The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Tranmere Rovers Friday 29th March 2024 15:00

EFL LEAGUE TWO FIXTURE #40

Friday 29th March 2024 15:00
Bradford City (17th) vs Tranmere Rovers (15th)
University of Bradford Stadium (AKA Valley Parade)

22/23 & 23/24 Results:

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

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

Won: 33
Drawn: 20
Lost: 28

Current League Form:

Bradford City: LLLLW
Tranmere Rovers: LWWDW

TRANMERE ROVERS

On November 6 2023, Tranmere Rovers sat joint bottom alongside Sutton United, both on just 10 points from 16 games. Both sides had failed to pick up a single point away from home, Tranmere Rovers enduring 8 league defeats in 8 attempts on the road. At home, it was only slightly better: 3 wins, 1 draw, 4 defeats representing serious struggles regardless of where they played.

1 of the few teams Tranmere Rovers defeated during that horrendous run of 12 league defeats in 16 games was Bradford City. It was a poor, poor defeat for City, and reflected very badly indeed on Mark Hughes, who was struggling to get his play off semi-finalists going again for the new season.

For Tranmere Rovers, it was a crucial win as Nigel Adkins toiled away in an attempt to turn the club around after his appointment on an interim basis. In truth, that win over Bradford City was just 1 of 2 wins across 9 games in temporary charge before Tranmere gave him the job on a permanent basis. After that bold move (the kind of backing few managers seem to receive at Valley Parade), things started to come together for The Rovers.

Adkins rewarded the Birkenhead outfit with much improved form that began almost immediately after this permanent appointment. 7 wins in 10 games breathed new life into Tranmere Rovers, their unlikely ascension up the table seeing them steamroll teams like Salford City (5-1) and Notts County (4-2). Though patchy form dogged Tranmere Rovers throughout most of January and February, Tranmere have now staved off their relegation worries and overtaken Bradford City in the table to boot.

Not bad considering they had half the number of points City had accrued at the start of November…

From relegation fodder, then, to a lower midtable standing together with ambitions for a top half finish, Tranmere Rovers under Nigel Adkins have pulled together and fought through adversity. Their dismal away record remains one of the worst in the league, but starting off with 8 straight defeats will make it hard for anyone. Tranmere Rovers can now claim a record of 4 wins, 3 draws and 13 defeats away from Prenton Park, as well as the 8th best record at home. While they won’t be winning any prizes for form on their travels, they recently beat Wrexham at the Racecourse Ground 1-0, an excellent result that followed a 1-1 draw at Gillingham, meaning they come into Good Friday’s tie Valley Parade on a 2-game unbeaten run away from home.

Saturday afternoon’s 3-1 home defeat to Crawley Town showed they remain some way short of the quality possessed by the play off chasing pack, but they will certainly have designs on piling on further misery at a dejected and desolate Valley Parade.

Tranmere Rovers will look to top scorer Connor Jennings (11), winger Rob Apter (9), midfielder Kieron Morris (8), and super sub Josh Hawkes (6) for their goal threat, with Regan Hendry (4) another player to have scored more than 3 league goals this time. Luke Norris, dogged by a long term foot injury, appears to have put fitness issues behind him as well and happens to have netted both of Tranmere’s goals against Crawley Town and Wrexham in successive games, suggesting he will be a major threat to the Bradford City backline despite his overall tally of just 3 league goals (coupled with 2 cup goals earlier in the season).

That said, Tranmere Rovers aren’t a free scoring side. The Rovers have scored 7 goals in 7 games since they sprang a major upset by thumping Stockport County 4-0 at home in February, conceding 9 in that same period. There’s nothing there to really write home about, but 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat in their last 5 has them on very commendable form – something their opponents on Friday afternoon cannot claim right now.



Tranmere Rovers 1 – 3 Crawley Town

BRADFORD CITY

Bradford City face serious issues off the field, with protests planned alongside season ticket boycotts, but on the pitch, things look even worse. 4 straight defeats represent a run of form that would be a cause for concern at any point, but the manner of those defeats has been nothing short of embarrassing.

A 2-0 home loss against lowly Forest Green Rovers came as a hammer blow to the hopes of the long-suffering support base, but the 5-1 mauling at the hands of Mansfield Town that followed was sufficient to see Bantams fans leave in their droves at half time. Since then, there have been no positive signs, no green shoots of recovery. Nothing at all to inspire any confidence.

Struggling Notts County came to Valley Parade on dreadful form themselves yet cruised to an easy 3-0 win. Harrogate Town, with no wins in 8, then did the same at the EnviroVent Stadium – another 3-0 hammering for City that belied both the league table and the form table, at least until now. But with 4 straight defeats, all of them a major worry, the form table seems to match the outlook for a beleaguered, hapless Bradford City side that appear to have thrown in the towel.

That Bradford City come into this game against a more on-song Tranmere Rovers side as even money favourites feels like a bad joke. But then form is temporary, right? A side can’t simply get hammered every single game ad infinitum – can they?

Sooner or later Graham Alexander’s men have to end this run of deeply depressing form, whether it’s with a dour 0-0 or a complete turn around on the scoreboard. Will that turnaround start on Friday afternoon, the same day the first real protests against the club’s hierarchy are planned to take place?

Perhaps.

One thing is for sure, though, there will be little point in dissecting the pathetic performances doled out lately, as they will only point to one thing: another hammering at home. This one, this particular performance, has to come against the run of play, a reaction, a refusal to continue to put in garbage displays. Do the City team have it in them? And can Graham Alexander inspire them against a backdrop of doom and gloom the likes has rarely been seen at Valley Parade in recent decades?



Harrogate Town 3 – 0 Bradford City

THE BREAKDOWN

Evs: Bradford City
5/2: Draw
12/5: Tranmere Rovers

Any pessimistic Bradford City fan is going to look at the odds for an away win as free money, but football doesn’t work like that. Rarely does a club perpetuate form endlessly, whether that form is great or disastrous, unless they just happen to be completely out of their depth in a league they’re not suited for. That isn’t the case with Bradford City. They are a League Two side through-and-through at this moment in time, filled with League Two quality, and led by a League Two manager. They are badly underachieving and have put in some of the worst displays in recent decades, and yes, the players should be professionally embarrassed – but again, form does not last forever.

That is the kind of thinking that is required here. Tranmere Rovers should be considerable favourites for this game. The idea of them easily turning City over like so many teams have done lately feels almost inevitable – but it’s not.

Graham Alexander seems to have equipped his side with a tendency to enjoy stretches of decent form, then stretches of poor form, but in both cases we have seen the club come out the other side and turn things around. This is what is needed on Good Friday.

Jonathan Tomkinson is back from the States and will surely take his place in a back line that has consisted mostly of out-of-position full backs lately. Calum Kavanagh will also return from international duty and could well relieve a very out-of-sorts Tyreik Wright of his starting berth. Perhaps Graham Alexander will be able to field a 5-2-3 consisting of players that actually fit into that formation, and perhaps that will be just the tonic.

Perhaps.

With little confidence, the pick here will be a 1-1 draw. Nothing that will turn around the feelings surrounding the club right now, but enough to end a truly horrendous run of form that should personally shame every single player in connection with Bradford City Football Club.

PREDICTION:

Bradford City 1 – 1 Tranmere Rovers