The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Crewe Alexandra Saturday 27 August @ 3:00pm

League Two Fixture #6
Saturday 27th August 15:00
Bradford City vs Crewe Alexandra
Valley Parade (AKA University of Bradford Stadium)

Most Recent Results:

1: Bradford City 0 – 0 Doncaster
2: Barrow 3 – 2 Bradford City
3: Bradford City 2 – 0 Newport County
4: Colchester United 1 – 0 Bradford City
5: Hartlepool United 1 – 3 Bradford City

1: Rochdale 1 – 2 Crewe Alexandra
2: Crewe Alexandra 3 – 0 Harrogate Town
3: Salford City 3 – 0 Crewe Alexandra
4: Crewe Alexandra 1 – 0 Sutton United
5: Crewe Alexandra 2 – 2 Northampton Town

Head-to-Head Results:

Head-to-Head Form: LWWWW

05 Oct 2010: Hartlepool United (McSweeney 69) 1 – 0 Bradford City [Johnstone's Paint Trophy]

04 Oct 2014: Bradford City (McLean 72, Liddle 74) 2 – 0 Crewe Alexandra [League One]
03 May 2015: Crewe Alexandra 0 – 1 (B. Clarke 23) Bradford City [League One]
14 Nov 2015: Bradford City (Liddle 45+2, B. Clarke 58) 2 – 0 Crewe Alexandra [League One]
28 Mar 2016: Crewe Alexandra 0 – 1 (Proctor 50) Bradford City [League One]
31 Aug 2019: Crewe Alexandra (Kirk 42, Lowery 60) 2 – 1 (Vaughan 32) Bradford City [League Two]

Head-to-Head Results (All Time):

Won: 43
Drawn: 19
Lost: 36

Biggest Margin of Victory:

15 Sep 1965: Crewe Alexandra 7 – 1 Bradford City [League Division Four]
28 Apr 1979: Bradford City 6 – 0 Crewe Alexandra [League Division Four]

Spoiler: Historic Results Analysis

Bradford City not only sport the superior record for all-time head-to-head results against Crewe Alexandra, but in more recent years Bradford City have continued to enjoy playing their opponents from Cheshire.

With 4 wins from the past 5 meetings, Bradford City have been dependable against the Railwaymen. Last time out, however, Crewe Alexandra stopped the rot with a 2-1 home victory in the curtailed 19/20 season – Crewe would finished 2nd in the table after only 37 games that year, while Bradford City missed out on the League Two play offs by 4 points. They did not meet in the return fixture due to restrictions arising as a result of the Covid pandemic.

Crewe Alexandra 2021/22:

2021/22 was not kind to Crewe Alexandra, who finished rock bottom of the League One table, 8 points adrift of second bottom AFC Wimbledon. This means that Crewe Alexandra will be the second newly relegated team Bradford City have faced in their opening six fixtures.

Last season, Crewe not only finished bottom of the table, but were joint lowest scorers with Doncaster Rovers, netting just 37. They conceded one more goal than Doncaster, as they finished up having the second worst defence in the division – only relegation survivors Morecambe conceded more than Crewe Alexandra's tally of 83.

Crewe Alexandra's dreadful 21/22 campaign is low-lighted by a run of 15 defeats from 16 games, and just 2 wins from their final 20 fixtures.

Nonetheless, striker Chris Long did manage to net double figures worth of goals in League Two, notching 10, with Mikael Mandron (7) and Chris Porter (6) coming closest to matching his output.

Manager David Artell departed the club on April 11, two days after the club was consigned to relegation. He was replaced with Alex Morris.



Crewe Alexandra 2022/23:

Alex Morris may be an unfamiliar name to Bradford City fans. Despite being on Crewe's books as a youngster, Morris never made a senior appearance in professional football – instead, injuries forced Morris into early retirement, where he would pursue a coaching career with his boyhood club.

After initially taking over as caretaker manager, Morris was installed permanently on 28 April. Since then, Morris has assembled a new-look team including Courtney Baker-Richardson, who has had a red hot start with 4 goals across 2 starts and 3 substitute appearances including a brace this weekend against Northampton Town. The striker is already half way to matching last season's personal best tally of 8 goals.

Other signings that have contributed to Crewe Alexandra's productive start including defensive midfielder Conor Thomas (a free transfer from Cheltenham Town), former Bradford City man Kelvin Mellor (a free transfer from Carlisle United), and loanees Arthur Okonkwo (GK, Arsenal) and Lachlan Brook (RW, Brentford).

Centre forward Dan Agyei has netted twice for Crewe so far, while Lachlan Brook and Kelvin Mellor have both found the net once each.

