The Voice - Match preview #11: Rotherham United vs Bradford City Thursday 2nd October 2025 8:00pm

Leigh always looked an... "interesting" signing as he doesn't fit the typical mould of a GA player, and his mentality even more so.

Leigh and Humphrys don't seem like particularly good fits for us - but I suppose maybe GA intentionally signed players who were a bit different.

Can't imagine Parky ever having been interested in either.

 

Anybody else Lapslie running away from the stadium in full warm up gear before the game?

 

Yes. Past the away turnstiles. We were wondering what on earth was going on.

 

Leigh is slower and more lightweight, I mean come on this is the guy who got outmuscled by the dwarf Billy Sharp for Donny's second. If he is going to play in midfield, then it needs to be as a 3 not 2 as he offers little off the ball.

 

Not a bad point considering we were 2 down, but we were 2 down due to terrible finishing and poor defending. I suppose it's a positive and shows how far we have come that I can be a bit disappointed at not winning that game against an established league 1 side.

 

My take on the performance

Walker - Poor for the first goal, should be getting a stronger hand to it

Neufville - Poor by his standards but he did create when given the chance to do so

Byrne - crap. Out of position, poor on the ball. I understand that putting him into the team to deal the physicality and Ariel presence of Rotherham’s attackers would be a logical choice but he did neither. Constantly bullied in the air and stopping attacks from being created on the right flank. Should not be playing in league games, let alone on the right, where his lack of pace is on display

Mclntyre - I think he’s a real gem. Composed on the ball, shows his intelligence when dealing with bigger and stronger attackers. Capable of bringing the ball out of defence. A quality future replacement for Baldwin in the making

Touray - as solid as ever

Wright - Haven’t got a clue what he doing in the lead up to Rotherham’s second goal. Was non existent in the first half, didn’t attack in the second. Where’s Richards?

Patto - will get the plaudits for the goal but was anonymous most of the game and should have buried the chance he had before it. Worries me as he’s not showing the levels from last year

leigh - will get a lot of stick for losing the ball but I think it’s more to do with him trying to take up too much responsibility, this partly to do with Patto being anonymous in the first half, and neither having the defence nous to protect the back line

Sarcevic - always looks knackered, but always shows heart. Class act

pointon - anonymous. Doesn’t help when Wright is absent too

Swan - should’ve buried both chances. starting to worry me that his clinical-ness has dropped the moment he became a regular; compared to being a super sub, but still full faith in him to turn it around


The subs

metcalfe - should’ve started the game

Halliday - ditto

Humphrys - needs to get his head up, feel his confidence is shot to bits right now, he’s getting worse by the game

Cook - would’ve come away with nothing if it weren’t for him

all in all, a point is better than nothing. The break has come at a good time, hopefully by the time we play Barnsley, our defensive issues are sorted out.

 

Fair assessment

 

When was the last time he tried to take on his man to get to the byline and cross the ball? When he first arrived he spoke about enjoying taking the defender on, but it's s long time since we've seen that. He always takes the easy option of turning back and looking for Bobby. His inconsistency is so frustrating and is the reason we should upgrade in the winter transfer window.
Good assessment though and saw it the same as I did.

 

I never want to see Neil Byrne play again.

I'm sure he's a lovely bloke but a League One defender he is not. He looks completely lost with the ball at his feet and I lost count of the number of times promising positions broke down due to his clear lack of ability on the ball.

 

There was a point in the second half where he was by the touch line, the ball was played back to him and his first touch was so poor it went out for a Rotherham throw. Looked like he had time to save the poor touch from going out but just didn’t look bothered.

 

Exactly one of the moments I'm talking about. His ability on the ball is clearly not this level and it was so frustrating to keep watching it.

I'm not usually one for picking players out, but he stands out like a sore thumb.

 

I don’t like Lee too lightweight and can’t tackle Just my opinion. We would have lost a game like that in the past. Be nice to get a really good midfielder and striker in January.

 

He hasn't done well this season, hes just not been as bad as last season so he looks better. In truth hes had maybe 3 good halves of football in his entire city career.

 

I thought we missed Baldwin's skill on the ball, passing and precision hoofing. None of our other CBs come anywhere near in that respect. Would have brought the wingbacks more into it.

I would have loved to have seen Tilt up against Sherif. What a contest that would have been! Sherif just bullied us when he came on, and he wasn't the only Rotherham player outmuscling us.

 

Northampton Peterborough and now Rotherham bottom of the pile three s*** teams and we give points away again. Just like last season

 

Yes, Aden Baldwin's long diagonal passing is streets ahead of anyone else in our defence. We've missed his ability to get the ball forward quickly and accurately.

 

That is the city of a few seasons ago dropping points to poor teams .

 

To be fair, a few seasons ago we’d have lost that game 2 - 0

 

A few seasons ago we did lose that game 4-0.

 

Indeed, we looked leggy at times missed Power badly but great to see Cooky make our second, over all it was good to see the resilience to get back in the game usually October is a bad month for us but hopefully we can move on now