The Voice - Match preview Most liked posts in thread: Harrogate Town vs Bradford City Saturday 1 October @ 1:00pm

Any three points away from home is a good three points!

On to the next!

 

Players clearly motivated after someone put this up on the whiteboard at the training ground

 

By the way the facilities were good at Harrogate. The Toilets were tiled. Well lit with lots of basins with dryers and sanitizers. Also so clean and heated with hot water on tap and looked like the Savoy compared to City. Even had a check record on the door signed every hour like supermarket loos do. For a supposed tinpot club they put City to shame in fan comfort

 

Talking of 1.00 kick offs I see Ryan is in National press today saying there has to be a directive to stop Refs insisting lights are on from kick off in September and when days get shorter kick off should be earlier to save money with energy costs getting hiked.

 

We take 'trying to play' too far. Playing out from the back is a problem for us. It does more harm than good.

 

I'm puzzled what Hughes is supposed to do. It is inevitable that in a match where we dominated most of the first half that any opposition manager of a decent pedigree, is going to motivate his team to 'have a right go' at the start of the 2nd half.

The same would happen to an, albeit average, Championship club if they had a slender lead in say the FA Cup. The home 'lesser' team, would throw the kitchen sink at them and might score.

What tends to happen is these teams run themselves into the ground which is why, in the main, we've had good last 20 minute spells.

I was worried about this a couple of games ago, but then realised that if teams are throwing long balls into our area - there's not much you can but defend well and realise that they can't keep that up for longer than 30 minutes.

Great article from Jason at WOAP (I often disagree with him) who reminded us that actually very few of our promotion winning season matches, were us dominating all the time.

Understandably, we're all nervous. It's been six seasons since we've been involved at the top end of the table, for any sustained period!!

 

He still has plenty of time but I am really disappointed so far with Dion he looked the real deal last season but so far next to nothing

 

And only 24 years old, he could be our keeper right up to the Championship.

 

Anyone see @Loyalbantam on the Harrogate terrace celebrating the second one right in front of Wright?

I told him to keep quiet but you know what he's like when he's infiltrating these home ends.

 

Lewis - 8. Great game, some important early saves. Openly admitted to being disappointed with the goal he conceded.

Halliday - 6. Didn’t get forward as much as usual, and played OK in defence without particularly standing out.

Foulds - 7. Excellent game both in a defensive and forward thinking manner.

Platt - 7 / Crichlow - 7. Both did well, putting their bodies on the line to protect the goal.

Pereira - 3. Thought he was very poor. Passes all astray, looked tired. Blazed a shot over in the first minute but should’ve passed to the unmarked Wright.

Gillead - 7. Really relishing this role, and a lot of our good play went through him.

Smallwood - 8. A class above and so calm on the ball. Breaks up play and is key for us working it out from the back.

Chapman - 6. Started off alright I thought, but faded badly.

Wright - 8. Always a nuisance, and makes intelligent runs off the ball as well as being effective with it. Calm and composed finish for the goal after running the full length of the pitch!

Cook - 6. Apart from the penalty he was pretty ineffective today sadly.

Subs:
Oliver didn’t have time to do much, but a couple of goals midweek and Cook might get rested on Saturday!

Angol is making a difference when he comes on. Great pass for the winning goal!

Sutton - gave us the energy in midfield we were lacking.

 

RE Pereria, I agree he was poor overall and rightly withdrawn but for the first 10 minutes he looked our most likely player to create something or score. It's just a shame that's about the only 10 minutes of the season so far that he's looked like the 'old' Pereria.

 

Think with Sutton, his sole role is to become a pain in the arse to tired legs. Yes, he has little technical ability, was the same even when McCall tried so long to make him and Watt a CM partnership. He has great stamina it seems and a good 10 yard sprint with generally good pace too and can get into a tackle. I think he brings up on up the top to basically press and get in there as much as he can, as usually by the time Sutton comes in, we've also made 1 or 2 other changes up the top of the pitch and the hope is he can break up and defensive play and the other attacking lads can pick up the ball and go.

Cant ever see Sutton starting in the Hughes team. As he's said a few times, he sees his squad as starters and finishers and seems like they just want Sutton to be a disrupter rather than your Periera, Wright, Angol, Walker, Chapman types that all covered those wider spots so far this season who want it to feet and to try take on or spread the defence.

 

Clubs can decide their own away allocations as long as it meets the criteria set out by the EFL.

What I would question here from Harrogate is they raised prices across the board and justified that by saying they have to maximise income due to their limited capacity. If you are telling your own fans you have to charge them more, but at the same time refuse to turnover the rest of the terrace pitchside to Bradford and a few others (Donny, Hartlepool, Grimsby, etc) who would sell it out and still have ample capacity for your own fans then you do have to ask questions as to why you are being hit with higher prices when they are happy to turn hundreds of people away.

Which brings me back to point No1, they are being leaned on by the old bill for absolutely no reason what so ever which is why our game kicks off at 1pm.

At Accrington Stanley the model is to get as many away fans into the ground and pre match activities as possible, and to be honest it's always a joy to visit.

 

I don't think I'd get away with the way I celebrated Cooks second last night, enjoyed my first away trip, and tucked up in bed for 11:30.

 

Mark Hughes recently talked about our dire form against Harrogate and his response was a good one.

When asked about Harrogate being a bogey side and having won the last 4, his response was those games had nothing to do with him and those results have no bearing on Saturday.

 

What a very cool finish from Wright, 2 in 2 not bad for the kid.

 

Wright knows what he's good at and he sticks to it. You don't need to over complicate things at this level.

 

And that's becoming a problem Hughes must address losing early goals second half, Tranmere, Wimbledon, Walsall & Harrogate or not seeing the game out at Colchester & Barrow.

 

How many times have we played well over the seasons and finished with nothing.
Play poorly and still win away from home. Good enough for me, we don't have to play like Real Madrid.

 

Hughes did say he has teams to start matches and to finish matches.
This side are living up to that quote.