Next Up: Bradford City vs Exeter City
City’s enforced layoff after the fire at the Park put paid to the Burton fixture could turn out to be a blessing in disguise for Gary Caldwell as his players will be refreshed ahead of a very busy next month or so. There were a few raised eyebrows that more of the fringe / returning players didn’t feature at Brentford in the U21 Cup match on Monday, although there was a welcome return for Jake Doyle-Hayes, who may not yet be ready for a return to league action but could feature at Luton in the EFL Trophy next week. The lack of the likes of Sonny Cox and Pedro Borges suggests they’re not yet back in contention, while City will welcome back Josh Magennis, who missed the defeat at Leyton Orient due to being on international duty with Northern Ireland.
After a number of seasons as one of the “big boys” of League Two, Bradford under Graham Alexander finally made it back to the third tier last season, and they carried that momentum into this campaign with a storming start with just two league defeats so far. Recent form has been more patchy, however, with just one win (in the EFL Trophy) since the end of September, and a run of three draws in four defeats in all competitions since that win over Everton’s youngsters in mid-October. Goals have become an issue, but the Bantams can look to the likes of Will Swan and Bobby Pointon (six goals each in all competitions) while the evergreen Antoni Sarcevic has chipped in with five. Another veteran, Andy Cook, a player with over 200 league goals, can be called upon from the bench but he has yet to find the net in the league (unlike the cups where he has three).
The sides last met in City’s promotion season of 21/22, indeed there were five meetings albeit one was scratched from the records after it had emerged City had used a sixth substitute in their FA Cup replay – as it was established the fault lay with the officials for permitting this substitution, the match was replayed to the ire of their manager, the delightful Derek Adams – whose mood wasn’t improved by City winning the rescheduled match. City took four points from the league games that season – the match at the Park finished 0-0 but Kirean Phillips notched the only goal at Valley Parade to give City the win. That win extended City’s slender lead in league head to heads with 17 wins to Bradford’s 15, 13 matches finishing level.
The match officials for this game will be-
Referee: Richard Eley
Assistant Referees: Aaron Hallam and Kenwyn Hughes
Fourth Official: Richie Watkins
Richard Eley has take charge of just the one Exeter City game, a 0-0 away at Reading in April of this year. His record this season so far, is 14 games, 50 yellows and 2 reds.
Interview with Gary Caldwell
The Jack McMillan interview