #266. The concensus view after was the best team lost, 24 shots against 9 for us but as we all know from our own experiences, it's the ones that go in which count.
Talking before the game I was bemoaning the way Donny and Crewe performed. "You won't see that today" was the response. "Flynny is coming to attack and bully your back line", exactly what happened in my view and had it not been for Lewis the best team would have won, they could easily have been three up before we scored, but that's football as we all know. Added to that the fact they have a smaller squad and five out including apparently three front men is reassuring for me. Simply, we have a huge squad with at least four sat in the stand either injured or just not selected who all are capable of doing a good job in my view.
Major headaches (good ones) coming for MH on selection which is where I differ from you Jon, 7th is not good enough for me, auto is a must.

 

People need to start understanding it’s up to the home team to attack and break the away team down.

 

How many times in the last few seasons have we battered teams and come away with nothing… bout time we had some luck.. long may it continue

 

Its weird how teams don't help us when we are searching for a winner. I'd expect them to hurry their goal kicks, get players subbed off quickly and generally make more effort to keep the game flowing.

 

One solution, something I've always wondered why the rule allowed it, goalkicks to be taken from the side the ball goes dead. Attacking team cannot chose which side to take a corner from, so why should the keeper with a goal kick

 

Entertaining game of football where we will find we'll play a lot better this season and lose. Credit to Walsall, they came and gave it a real go and to be fair deserved all three points.
Positives were Harry Lewis who looks better and better each game. Andy Cook who put in a shift and scored off the only chance he got with a good finish off a first time cross from Halliday. Was also impressed with young Wright when he came on, looks quick and not afraid to run at defenders.
After that I'm struggling, I thought Suttons workrate and running was good first half and Chapman in patches showed good touches.
Negatives, first home game in the league I've seen a team have a go and they ran us ragged for large periods. Central midfield was wide open and our centre backs looked dodgy against some quick and physical opposition. Bar the goal our two wide players in Young and Banks were completely anonymous which put a lot of pressure on the others.
In the end a great result which probably asks more question than gives answers. I came away enthralled but knowing we can't afford more performances like that if we are to be taken seriously as promotion contenders.

 

We'd still be playing Doncaster.

 

Credit to Walsall, they're playing the game as it should be played by throwing everything at it

 

Very happy with that, not great at times but two great goals and Lewis is a different class. Need to improve but take the points where you can.