The Voice - Match preview #11: Tranmere Rovers vs Bradford City Saturday 12th October 2024 3:00pm

EFL League Two Fixture #11
Saturday 12th October 2024 15:00
Tranmere Rovers vs Bradford City
Prenton Park

Record:
Games Won: 34
Games Drawn: 20
Games Lost: 38

Last 5:
15 Apr 2022: Bradford City 1 – 1 Tranmere Rovers
13 Sep 2022: Tranmere Rovers 1 – 2 Bradford City
14 Feb 2023: Bradford City 2 – 0 Tranmere Rovers
03 Oct 2023: Tranmere Rovers 2 – 1 Bradford City
29 Mar 2024: Bradford City 2 – 0 Tranmere Rovers

Tranmere Rovers:
Tranmere Rovers remain unbeaten on home soil in league competition, though a record of 1 win and 3 draws hardly inspires belief in the Merseysiders presenting a viable promotion challenge – at least not when combined with recent away performances. 3-0 drubbings at Gillingham and Colchester United came on the back of Tranmere’s only successful away day this season back in late August, when they beat Carlisle United 2-1. That victory remains Rovers’ last league win of any kind.

A pair of morale-boosting triumphs over Accrington Stanley in first the EFL Cup First Round, then this past Tuesday afternoon in the EFL Trophy have obviously not translated into all-important league points, and so we find Tranmere sitting as far down as 17th in the table, with a record of 2 wins, 5 draws and 2 defeats.

If that wasn’t mediocre enough, perhaps the most damning statistic facing Tranmere is their offensive output. Tranmere Rovers are the lowest goalscorers in League Two with a paltry 5 goals in 9 games, with 9 shipped at the other end – albeit 6 of those accounted for in the two aforementioned away days at Gillingham and Colchester United.

Goals, then, are severely lacking and in that department Tranmere hardly made the most exciting start to the season. Back-to-back 0-0’s against Notts County and Port Vale might not look like bad results in the context of the season to date, but Tranmere have drawn a blank in 3 further league fixtures since then, meaning they have failed to find the net in more than half of their league outings.

Successive 1-1 draws against Swindon Town and MK Dons have ensured Tranmere’s record so far this season isn’t disastrous, merely statistically underwhelming. It might be a surprise then to note Tranmere’s XG isn’t all that bad – but while their ‘expected goals’ are a healthy 1.20 per game, their actual goal count averages out at 0.56 per game – awful, to put it bluntly.

Summer signing Omari Patrick has scored 3 league goals this season, as well as one in the EFL Cup, and each time he has scored, Tranmere have won – but their talisman have been absent from the scoresheet across his past 5 appearances, and nobody else looks like picking up the slack. Kristian Dennis and Regan Hendry are the only other scorers in league action, both with a goal apiece, though Josh Davison, Josh Hawkes, Samuel Taylor, Harvey Saunders and Josh Williams have all contributed cup goals. Perhaps that sounds more optimistic, having another 5 goals to share out, only 3 of those players have yet to start a league game. Perhaps Josh Hawkes is the most likely to make an appearance against Bradford City, as he looks to continue his comeback from injury, managing just over an hour on Tuesday night.

Any additional firepower would be welcomed by goal-starved Tranmere Rovers fans at the minute, with the side looking like low-scoring draw specialists at the minute. Their rather feeble front line is only bailed out consistently on home soil by a defence that has conceded just once at Prenton Park this season in league action. Former Bantams loanee Luke McGee has earned plenty of plaudits already in goal.

MK Dons 1 – 1 Tranmere Rovers



Tranmere Rovers 1 – 1 Swindon Town



Bradford City:
It was vital that Bradford City performed in front of the Sky TV cameras this past Monday evening, as a run of 4 league games without a win had started to hang heavy over the club. Newport County, now with the ignominy of being one of the 4 worst away sides in the division, had a brief spells early in both the first and second halves and 6’9 Kyle Hudlin duly nodded home an equaliser from a Bryn Morris cross, but this was, ultimately, a fairly routine win for the Bantams.

Bradford City have now climbed to 6th in the ‘Home’ league table but find themselves further back in 9th place overall – a position that probably isn’t realistic given AFC Wimbledon are 2 points behind with a full 3 games in hand.

Still, a win is a win, and City have taken up position in the peloton just outside the play off places. While fans would love to be even higher, they will have been buoyed by a solid home performance that dispelled the danger of Valley Parade becoming more of a den of draws than a fortress. Andy Cook, Jamie Walker and substitute Bobby Pointon all helped themselves to, frankly, high quality goals as Graham Alexander’s men evidenced a level of ruthlessness that hadn’t been seen in the league since they beat 10-man Bromley 3-1 (also on home soil).

But therein is the rub. Performances away from home haven’t matched those 3-goal salvos at Valley Parade, and Bradford City haven’t won an away game for over 2 months now. Yes, the first game of the season saw a 2-1 win over MK Dons, but since then? Nothing. Picking up just 1 point from a possible 6 in back-to-back games against Harrogate Town and Morecambe had set alarm bells ringing for some City fans, and the feel-good factor won’t be fully returned without a complimentary away league win to follow.

Bradford City will need Andy Cook and the timeless Jamie Walker to be at their sharpest and most dangerous against a water-tight Tranmere Rovers defence this Saturday afternoon, as it becomes more and more imperative that the Bantams back up their good home form with something from their away days.

Bradford City 3 – 1 Newport County



Morecambe 1 – 1 Bradford City



Prediction:
It’s a statistical curiosity that the only goal Tranmere Rovers have conceded on home soil in league action this season was a very poor own goal. Chris Merrie headed home from a Swindon Town corner, an error that ultimately denied Tranmere victory in a game where Kristian Dennis should have buried more than just the 1 goal he claimed.

The odds of Bradford City heading to Merseyside and scoring a hatful, then, would seem stacked against them. Bradford City are not happy travellers this campaign, although they have at least managed to score just over a goal a game in average (6 in 5 in the league), more than Tranmere Rovers have managed across all 9 league outings this season. Is there a chance City will be able to eek out a more exciting game from the miserable Merseysiders?

Perhaps not.

Bradford City just haven’t found their rhythm away from Valley Parade this season, even though a return to 5-3-2 was extremely welcome following Neill Byrne’s return from injury on Monday night, and with their defence having looked less-than-stellar throughout the season so far, the chances are Tranmere Rovers will get some chances – even if they have proven abysmal in front of goal.

The former Carlisle United pairing of Omari Patrick and Kristian Dennis up front will feel all too familiar to the Bradford City faithful, but in truth neither is looking anything special – and they are primarily to blame for Tranmere Rovers proving the most ineffective attacking side in the division. That said, Kristian Dennis was gifted with multiple opportunities at MK Dons, and did eventually score once – he will look to bring some of that new-found confidence to the game at the weekend, and his veteran smarts should mean he finds pockets of space here and there.

Overall, though, even a cursory glance at either the xG table or the ‘Home’ and ‘Away’ league tables will tell its own story. This is a game between two low-scoring sides, with the lowest scoring side of all also in possession of a pretty darn good defence. There is a reason both linger in midtable positions in League Two right now (Bradford towards the higher end of midtable, Tranmere Rovers towards the lower end), and that’s because neither has proven ruthless enough to reliably win when perhaps they are most expected to.

A low-scoring draw seems a no-brainer – but don’t discount a narrow win either way. Fine margins? Rarely does a game look so likely to play out in the vein of that old cliché.

Final Score:
Tranmere Rovers 1 – 1 Bradford City