The Voice - Match preview Doncaster Rovers vs Bradford City Saturday 25th February 2023 @ 3:00pm

The BBC Live score website was having a hissy fit and running 45 minutes behind.

 

We do make them look poor.

It's all relative.

Unless we're just saying "everyone is poor, it's League Two", but that's redundant.

And for sure, it's at Valley Parade that the lower teams won't play football. That's obviously difficult for us, but we're hardly unique in struggling against sides that park the bus. What's a disgrace is Barrow parking the bus when they thought they were play off contenders. Come and play, FFS!

 

Having said that, Barrow have just turned over Stockport in the exact same fashion. 1-0, Kay goal.

So it ain't just us!

 

The second half we took control a goal always looked like coming for us.

 

Several other sides would say they've made us look poor too.

 

Disagree. Not getting promoted will be a failure, but it looks like he's turned the ship around in terms of what's been achieved for the last five years.

For instance, we've already got a back four good enough for next season - with around another ten players here as well.

I'm cool with the progress, but yes, expect promotion.

 

Some decent performances today from Clayton, Cook, Halliday and Walker.

 

He's been backed to the level of expecting top 3. Looking at the others up there, that's what he should he delivering. If he doesn't, he's underperformed.

 

Agree Faithful, while Stubbs has the shirt and keeps up the performances, Crichlow - as good as he is, has to sit on the bench and bide his time.

 

Stubbs is a much more solid defender. I don't really worry about us defensively, the worry is going the other way.

 

Who is God? Si you believe in fairy stories…figures.

 

League 2 (and L1) history shows that end of February positions change greatly by the end of the season. 8 years ago, Gillingham declined so fast that they went from been clear at the top in January to well outside the play-offs.

I'm not certain I want to be in Stevenage's position, with their squad, as they're a bit like we were around Christmas 2017 - no Plan B, punching above their weight and we know what happened to us from January 2018 that season.

Remember, arguably their best player was recalled and sold to Plymouth. Similar to us of course, but we've been able to invest - they can't and it's showing.

I'll be amazed if we don't end up above them, but that might not be good enough for even the play-offs.

 

Shows are wrong one can be?

 

Oh?

 

Has Hughes slept with your wife? Seriously underperforming is a tad strong. Never guarantees over promotion, and we look odds on for play offs at least. I do think with squad size you may be proved wrong

 

Was just chating to my neighbour who just got back from the match. Defence looking a bit shakey, not creating as many clear cut chances and crucially not scoring. Away at Wimbledon on Tuesday won't be easy.

 

We have a decent chance of playoffs, but we haven't been in the playoffs for a few weeks.

And yes, looking at the backing each manager has been given amd where they were starting from, Evans is outperforming Hughes by a distance. They've been above us since week 1.

 

3.37 of blaming the ref, people want him here are the same ones who would never accept this sort of excuse every week. I really hope they fall away, what a total nob.

 

Not certain we've spent or our budget is bigger than Salford, Stockport or Leyton Orient.

Don't forget, the main high earners left.

Yes. It's a squad that should be comfortably in the top 3, but that's a credit to Hughes for building it in just two windows - as we've still got it going forward.

Isn't it about progress as well? Using your short term vision, Parky "underperformed" in his first season when he took us to from 7th bottom to, er, 7th bottom.

I'm just pleased we're on the up. Not only was November 2020 very depressing due to Covid, but also because we looked like we were genuinely going to slide out of the league.