The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Mansfield Town Saturday 16th March 2024 3:00pm

EFL LEAGUE TWO FIXTURE #37

Saturday 16th March 2024 15:00
Bradford City (13th) vs Mansfield Town (1st)
University of Bradford Stadium (AKA Valley Parade)

23/24 Results:

Head-to-Head Form: DDWLW (most recent result first)

Won: 28
Drawn: 19
Lost: 24

Current League Form:

Bradford City: LWDWW
Mansfield Town: LWLWW

MANSFIELD TOWN

Top of the table Mansfield Town head to Valley Parade on slightly stuttering form with 2 defeats from their last 3 games. Tuesday evening’s defeat at Tranmere Rovers might be one of The Stags’ most surprising losses of the season, but Mansfield Town have shown they are more than capable of putting in quality performances even in the face of an upset defeat.

Take Mansfield Town’s 2-1 defeat at Walsall on the 17th February, for example. The 2 results directly preceding the defeat at the Bescot were 4-0 and 9-2 wins over Forest Green Rovers and Harrogate Town respectively. The result in the immediate aftermath of that defeat in the Midlands was a similar whitewash-level performance with a 5-1 demolition of Salford City. The defeat to Walsall, then, will sit in isolation and has made little difference to Mansfield Town’s march towards promotion.

Defeat against MK Dons followed by another defeat a couple of games later against Tranmere Rovers, though, is a little bit more concerning. A narrow 3-2 win over Swindon Town sandwiched in the middle is not as convincing as it might have been, though Mansfield Town have had little spells here and there where they haven’t quite maintained the levels they have come to expect under Nigel Clough.

4 games without a win is as bad as it’s got this season, though, and has only happened once in the league – when they managed just 2 draws and 2 defeats from a particularly rough patch in January. Bradford City will hope to put The Stags back under pressure as they compete for that top spot under pressure from Stockport County (2 points behind with a game in hand) and Wrexham (2 points behind), as well as Crewe Alexandra and MK Dons a full 5 points behind in 4th and 5th place respectively.

Stockport County, for their part, failed to beat Salford City on Thursday night, perhaps easing a little bit of that pressure on Clough and his players on Saturday afternoon. A 2-2 draw in the Greater Manchester derby as none of the top 6 sides are enjoying particularly good form. That will be a boost for Graham Alexander’s men, who had enjoyed good form until a shock 2-0 defeat at home to resurgent Forest Green Rovers on Tuesday night saw them booed off the pitch at full time.

For Nigel Clough, though, there’s no reason to panic. Chalking Tuesday’s defeat to Tranmere up to bad luck (in particular, a deflected winner from Tranmere’s Rob Apter), much like the 2-1 defeat to MK Dons 7 days prior (Matthew Dennis supplied the deflected winner on that occasion), Clough feels his side’s luck will change and they will continue to grind out wins. For a club that has won more than 50% of their league games this campaign, that’s not something that can be ruled out easily.

Mansfield Town’s stand out player up front has been Davis Keillor-Dunn (18), a proven goalscorer at this level, with Lucas Akins (11), midfielder George Maris (9), and Will Swan (8) next in line. Aside from Maris chipping in with near-double figures worth of goals from central midfield, Will Swan’s tally is also particularly impressive considering he has made just 11 league starts this season, plus a further 17 from the bench. Centre back Baily Cargill (4) and Hiram Boateng (4) have also added goals, again, Boateng most often featuring as a substitute. That shows that Mansfield Town haven’t just assembled a quality 11 with goals throughout the team, they also have real strength in depth and players that can make a difference off the bench – though it should be noted Hiram did score 3 of his 4 league goals in the 9-2 demolition of Harrogate Town in a rare start.

In January, Mansfield Town allowed 0 players to depart, bringing in only Tom Nichols from Gillingham for an undisclosed fee. That shows the level of confidence Nigel Clough had in his Stags’ squad, with Nichols coming in to challenge for a position rather than walk straight into the first team and try to change things completely.

That’s something Bradford City don’t seem to have managed in quite a few seasons, now, which perhaps shows how inconsistent the approach has been from those in the boardroom and the managers along the way.



Tranmere Rovers 2 – 1 Mansfield Town

BRADFORD CITY

Tuesday night’s 2-0 defeat to Forest Green Rovers left Graham Alexander in shock, the City gaffer admitting he hadn’t seen that coming. After 4 wins and 2 draws in their previous 6 league games, he can perhaps be forgiven for that – but there were signs Forest Green under Steve Cotterill weren’t to be underestimated. They have now climbed out of the relegation zone at the expense of Danny Cowley’s Colchester United, though Colchester are the only side to have played as few as 35 games at this point of the season.

Cotterill must get plaudits for the job he is doing, though, and they were ahead in the first minute at Valley Parade. A previously watertight defence was breached by the first attack and corner of the game, Christian Doidge heading his side into an early lead. Having your backs against the wall for all of 90 minutes can be a gruelling task and a tough watch for fans, but Forest Green were able to gut it out, and – in the last minute – they put the game to bed when a tired challenge from Ciaran Kelly caught the trailing leg of Charlie McCann absolutely nowhere near the ball, and Doidge duly stepped up to convert from the spot.

