The Voice - Match preview Doncaster Rovers vs Bradford City Friday 22nd December @ 7:45pm

THE BREAKDOWN

13/8: Doncaster Rovers
11/5: Draw
13/8: Bradford City

Bradford City now sport the 7th best away record in League Two, although the club have played a full 12 games on the road – a statistic matched by only 2 other teams in Swindon Town and Barrow. Back-to-back wins on the road will now be followed by a third straight away league game at Doncaster Rovers, in part due to the postponement of the recent home tie against Salford City. All that said, Bradford City have still lost fully half of their away games this season, suggesting it’s too early to start assuming every game on the road will result in certain victory!

Things are looking significantly more promising, however, with 5 wins in a row, 4 clean sheets in a row, and their top scorer in Andy Cook seemingly back up and running. Playing Bradford City right now must seem like a daunting prospect, certainly far more daunting than it might have been prior to the current form under Graham Alexander. The question is, can players like Jamie Walker and Tyler Smith continue to augment Cook’s goals with regular efforts themselves?

It certainly seems that way, at least for now. Bradford City’s direct style of passing and high press were directly attributable to at least one of the goals against Gillingham, when a loose pass from the Gills keeper was miscontrolled, allowing the industrious pairing of energetic duo Alex Gilliead and Brad Halliday to feed a grateful Jamie Walker for a tidy finish from just inside the area.

The second came by way of that man Andy Cook, who scored directly from a free kick that caught out both the wall and the goalkeeper. A low, fizzing strike evaded the Gillingham goalkeeper Jake Turner, who had previously enjoyed good form. The same will not be said about Doncaster Rovers Louis Jones, who had such a torrid afternoon in the 5-0 battering at the hands of Morecambe.

Jones will be looking to thwart City, and will in turn be expecting far more help from the players in front of him – which he’ll need, at least based on current form. Having seen City come through a very difficult-looking prospective challenge at Gillingham, this is one where we are now looking to see how far City can go. It’s looking good, and while all form in football is tenuous, backing Bradford City for the win in this game seems a reasonable bet even in spite of McCann’s calls for a much improved performance. Perhaps Doncaster Rovers will score, but Bradford City are suddenly looking like scoring multiple goals every time they play!

PREDICTION:

Doncaster Rovers 1 – 2 Bradford City