The Voice - Match preview #40: Bradford City vs Northampton Town Friday 3rd April 2026 3:00pm

EFL League One Fixture #40
Friday 3rd April 2026 15:00
Bradford City (4th) vs Northampton Town (23rd)
University of Bradford Stadium (AKA Valley Parade)

Record:
Games Won: 23
Games Drawn: 8
Games Lost: 8

Last 5:
20 Nov 2021: Bradford City 1 – 1 Northampton Town
09 Apr 2022: Northampton Town 0 – 0 Bradford City
19 Nov 2022: Bradford City 1 – 3 Northampton Town
29 Apr 2023: Northampton Town 1 – 2 Bradford City
09 Aug 2025: Northampton Town 0 – 0 Bradford City

Northampton Town:
Northampton Town’s chances of retaining their League One status for a further season have plummeted dramatically in recent times, with an ill-timed winless run now stretching to a full 9 league games. During that time, the Cobblers’ sole saving grace has been their EFL Trophy participation, but that too came to a close with a semi-final defeat at Luton Town in early March.

When the current season is dissected in the Summer, then, questions will inevitably be asked of both the players and hierarchy, with chairman Kelvin Thomas sticking to his guns and waiting until March 9th before calling time on Kevin Nolan’s run as manager. Nolan, for his part, had led the Cobblers to just 1 win in his last 16 games as gaffer, an astonishing run that has since endured an unwelcome extension of 3 more games under interim manager Colin Calderwood. Calderwood, back for a second run in the Northampton dugout after leading the club between 2003-06, is expected to remain in charge until the end of the season, even in his spite of the Igor Tudor-esque stats…

2 goals scored and 8 conceded across 3 defeats make for dismal reading for Calderwood and his temporary charges, and even their somewhat modest 2-1 defeat at Stockport County hardly told the full story of a lopsided match. Stockport County managed 9 shots on target and a further 8 off, offsetting Northampton’s paltry 1 on, 1 off, but Cobblers’ goalkeeper Lee Burge was able to keep the scoreline respectable.

Less so against Mansfield Town… a goal down after just 5 minutes, Northampton Town were brushed aside 4-1, Cameron McGeehan netting the consolation for the visitors. That made it back-to-back away defeats, with a third straight away day at Valley Parade beckoning.

Prior to the Good Friday meeting, Northampton Town are left with 7 games to try and close a gap of 10 points that stands between themselves and safety – a tall order for any team, let alone one on such poor form and lacking the sought after ‘new manager bounce’. In truth, all of Northampton Town, Port Vale and Rotherham United look destined for League Two… the question now is, can any of them even make a fist of it, and can they inflict some damage even as they seem doomed to failure?

While Northampton Town certainly can’t down tools at this stage or claim they have nothing to play for, the fact their efforts seem so unlikely to bear fruit could provide them with a ‘nothing to lose, nothing to fear’ mentality. That could make them a potential banana skin for any remaining opposition, including promotion-chasers Bradford City. Second highest scorer Cameron McGeehan has shown at least some fight, netting in both of Northampton’s previous 2 games, while the top marksman, Tom Eaves, has grabbed 8 goals this season – and contributed their sole strike in their most recent non-defeat, a 1-1 draw at home to Peterborough United in late February. Concerningly for Northampton, he was unavailable for their 4-1 defeat at Mansfield Town…

Home soil may be Northampton’s best chance to stage a fight for survival, then; Northampton Town haven’t won a game away from home in the league since November 9, but they have been able to take a point here or there, including at the likes of Bolton Wanderers, Barnsley, and Exeter City. Whether they can expand on that in their 3 remaining away games remains to be seen, but trips to Bradford City, Luton Town and Cardiff City hardly bode well. Instead, they might have to try and rely on happenings at the Sixfields, where they will entertain the likes of Wigan Athletic, Doncaster Rovers, Barnsley, and Plymouth Argyle.

Sadly, things aren’t looking much better off the field, with Northampton Town recording record losses in their annual accounts. With a deficit just under £3 million recorded for the 24/25 season, largely down to player wages and general inflationary pressures according to Kelvin Thomas, Northampton Town will have a huge amount of work ahead of them regardless of their division next season.

Mansfield Town 4 – 1 Northampton Town


Stockport County 2 – 1 Northampton Town


Bradford City:
Bradford City have an excellent historical record against Good Friday’s opponents Northampton Town, but that didn’t help City in the reverse fixture. The second game of the season, City’s trip to the Sixfields petered out to a somewhat uneventful 0-0, building on their opening day win at Valley Parade over Wycombe Wanderers. 37 games later, things have naturally changed – although perhaps not as much as one might think! Graham Alexander’s City side were in the process of getting off to a flyer, while Northampton Town picked up just 1 point from their opening 4 games – a sure sign of things to come for both sides, perhaps. City remain involved in the promotion race, albeit limited perhaps to the playoff route, while Northampton Town are firmly entrenched in a relegation battle that it doesn’t seem they are equipped to survive as things stand.