This season, Crewe have surrendered possession in all but one of their league fixtures this season, when they were able to match Sutton United with a perfect 50-50. Against Salford City, however, they surrendered 75 % of the possession en route to a 3-0 drubbing. This past weekend, they saw just 37 % of the ball in a 2-2 draw against Northampton at home, with Baker-Richardson rescuing a point in a game dominated by the visitors.

Spoiler: Crewe Alexandra Statistics

Aside from the goal threat of Courtney Baker-Richardson, who like Andy Cook has had to win his starting berth having started the season on the bench, Crewe Alexandra also pose a threat from midfield. While Australian winger Lachlan Brook has yet to open his account, he was the main goal threat in the recent Sutton United game. The Brentford loanee will look to go one better at Valley Parade.

22 year old centre back Luke Offord, a product of the Crewe Alexandra Academy, is one of Crewe Alexandra's best offerings in terms of statistics, frequently topping the passing and tackling charts – although Crewe Alexandra have a much lower pass completion percentages compared to Bradford City this season.

Up front, Agyei and Baker-Richardson will look to continue establishing a fruitful relationship, with the latter having forced into more consistent action following the red card issued to German striker Sambou Bassala against Salford City. Bassala will remain suspended against Bradford City.

Bradford City 2022/23:

Bradford City posted their second league victory of the campaign against Hartlepool United last time out, and Andy Cook was the star once again with two well-taken goals. Cook now takes his tally to 5 goals in all competitions, despite making just 3 starts. His absence from the starting line up against Colchester United was notable, as Bradford City fired only their second blank of the season. The other came in the opening fixture against Doncaster Rovers, when once again Andy Cook found himself on the bench.

One unlikely statistic to come out of the Hartlepool United away game was that Bradford City enjoyed only 49 % of possession – a rare instance under manager Mark Hughes when Bradford City saw less of the ball and completed fewer passes, with Hartlepool out-passing City 328-300. Nonetheless, Bradford City fans will be delighted by their sides clinical efficiency in front of goal, netting 3 times from 8 attempts – whilst limiting Hartlepool to just 4 attempts on goal.

If Bradford City can show similar efficiency against Crewe Alexandra, the Cheshire side will have their work cut out for them.

Intriguingly, the Hartlepool United game marked the first time that Romoney Crichlow failed to dominate the statistics, with Richard Smallwood making the most total passes, most passes completed, and most tackles won. Matthew Platt completed most ball steals with an impressive 6, although Crichlow out-performed his fellow centre back in terms of passing completion – boasting a 93 % success rate, compared to Platt's season low of 78 %.

It was the substitutes that made the biggest impact for Bradford City in terms of goal threat, with Kian Harratt and Yann Songo'o each gaining an assist – despite Songo'o not coming on until the 88th minute and making only 2 passes in total!

Winger-Forward Lee Angol may have some work to do on his temperament – for the second game running, Angol was both the most fouled player as well as committing the most fouls himself.



Outlook:

Bradford City will look forward to testing themselves against a club that appear to have recovered well from their dismal relegation season last term. Both teams are scoring regularly, and both boast goalscorers in the division's top 6. Baker-Richardson is the joint third highest goalscorer with 4, while Cook is joint sixth with 3 – though Cook added a brace against Hull City in the League Cup.

Ominously for Bradford City, Courtney Baker-Richardson's 100 % shot accuracy and 80 % goal conversion statistics are the second best in the division – with Andy Cook on 83 % shot accuracy, and 50 % goal conversion. Despite this, Cook has a similar goals-to-minutes ratio, though again Baker-Richardson is ahead on a goal every 67 minutes compared to Cook's goal every 72 minutes.

Victory at Valley Parade for Crewe Alexandra would mark only their second away win of the season – the Railwaymen have been significantly better at home. While they defeated rock bottom Rochdale away in the opening game of the season, Crewe suffered back-to-back heavy defeats on their travels at Grimsby Town (4-0) and Salford City (3-0) in mid-August – the drubbing at Grimsby Town coming in the EFL Cup.

This will give Bradford City hope of continuing their undefeated start to the season at Valley Parade, although this will be tested when Blackburn Rovers visit the University of Bradford Stadium on Tuesday August 23rd in the EFL Cup. Crewe Alexandra will not have a fixture after being eliminated from the competition in Round One, thus affording them more time to prepare for Saturday's fixture. Despite this, the bookies have installed Bradford City as odds-on favourites for the game.


Odds:

19/20: Bradford City
11/5: Draw
27/10: Crewe Alexandra

Predicted Outcome (Sportsmole):

Bradford City 1 – 0 Crewe Alexandra