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

A good point and good comeback from a poor early game. Home wins and away draws will see us in the play offs I'm sure ! Nearly enough points to avoid relegation but I doubt we will be top come Saturday tea.

 

Agree Metcalfe is a class act and will only get better.

 

He should be behind Kelly and that's saying something. Pennington, Baldwin or Wright and McIntyre for me. Power and Pattison in the middle. We didn't look good tonight but got the point. Too much hoof and very low on quality.

 

Will say it now metcalfe is a future a captain if he stays with us (McCall style) or will be a championship player within 3 years with or without us.

 

Bad misses but good positioning from their keeper

 

Yes we were sloppy with regards our defending but even though we never hit any sort of consistency we still created 4/5 very good chances, and that's got to be a good thing, Rotherham knew they weren't going to coast the game even at 2 - 0.

 

Despite us being successful so far this season I feel more comfortable watching us with 2 up top and one sitting behind IE 3-4-1-2 rather than 3-4-3 which Alexander seems to prefer to play. Just wondered what others thought.

 

I also wonder with a 2 week break Humphrys will have his tonsils surgery but would that rule him out for the Barnsley return

 

COULD be for sure. I reckon he is drip fed into the 11 but by the end of the season he's probably starting every week. He looks a step above on the ball if he has time or not, some of our lot need a moment or two but he looks calm pressed or with space. Only going to get better.

 

Pretty much this season we have taken our chances and led the game. If we had done today early on, it would have been a completely different game which we would have seen out I think. But a decent point in the end from 2 down.

 

I watched him at Oldham pre season and I thought wow we have a star in the making although a bit rash with his tackling his vision and passing is top drawer and not only that he can play a number of positions comfortably.

 

I think Leigh is getting frustrated and it’s affecting his performances. He’s trying too hard. Spraying passes about and misplacing them, misjudging tackles. He needs a break from starting. I rate him - he just needs to be more simple, especially alongside Power/Patto.

 

The way he's playing at the moment I don't think he'd be missed so might be a good time to do it.
Just heard as well that Pennington was out tonight with delayed concussion so would probably have missed next Saturday if the Lincoln game hadn't been postponed.

 

We need Pennington back, and hopefully for a run of games now.

It's a shame we've seen the back line take so many injuries, but having Pennington in the RCB slot is so important as we saw today.

McIntyre looks quite decent at times, Touray can fill in for Tilt's extended absence, but I'm afraid Byrne looks miles off.

 

I also think we've made a big error in committing to Lewis Richards.

I said at the start of the season we didn't have cover for Touray, but was assured Richards was on his way back - well, when?

If he's not back after this break, surely we should have signed a loan player until January? It's going to be pushing mid-October and still no sign of first team action... not good.

 

Leigh was crap again tonight. Metcalfe much better when he came on and I think he offers us more in general.

 

Not sure about that yet.Metcalfe is a good player in the making but still has a bit to learn and a little lightweight for our pressing game at this time.

 

Richards has been missing basically since the start of Feb..... and nobody really knows exactly why he's out at the minute. Feels like he's had everything go wrong under the sun since he signed.

But i have no idea what they saw in July to think he was worth a last minute contract. He's missed July to now and not even been near the squad, let's see how he comes back but at the min it feels like a brainless extension.

 

I'm not actually that opposed to giving him the year so much as signing him for a further year and thinking "job done".

We knew he wouldn't be ready for the start of the season so we knew we didn't have back up. Maybe we thought it wouldn't last this long, but... as you say, he's basically having his Jake Reeves period. A young loanee always made sense.

 

Some of his passing is just daft. He's messing about like some 12 year old trying to impress a scout. Playing for himself and his own ego, trying zero percent passes for the hell of it. Not a good look imo. It's a shame because when he's been disciplined and responsible he's looked a real asset.