The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Walsall Saturday 3 September @ 3:00pm

Making runs beyond Smallwood is fine at the right times. He was leaving Smallwood on his own and we were getting overran.

Any player can run it’s what you do with the ball that makes the difference and he just isn’t good enough for a team that has AUTOMATIC aims.

 

Hopefully we’ll see a change of personnel starting from the off against Mansfield. Chapman, Banks and Young are capable of moments of genius but can’t carry that threat over a sustained period of time. What we need is for one or both of the wingers to step up and get at the fullbacks, just like Reid or Marshall used to do. Get the opponents on the back foot. I thought Wright looked good from cameo he provided, maybe he could give us the outlet we need. As for Sutton, maybe I’d start with Songo’O in there just to shore up the protection in front of the defence away from home.

 

A good game to watch and Walsall came and attacked with a big physical approach and looked a decent team, Our midfield struggled as they went longer and both Sutton and Smallwood had to work hard, Sutton struggled as the game went on although showed some nice probing touches playing in an area defences hate and had one good run to the bye line, Smallwood was bullied but to be fair never shirked, two very good goals and a sloppy one given to them although they should have had 3 of there own except for the brilliant keeping by Lewis, Critchlow struggled with the pace and strength against him and not suited to this type of game yet so a good learning curve for him. Sutton should have been hooked earlier for the much more defensive Songo with his added height and presence to see the game out,
All in all a very enjoyable game to watch and a welcome 3 points although to be honest Walsall deserved a share
Roll on Mansfield

 

Not for me. Both games left me with a very clear sense or 'we could play till midnight and not score'. Our build up play needs to be quicker and more incisive. Both games were fair results

 

Walsall lost 3 on the bounce yet looked the best side we have seen. I guess you don’t get consistency at this level as we’ve seen. mid they play consistently at that level they will rise the league. It’s a question as to whether they can stay at that level enough and results suggest they can’t.

 

That's a cop out. We got what we deserved in both games.

 

Flynn said that was their best performance of the season so far .

 

I agree we were toothless but we were in complete control and could have played goalie when needed

 

Why that a ref clearly shafted us on both occasions ............ so your telling me that not sending a player off during the Doncaster game early on and not awarding a blatant penalty against Crewe didn’t have a saying on proceedings????
Don’t get me wrong both weren’t the best of performances but to say that the ref not making the right decisions is a cop out is not right either ...............had both refs done the jobs correctly then we could have had 6 points instead of 2

 

they played brilliantly but this may be nothing more than a flash in the pan like you say ............. had we been at OUR best then I doubt they would have caused us the issue they did ............. they looked good because a lot of our team where off there game and that won’t have gone unnoticed yesterday .............. Oliver along with the two wingers and Songo have caused Hughes more problems like the lads who played against Wednesday all very good problems to have ................ last season we had complete crap coming off the bench and affecting very little ............. this season we now have players that will come in and affect games and that going forward could end up being a huge advantage going forward .............I got a feeling that come Xmas time when the majority of clubs at this level are stretched we won’t be and we still have players to come back into the mix

 

Both centre halves were absolute monsters and the fullbacks weren't small either. A big unit of a team, that will do well this season.

 

I was not at the Doncaster game, so can not comment but we should have beaten Crewe, who offered nothing and if Banks shot had been an inch or so to the right we would have won.
Platt should have buried the header yesterday in the second half and Harrott needed to round the keeper. if they had fallen to Cook , both would have been goals.

 

They may do well if teams ain’t gonna put up a fight ........... had both wingers who finished the game alongside Oliver would have started that game then it may have been very different indeed ............ and let’s not forget that far from our best we still scored twice and could have had more with better decision making and finishing

 

I was impressed with their number 5 Daniels he was involved with so much with regards Walsall game even getting their goal, as you say when you have two big lads like that it's difficult to make the ball stick when played up to Cook, we needed to get round the back as we did with Cooks goal or bit of individual skill like the second from Young.

 

I was impressed by Wallsall they played a high energy pressing game and didn’t allow us to play our normal game they attacked in numbers and defended in numbers. We won the game because of that extra bit of quality we have added this year. And we can take comfort on how we saw off the last fifteen minutes of the game. A tough task now next week

 

can see Mansfield being in line for the top 3 so next week for me is deffo our biggest test I would take 2 points from our next two away games tbh

 

Agree bigger tests coming. I think we could do better than that.

 

Tranmere seem to be struggling a bit so far

 

We also dropped points against teams that where in a higher division last season let’s also not forget that ............and you really believe that Hughes won’t be wise that teams will come here and try to sit in and do nothing ???? Btw Donny may have lost there main playmaker but don’t forget that one of there defenders should have got his marching orders within the first 10 minutes ........... things may have been a lot different had they had to see out 80 minutes with 10 men ................ to me it ain’t been spectacular so far this season but I never expected it to be I think a lot of folk thought we would turn up and walk all over this league which was never gonna be the case ............... I think if we are near the top 3 come Xmas time then I can see us deffo pushing on from there with our strength in depth ............... and at some point as the season goes on teams needing the points will have to come out and have a go which probably plays into our hands it’s just up to us to get as many points as possible against these teams that will come here to spoil things ...................the only thing for me is not going after these teams from the kick off we get an early goal and it basically forces these teams out