Bradford City won’t be celebrating their success yet; their abject away form has contributed to a recent 3-game winless run, with pressure being piled on each and every fixture at the University of Bradford Stadium as a result of losing near-enough every away game – Port Vale and Blackpool being the sole exceptions in 2026. With fixtures against playoff rivals Stevenage, Plymouth Argyle and Bolton Wanderers all to come at Valley Parade, there’s a question mark over whether the home ‘bankers’, games which have proven so reliable this season, remain bankers… the competition in all 3 games will be incredibly fierce, and could make City’s dreadful away run prove entirely unsustainable.

This Easter period, then, is no time for City fans to be counting their chickens!

While the playoffs have seemed near-enough a sure thing for some time, especially with the fall-off of sides like Huddersfield Town, their cushion to 7th now sits at just 5 points – with Stevenage (7th) and Stockport County (5th) both holding a game in hand over the Bantams and breathing right down their neck. Reading (6th), Wycombe Wanderers (8th) and Plymouth Argyle (9th) will all be waiting to contend with any late-season stragglers, with Plymouth in particular hitting a rich vein of form at the tail end of the campaign.

Bradford City still hold the initiative, though, and rightfully so. The Bantams are 4th in the table on merit and have long inhabited the top 6. Their destiny is very much in their hands, and regardless of any tough run in, games like this one against an atrociously off-colour Northampton Town simply have to be capitalised on.

Graham Alexander was coy about the chances of Antoni Sarcevic making an appearance, City’s top scorer nursing a tight hamstring that forced him off in the 2-1 defeat at Burton Albion, but ruled forward Kayden Jackson out for the duration of the extended Easter weekend. Alexander did say he would not take any chances with Sarcevic, making a start this Friday seem increasingly unlikely, so all eyes will be on the manner in which the manager shuffles his deck. Tyreik Wright has been the man of the moment lately, having netted in 3 of his last 4 outings, although his efforts have resulted in just 1 win during that period – at bottom side Port Vale, no less.

That game turned into a routine victory, despite being contested on the road, and City will hope for more of the same against another completely out-of-sorts side. Problem is, if they don’t get the expected win here, the safety net will have all but been squandered and the pressure could become unbearable…

Burton Albion 2 – 1 Bradford City


Bradford City 1 – 1 Mansfield Town

 

Prediction:
Telling it like it is, this is a game between two off-form sides, though Bradford City’s version of ‘off-form’ isn’t in the same ballpark as that of their opponent’s…

City haven’t won in 3 games – Northampton Town haven’t won in 9. City have picked up just 4 points from their 4 games – Northampton Town, by contrast, have picked up 0. Bradford City also have ‘Home’ advantage, a factor they have been making the most of this season, while Northampton Town’s away record is the second worst in the division with just 3 wins from a full 20 games.

If Bradford City can’t win this one, and win it routinely, the omens will not look good ahead of a string of ties against promotion rivals and play off hopefuls. Of their final 6 games, only Barnsley look destined for midtable mediocrity, while Exeter City could well be fighting for their League One lives on the final game of the season. The other 4 are all very real and considerable threats to City’s playoff aspirations, and will each come bent on inflicting severe damage on the Bantams’ promotion chances.

Northampton Town, then, stands out as the ‘easiest’ game – and yet, they have their own stories to carve out. Looking for their first win under interim manager Colin Calderwood, the Cobblers will know it’s now-or-never in terms of mounting a survival bid. We can expect a backs-to-the-wall effort from the Good Friday visitors, a club whose chairman Kelvin Thomas admitted he and others were ‘shell-shocked’ by his side’s slide from 12th on Christmas Day to 10 points from safety with 7 games to go.

Perhaps it’s telling that Thomas pointed to the loss of City loanee Ethan Wheatley in January as a contributing factor, and perhaps there will be an X-factor there for the Manchester United man should he start up front in this one – perhaps he won’t allow himself to celebrate should he score his first goal for City this Friday, but there will be plenty of fans willing to do that for him.

For me, I think that could be something to watch out for. I’ll take City to win 2-0, Wheatley to finally open his account, and for Graham Alexander to quickly refocus his troops on a monumentally important trip to Wycombe Wanderers on Easter Monday.

Final Score:
Bradford City 2 – 0 Northampton Town