The Voice - Match preview #26: Huddersfield Town vs Bradford City Saturday 24th January 2026 12:30pm

Would be 5th on Tuesday if Stockport better our result against Lincoln. Lose on Tuesday and Luton win, the gap between us and dropping out the play offs would be 4 points.

McCann has a ridiculously good record against Alexander, then we'd go away to Luton. Peterborough are coming good under their new boss then its Stockport on a Tuesday. This form needs to turn, and fast!

 

My Huddersfield supporting friend witnessed the Tilt altercation and sounds as if Tilt has taken a fan dancing like a chicken and laughing in his face as a Monkey gesture. He was adamant there was no racist intent but just taking the pi55 out of our players.

 

Was surprised Joe Wright was back in for Touray for that reason

 

Well that was as bad as anything I've seen in a long time. Not heard the GA interview and having seen some of the comments, I dont think I want to. The referee wasn't great but his performance was still 2 or 3 points higher than most of our team!
I was worried when I saw the line up with no Sarc but for so many to be so inept in a Yorkshire derby is unacceptable.
Performances have been on a steady decline since October, and it feels that we need some real impetus in the last week of the window, otherwise we could end this season with a whole host of regrets. Its starting to feel a bit like the Hughes nearly season, as post October, we dont look great even when we win.

 

The apparent lack of a plan is what worries me. So many (all) players looked off it and we never looked like scoring. Even when they went down to 10 men and we turned to bench, it seemed like it was just changes hoping for the best.

town deserved their win but I don’t think they were particular good. We were just so bad. A frustrating goal to concede after Walker kept that initial effort out.

Can’t believe they put wide the early chance. Was probably a 2-0 game.

Urgent recruitment needed - anything less and the mood will quickly turn.

 

Agree entirely. We scummed a lot of 1-0’s playing badly. Blackpool, Plymouth etc

 

what a great post match analysis. from GA good clarity......foul for pushing your head against foot trying to tackle you.. onwards

 

Its a good trait if a team can win ugly when below par, but its not sustainable over the course of a season. Unless we have a serious reset sharpish, we run a real risk of getting into a rut.

 

We have to be honest,we are nowhere near ready for the Championship. We caught a lot of teams who knew little about us by surprise early season and got some great results. The other clubs analysts have sussed us out and for quite a few weeks now we have been picking up points despite some poor performances . A high profile striker would be very welcome but won’t sort all our issues out. We lack creativity especially when Sarcevic is missing . If we are ever to challenge for promotion it requires a substantial rebuild on this squad.

 

This was the starters average positions today.... can anyone guess the plan from it?


Easy to see now why they had massive gaps to exploit between the CBs? Joe Wright who turns like a cruise ship and Tilt isn't much better, they should not be part of the same lineup but if so, they need proper shape and there's just none. Neufville nowhere near as high up as he should have been. Pointon far too deep to cause any trouble, same with White. Midfield on each others toes. With the subs, Tyreik had the highest position in the team but theres nobody around his map.

Compare that to the dogs, theres a proper front 5 which just pinned us back and we weren't brave enough on the ball to push them back out. Their wing backs pushed right up and were level with the front line, Their midfield can put yards in and were in each other's way unlike ours who all were in a flat line. Their back 3 never seemed worried for one moment and kept shape throughout.

 

Any meat on the earlier rumour about Sarcevic and Salford?

 

We never were to be honest
We built a team capable (and they very nearly didn't) get us out of L2
Since then we have over performed and in my opinion weakened the squad
Our great but faltering start was never going to be sustainable
As you say a substantial re build is required

 

Its starting to unravel a bit sadly. Long and short of it is that we've been found out and haven't yet come up with a plan B. Our main source of goals early in the season was the high press, winning the ball high or capitalising on mistakes from the opposition. Teams pay us a lot of respect now and even Cardiff didn't bother playing out against us last week.