Frustration, then, for a Bradford City fanbase yet again let down on home soil just as expectations had begun to peak. It was a similar story last season under Mark Hughes, albeit under Hughes the problem was getting into the automatic promotion spots rather than the play offs. If Bradford City fans were irked last season, they are probably even more tired of their side throwing away chances to gain wins at key times in the season.

Not that any of that is Graham Alexander’s fault, necessarily. While Bradford City didn’t have the mental toughness to win last season when the pressure was on, it’s hard to say that the pressure has been anything like as high this campaign. Even though Graham Alexander has now managed to draw 2 separate 6-game spells of good form out of his players, it’s hardly been a case that anyone at Valley Parade should be getting nosebleeds due to the league table. City have barely been in the top half all season, and it’s probably more a case of a lack of real consistency and a lack of legitimate goal threat that has cost the Bantams.

A 3-0 win over Accrington Stanley might have exaggerated the sense that City were on to something. Stanley’s youthful back line was cannon fodder in a first half were Andy Cook and Tyreik Wright put them to the sword with ease, but few such chances presented themselves against a gritty and dogged Forest Green backline. Richie Smallwood bemoaned the state of a truly dreadful Valley Parade pitch surface, but that’s just not what Bradford City fans are going to want to hear about at this stage of the season. It was no better for Forest Green and will be no different for Mansfield come Saturday afternoon.

Players like Smallwood and Cook will need to stand up and be counted, as will City’s other attacking players. That nobody but Cook has shown anything close to consistent goalscoring form is a major issue that must be addressed in the Summer, no matter where City end up in the league table. Calum Kavanagh and Tyreik Wright are both January imports and have shown little hints at their ability, but it’s been too little, too often from the likes of Tyler Smith, Clark Oduor, Harry Chapman, and a bevvy of other players who have been in and out of a side that has fielded no fewer than 30 different players in the first team this season.



Bradford City 0 – 2 Forest Green Rovers

 

THE BREAKDOWN

21/10: Bradford City
9/4: Draw
11/8: Mansfield Town

The worry for City fans is that another 6-game spell of good form under Graham Alexander will now be succeeded by an equally prolonged spell of poor form. Bradford City must show that they are not so predictable as that, but it won’t be easy to follow a defeat against strugglers Forest Green Rovers with a win over table-toppers Mansfield Town – a draw or a defeat here, and the worry will be that the Bantams embark on something akin to the 7-game run without a win that haunted them throughout late December and most of January.

Another one of those spells and the season is over. No ifs or buts, it’s over.

Bradford City must likely need 6 or 7 wins from their final 10 league games, particularly given that there are sides ahead of them on better form. Walsall, AFC Wimbledon and Crawley Town have been on decent form lately, and the Bantams don’t look to be making up much ground on anyone in the top 6, either. Realistically, it’s a tall order for Alexander and his players, but such situations are what footballing fairytales are based on, and nobody should be giving up until it’s mathematically impossible.

On to Saturday afternoon’s game. Bradford City come in on better form than Mansfield Town over the past 6 games, though there’s only a point in it. That will be cause for optimism, as well the 4-0 demolition doled out to a hapless MK Dons – a side looking very likely to cement a play off place – which followed a 1-0 win at Wrexham.

That brings us on to a key point. Bradford City’s record against the top 5 is pretty good this season.

4 points from 2nd place Wrexham, 2 from 3rd place Stockport County, 3 from 4th place Crewe Alexandra, 3 from 5th place MK Dons, and a draw in their early season trip to Mansfield Town combine to mean City have lost just 2 games out of 9 against the 5 best performing sides in League Two. Their overall record is 3 wins, 4 draws, and 2 defeats. Not bad at all, and certainly not the reason why the Bantams are having such a mediocre season.

It's hard, then, to declare Mansfield Town huge favourites. Likely winners, yes, but if City’s results are anything to go by, a draw is the most likely outcome on Saturday afternoon. That might not be good enough to boost City’s promotion chances much, but it’s unlikely the Valley Parade faithful would walk out unhappy if that was the ultimate outcome – and that’s something Graham Alexander has turned his attention to.

With home form coming under increasing scrutiny, Graham Alexander is actively looking for answers as to why the club may have underperformed on home soil for multiple seasons. Whether he can come up with a solution remains to be seen, but recent soundbites in the media suggests Alexander is aware of the long-term suffering of home fans and wants to do something about it. He is unlikely to tolerate a limp performance on Saturday afternoon and will look for all of his players to make an impact and win their individual battles.

Can he inspire a shock win, and increase the fraying of nerves at Field Mill?

That remains to be seen. But the pick will be a 1-1 draw, and hopefully that will be seen as something to build on rather than just another home game without a win, considering where Mansfield Town are in the table.

PREDICTION:

Bradford City 1 – 1 Mansfield Town