The Voice - Match preview #41: Bradford City vs Crewe Alexandra Saturday 5th April 2025 3:00pm

EFL League Two Fixture #41
Saturday 5th April 2025 15:00
Bradford City (2nd) vs Crewe Alexandra (8th)
University of Bradford Stadium (AKA Valley Parade)

Record:
Games Won: 44
Games Drawn: 21
Games Lost: 38

Last 5:
27 Aug 2022: Bradford City 0 – 0 Crewe Alexandra
03 May 2023: Crewe Alexandra 3 – 2 Bradford City
26 Aug 2023: Bradford City 1 – 0 Crewe Alexandra
01 Jan 2024: Crewe Alexandra 1 – 0 Bradford City
07 Dec 2024: Crewe Alexandra 1 – 1 Bradford City

Crewe Alexandra:
Few sides can claim a more difficult run of fixtures as Crewe Alexandra have faced recently. With Doncaster Rovers (5th), Notts County (4th), Port Vale (3rd), Grimsby Town (7th), and now Bradford City (2nd) all in a row, Crewe Alexandra have already had a significant say on the eventual make up of the top 7. To their credit, Crewe Alexandra have picked up 1 win, 2 draws and 1 defeat with the City game still to play, and the recent 2-0 victory over Grimsby Town (H) has brought them back within a point of the playoffs themselves.

That said, Bradford City away might be the most daunting of the lot, as the 2nd placed Bantams remain the best ‘Home’ side in the division by quite some distance. Now a full 7 points ahead of their nearest ‘Home’ rival with no games in hand for any of the chasing pack, Valley Parade is the most daunting journey a League Two team can make this season. What’s more, Valley Parade is set to be packed out once again, just as it was when form side Colchester United visited and were duly hammered 4-1.

Perhaps Crewe Alexandra will still have to life their level a little, then. That said, Crewe are a side that have proven very difficult to beat on their travels this campaign. Having won 6, drawn 10 and lost just 4 times in an impressive set of away day outcomes, Lee Bell’s outfit are nothing if not competitive on the road. Crewe’s most recent away day defeat came at the hands of AFC Wimbledon back in mid-February (3-0), while their other away losses were at Cheltenham Town (2-1), Newport County (2-1) and Barrow (1-0), the latter occurring on the opening day of the season.

In terms of goals, it’s not particularly exciting reading: midfielder Jack Lankester (7) leads the scoring charts, with Shilow Tracey (6) and Chris Long (6) next in line. Long’s haul is slightly eye-catching given he has made just 5 starts for Crewe Alexandra this campaign, being used a further 15 times as a substitute. Omar Bogle (5) is the only other player with more than 3, a tally shared by defenders Chris O’Riordan and Jamie Knight-Lebel, as well as midfielder Ryan Cooney and striker Kane Hemmings.

Those low tallies contribute to Crewe Alexandra’s own low, low tally of 47 scored, and while that’s only 5 fewer than Bradford City and 4 fewer than Port Vale, it is nonetheless the lowest of any club in the top 15. Combine that with the bizarre and surely anomalous-looking statistic that Crewe Alexandra have the fourth worst xG in League Two (and are underachieving at that per their xG vs ActualG figure) and Crewe look like a side that should not be where they are in the table from an attacking perspective. Having the joint 4th-best defence in the division must go some way to counterbalancing their poor offensive record. That will have to be the focus of this week’s prediction from a Crewe perspective.

Crewe Alexandra 2 – 0 Grimsby Town


Crewe Alexandra 0 – 1 Port Vale


Bradford City:
If the Accrington Stanley 0-0 was a dour, toothless performance, the offering at Port Vale felt like it was even worse. True, City had more of the ball and more efforts on goal (although it would have been impossible to best the ‘0’ shots on target City managed at Stanley), but when you are out-worked, out-fought and out-played by a promotion rival, the last thing you need is your captain piling on the misery by missing a late penalty and condemning you to your 4th goalless effort in 5 games.

Demoralising? Not half.

The truth is, that was such an important game, yet there was so little for the away fans to shout about. Port Vale had the game effectively sewn up at half time, and while Darren Moore’s side seemed to drop deep a little in the second half, the Bantams didn’t really look like getting back into it until that penalty award for a foul on Calum Kavanagh. City’s away record remains maddeningly short of the other top sides in the division but thank goodness for that all-important home form.

Whatever happens between now and the end of the season, the Bantams surely have top spot in the ‘Home’ league table locked down, but will that be any consolation if City cannot finish top 3? The play offs, after all, consist of a majority of games played away from home soil. What’s more, none of the remaining home games look like bankers. Crewe Alexandra are fiendishly tough to beat this season, while Notts County gave the Bantams a pasting at Meadow Lane in late December. Fleetwood Town seem to have hit a good patch of form in away games, too, and the less said of City’s chances away at Chesterfield and Doncaster Rovers, the better.

But this isn’t the time to give up. Indeed resting on their laurels went out the window at least a couple of games ago, so this is the time for an all-out assault on the final 6 games of the season, starting with Crewe Alexandra at home. The Bantams must win, and they must put on another irresistible display in front of another bumper crowd. Neither Cheltenham Town or Colchester United could come close to competing with this Bradford City side in recent home games, and even big guns like Walsall and Grimsby Town have been brushed aside here.

Can City do it again on Saturday?

Port Vale 2 – 0 Bradford City


Accrington Stanley 0 – 0 Bradford City


Prediction:
For legitimate promotion contenders, Crewe Alexandra’s attacking statistics are nothing short of shocking. A club that has fired blanks in 12 separate league games, one has to say, manager Lee Bell has worked wonders with such limited firepower. Crewe Alexandra have been hard to beat all season, losing just 9 league games in total (just 4 defeats away from home), but inevitably drawing far too many to be considered legitimate automatic promotion material. The fact that Crewe have drawn 16 and won 1 fewer with 15 victories speaks volumes.

That said, the Crewe Alexandra side heading to Valley Parade this Saturday could scarcely be more battle-hardened. As mentioned in the ‘Crewe Alexandra’ section, their last 4 opponents have all been top 7 sides, with just 1 defeat in that excruciatingly tough-looking spell. They are as apt to get at least a point no matter where they go, or who they play.

Except, maybe, against Bradford City at Valley Parade?

Graham Alexander has turned the University of Bradford Stadium into a veritable fortress, and while Tranmere Rovers sprang a surprise here a couple of weeks ago, the record was quickly put straight against on-form Colchester United to the tune of a 4-1 win. Expecting endless repeats of those performances seems like folly, however, especially given how unsettled the starting line up has begun to look of late as Graham desperately seeks a consistent winning formula for both home and away ties.

Do not come into this game expecting an easy win. Crewe Alexandra are anything but a soft touch. But do give Bradford City credit for what they have achieved and the records they have set at the University of Bradford Stadium.

I certainly will.

The pick will be a 2-1 victory that might be far too close for comfort at times. City will (hopefully) get themselves over the line here, in part thanks to Crewe’s poor attacking output. It feels like a game of extremely fine margins, but that might add to the air of relief and satisfaction if City do indeed scrape by here. Here’s hoping!

Final Score:
Bradford City 2 – 1 Crewe Alexandra