It leaves us a bit stuck. The technical ability in this squad is very low with only a handful of players who are capable of handling the ball under pressure. The rest just don't have the ability which leads us to the style of play we see now. When Town went down to ten, there was absolutely no chance we were breaking down a low block and they knew it.

By half time we'd only managed to complete 76 passes. That's less than two successful passes every minute which is absolutely atrocious for a professional side.

Alexander’s interview was a bit of a car crash - baming referees and making excuses for our transfer activity to date. So what if teams are paying £1m for players? Like it or not that is the market at League One level these days and its only going to get worse.

We can all sit here and correctly state that we need some proven quality in this squad but they cost in wages and/or transfer fees and I get the impression that the hierarchy have no appetite to operate at that level.

 

Yeah that's fair.

Its more the feeling that we're offloading 4 or more senior pros, good characters, experienced players, and putting all our eggs in loans for players that, while at big clubs, haven't seemed to have found their feet.

I'd expect at least a couple of senior pros but it feels like we'll be lucky to get any.

I know the Newcastle lads aren't juniors, but we've gone from settled squad pros to transient lads still trying to find their way.

 

We'd only get workmanlike, also-ran ST/AM/CBs in january for £1m.
It's chicken feed in this window.
In the summer we'd get much more bang for our bucks.
We need at least 2 quality loans to help us secure a top 6 place.

 

Evening Chickens!!

I must admit I thought you would at least turn up today and show some kind of fight but alas... The mighty terriers tore you a new one.

Should have been 3-0 at half time and you all know it! With any luck it'll be another ~20 years before we have to play you again!

Have good eve chaps

"We only need 10 men!!"

 

We weren't though. Since Novwm

Squad harmony, bought about by application and achievement. Given that timid display in a local derby dont really give a sh£t. We've let two lads go who battled and gave their all and you are worrying how humphrys and co react???!

Absolutely get your point about where we are but this is cross roads territory. We will Absolutely sink with this lot, we've scuffed wins since November.
Ultimately this is on Rupp. He took over in a similar position and sank for god forsaken years under his stewarding, saved by a last minute goal. Dont forget that.

Subsequently we have had 3 months of brilliance followed by the management dragging a largelybkeague 2 squad over the line.

Its sh£t or bust frankly for Rupp and co its sh!t or bust. The fans have backed, the management talent is there BUT the squad ability is clearly lacking.

Not sure, given the cup run, big merch sales and jump in attendances why investment is being held back.

Again, given the years dwelling in league 2 and the fans absolute backing in numbers, Rupp needs to do much, much better. End of.

If not sell up and fook off.

We get 20k, all but 2 away games sold out. Our collective ambition now way outstrips his ability to own City. Particularly when set against the likes of Lincoln and Swansea getting big investment

Either back us or sell. This January has laid that bare.

 

Just listened to GA
Probably his worst interview since the early days of his tenure
The ref was not at fault and surely we must have some cash in the bank with increased crowds and the Newcastle game, plus current reduced wage bill I would think. I don’t think anyone is asking for us to blow millions on players, just address the issue which is becoming more obvious as the season progresses.
It’s not so much the defeat, we will lose games
It’s the manner of the defeats, where we are truly awful for large periods of the match
Also letting players leave without having adequate replacements signed up, Cook in particular.The three loanees are stop gaps in my opinion and White in particular looks terrible
Never mentioned Sarce and Swan, what’s the news?

 

But if they can’t or are not willing operate which I think is more likely. We’ve hit our ceiling as we ain’t going up anytime soon and this league will become more and more a wash with money and we are back expecting mangers to make miracles happen. Hell it took Rupp 5 years god knows how many managers and fan protest to understand break even doesn’t work if you want succces. Are We going to have to do the same to understand if he can’t take us forward get help or significantly losen the purse strings. That’s his options or stagnation which in time will result in GA leaving and the cycle starting again.

 

* Lets see how you go on against Luton on tuesday

Over the 2 games between us you'll find that we came out the better....