The Voice - Match preview #27: Bradford City vs Morecambe Tuesday 28th January 2025 7:45pm

Spot on.

After Saturday's performance, I'd bet they can't wait to get back on the pitch - the team must have been absolutely buzzing after that. We must keep that momentum going tonight to maintain what has become a realistic chance of automatic promotion.

 

Port vale game at Colchester is off due to a waterlogged pitch so in effect we go above them with a win but would cancel out our game in hand on them.

 

I did say that we had to ignore the inherent pessimism of being a city fan. I understand the mental scars we all carry around with us but taking this season as a standalone season, we have not suffered the same fate as previous years at home and this should be a routine win.

My initial point was really around this game being as easy as it gets over the coming weeks and this is the one to make a few changes to maintain the fitness and energy levels of some of our key players (Pattison and Richards in particular).

 

Big big game. It sounds dramatic but I think we’ll go up (injuries permitting) if we win tonight as it’ll show there’s been a big shift in mentality since Patto and Sarc came back, seriously in the words of Klopp those two are mentality monsters and it’s rubbing off on everyone else. Our mentality is the most important thing to promotion. No more bottling it City please.

 

That’s what I was alluding to earlier.
Showing other teams that our mentality is geared towards a top 3 spot on a regular basis.
Give these a good hiding tonight and other teams start looking at us and fearing us rather than expecting us to bottle it again.

 

I'm finding myself looking forward to games again. Hope it isn't short-lived. Bring on tonight.

 

I saw Pointon go off hobbling on Saturday so expect him to not be playing.

 

I'm ok with that. I don't really like having 'games in hand'. People get into that 'if/when we get 3 points' frame of mind and it rarely works out that way.

 

I don't think there's a specific right or wrong. I'd have no issue with the same team, nor freshening it up. My worse, specifically with Pattison and Sarcevic is that they haven't long been back from injury. We play with high intensity, and their game time may need managing for a little while.

Either way, its a good problem to have.

 

The biggest sign for me that we are genuine contenders this season will be when we do lose (and it's inevitable that we will at some point), we bounce straight back into another winning run - something we've failed to do under GA previously.

 

Notts County away recently and since?

 

I only want to see changes if it’s for the good of the team. If someone isn’t 100% fit and there’s an able replacement, I have no problem with that. I don’t want to see changes for changes sake.

That said, we have another big game on Saturday. I think GA has some credit in the back right now for us to trust he will make the right call.

 

Totally agree , let’s see at 1845. I really can see Leigh coming to the fore sooner rather than later . Who could he cover us the key, Kav, Sarcevic or Pattison . My only fear is if Bobby isn’t risked who would sit in his role? Not Odour hopefully?

 

Re Pointon, I suspect Lapslie is the obvious replacement. in theory it’s not a bad one either, certainly based on our available alternatives in the past.

I’m guessing we will see Mellon feature in some capacity tonight. Quite liked some of Khela’s contributions on Saturday also. His chipped ball in Leigh was inch perfect

 

Richards on the bench? Why?

 

Leigh for Pattison I get , Wright in for Richards …..looks like GA doesn’t think they are a threat down our left?

 

I’ll bow to GA’s greater knowledge but Wright seems very lucky to be getting a starting place.

If Richards is fit enough to be sub I’d start him and bring Wright on if needed.
He offers nothing in my opinion.

 

Someone said he had a knock yesterday, maybe he couldn’t do the 90 , so I’d rest him altogether tbh.