The Voice - Match preview #39: Accrington Stanley vs Bradford City Saturday 29th March 2025 12:30pm

Interesting little clip. Why didn’t the ref blow his whistle?

 

Yes, if only the ref had blown his whistle all that nonsense could've been prevented.

 

I thought Kav was poor against Colchester. His touch, awareness and ability to throw himself over rather than battle meant he looked largely lost.

He got two goals and of course we'd take that contribution every week but how many times in a game does he actually look like he'll either create or get on the end of something? Not many I'd say and in a tight game like yesterday he's completely ineffective.

It was kind of the issue with Lapslie yesterday too really as he is more likely to get on the end of something rather than create a chance so if we aren't getting the ball into dangerous areas it completely nullifies his main attributes.

 

Agree that they were fighting for a point etc Park. But that doesn't excuse the fact that we reverted to hoof ball for the first 60 minutes and played right into their hands.
Why give Kavanagh 'Cook type balls' when the lad has no chance whatsoever of getting up for the high balls when he's got two or three hairy arsed defenders on his back, ridiculous play.
Football is played on the floor, if we did that then I believe that the points would have been ours.
So frustrating to watch that stuff.

 

I didn't have a problem with his starting 11 they deserved it after last week's performance, the subs were also correct but I still don't understand why they were not changed at half time, after seeing the above video it sounds like he was far from happy with the first half, I found his subs strange he virtually gave them 10 minutes then changed them which made a difference to our attacking players so why not at half time.
Tayo was not at his best and IMO that effected Wrights first half performance, once Pointon came on and linked up with him we looked far more dangerous and we did cause Accrington a few problems but not enough for a team chasing promotion, both Doncaster and Vale winning didn't help but both have inferior goal difference so although some are saying Vale are only 3 points behind they are actually 4 as getting 3 points will not take them above us, I'll take a point on Tuesday night then worry about Doncaster on the 26th April.

 

I would definitely have Huntington in as it will be like Bromley with constant long throws. Get Pattison ,Pointon and Walker in and then hope for the best as we can’t afford to lose this one.

 

It’s true that it’s much better to be a strong home side and a welcome change from previous seasons when we struggle to get 6 home wins never mind 15 and counting. We do though need to chip in with at least another away win and with Port Vale, Chesterfield and Doncaster to play away its going to be difficult.

 

Was sat directly behind the Bantams Banter boys yesterday....

 

Yep, ref lost control of the game due to his complete shambolic refereeing....

 

I'll take a point now but I'll not write us off taking all 3, Vale will know what's expected of them at home and I would expect they'll come at us, watching them against Barrow their fans are hardly the most patient.
If Alexander starts Pointon, Pattison and Walker along with Smallwood I think they'll know their in a game, massive playing area we need to make sure we use the width with Wright, Halliday etc.

 

Width suits us down to the ground. Does anyone actually know if Vale have a wider than average pitch or is it just that it always looks massive on the tv angle?

 

I'm not sure it's ages since I last attended Vale Park but at one time it was one of the League largest pitches.

It's certainly wider than Valley Parade.
The pitch at Vale Park, home of Port Vale Football Club, measures 104 meters by 70 meters (114 yards by 77 yards).

The pitch size at Valley Parade, home of Bradford City, is 113 yards by 70 yards (or 103 meters by 64 meters).

 

There was no space in their half of the field that’s how they set up , ie to give no space to pass wide or through their lines. Their front man was on the half way line leaving roughly 8 of our players plus their 10 all crammed into one half. They did it well , with one intention in mind…don’t lose. All they had was three options breakaway at pace , set piece or long throw. They didn’t have the skills with their squad to play any other way Dave ( imho) . We need to learn how to beat it…..Many Prem managers don’t know either!

 

He should have been told to stay where you are sonny, there is a red card !

 

No need to hit the panic button IMO. Not a great result but another point to the tally. All we need to do is match/better the results of 3 or 4 of the chasing pack. We’re not having to make up ground which is a new one for us. We’ll have a better picture come Saturday evening depending how things go.

A couple of changes for Tuesday, I’d like to see Pointon and Pattison start. Shepherd would be great to have back in the middle of the defence as well. Would also be tempted to start Mellon and give Kav a spot on the bench.

After that I don’t think I’d be changing much else. Drop wright to the bench as a useful option for Pointon as the game goes on. I’d leave Lapslie in the team as he seems to enjoy the games where there is more space to run into which I expect on Tuesday.

 

There was nothing between the teams at half time and as such I expected Alexander to wait to see how the game developed second half. The only time I'd expect to see subs at half time is if something is drastically wrong.

 

That's was my point they were poor and we were no better to say it was the same starting 11 as against Colchester, I wasn't expecting another scintillating performance like Colchester but they failed to do the basics for 45 minutes, I'm really not sure why he gave them another 10 minutes and expected them to change what they had done for the previous 45, when he did bring Pattison, Pointon and Walker on it gave us more control of the game and we actually started playing on the deck and created a good chance for Pattison.

 

Tranmere came to Valley Parade and play the high press game and we fail to break it down, Accrington play a different game and once again we find it difficult to string two passes together, so we adopt the long ball game hoping we might win the second ball that's so disappointing from a starting 11 against Colchester who had no answers to coping with our movement.
I said I was disappointed Alexander didn't make changes at half time surely he recognised the way Accrington set up first half and saw we had few answers you bring on the likes of Walker and Pointon who have the ability to run at players which in turn helps the other players to get into positions to receive the ball, once he made the changes it was as plain day we approached the game differently long ball stopped and we had an outlet more so in the Pointon/Wright left hand had side, although the best chance of the game came from the right when Pattison slide his chance just wide.

 

I watched the game and saw those shots you mentioned. I’ll rephrase then - their keeper didn’t have a save to make. Doesn’t sound much better than those BBC stats.

 

Against teams like that we need to get the ball into the box at floor level. Big numb nut defenders then have a decision to make. How many penalties have we conceded like that? Compare with how many have we been awarded.