The Voice - Match preview Harrogate Town vs Bradford City Saturday 1 October @ 1:00pm

We know you have to graft your way out of LG2 no room for slacking. We will only deserve to leave this LG when we actually leave.

Not a great performance, and more able teams would have put us to bed. However, not playing our best but still coming away with the 3 points is a good omen. There will be times when we played brilliantly but only get a draw or nothing.

I am pleased because this is the first time in this league I actually think we can compete.

 

Fully agree with you here.

It’s nice to know we have a 1st team and squad that can compete in this league.

Are we up there running away with it? - No.

Are we in the mix - damn right.

Can we keep it up? Hope so.

Can we improve? - For sure

 

It was a good day out apart from the football.

 

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

 

Not a classic but job done.

 

The way we play out from dead balls puts us at a disadvantage. While we may lose it in a dangerous position that is not all the problem. Our whole midfield drops to make itself available which puts us at a severe disadvantage as teams can virtually blockade us in our half as demonstrated today. More and more teams will know this and use it against us. Time for more variety

 

I like that.

Not many of these players were even City players last time we played Harrogate Town, yet it's still important that they end our drought as a club.

 

That's happened quite a few times this season, BUT, the reason we get away with it from an attacking perspective is because our wingers are pacy and skilful.

Seems to me we have a good chance of scoring on the break - and regularly threaten while already penned in.

I'm happy enough with it, and see no reason to change it - yes, we have those dodgy periods, but we are a real threat even in our own half.

 

Sounds familiar ..

 

Good result for Stevenage at Crawley. The Wagmi experiment isn't looking good. Bet Telford is happy he went there!

Results seemed to go well for us today otherwise. However, Stockport nearly beat Walsall who apparently weren't very good but scored with two minutes left. Crankshaw with the assist for Madden's goal for Stockport.

 

Up the chickens

 

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.

 

If that's true , half the stadium was empty. Surely they could have made room for a few more away fans. especially as a one of.

bloody hell Fordy mate are you feeling ok, that's as positive a message.
seriously though, we need to keep plugging away and stay in touch as i believe we will improve

 

Great result against our bogey team. Forgot it was a 1pm ko so had a nice surprise seeing Cook had put us ahead.

A few times now we’ve retaken the lead having been pegged back. Nice change under Hughes. Still more to come from this side.

Wright is exciting.

 

Does anyone know what went on with cookie and their keeper? Seemed to be a bit of "rivalry" after he scored the penalty

 

And it looked like Smallwood had a word on his way past to celebrate

 

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/12709511/harrogate-1-2-bradford-league-two-highlights

CLASS finish that from Wright.

What a player.

Good ball from Angol too.

Unlucky with their goal, perfectly good tackle from Smallwood but it fell kindly for them and a decent finish.

 

We are in a bit of quandary really, at the minute cook is seemingly undroppable given the scoring run, however it's clear we look so much better with Oliver and Angol on the pitch.

The whole dimension of the game changed today when the ball started to stick up top, similar to the last 10 against Wimbledon.

As good as he has been, I think Hughes needs to coax cook into being more of a threat outside of the box. Even just challenging for a header creates a problem for the centre half, at the minute cook stands a couple of feet off the defender for some reason and this just let's the defender head it where he wants

 

Hope Chapman was watching that run and ball from Angol. We need him to do that.