The Voice - Match preview Northampton Town vs Bradford City Saturday 29 April 2023 @ 3:00pm

League Two Fixture #44

Saturday 29th April 2023 15:00
Northampton Town (2nd) vs Bradford City (7th)
Sixfields Stadium

Most Recent Results:

1: Crawley Town 0 – 0 Bradford City
2: Bradford City 3 – 1 Sutton United
3: Rochdale 0 – 3 Bradford City
4: Swindon Town 1 – 0 Bradford City
5: Bradford City 2 – 2 Gillingham

Form: DLWWD

1: Newport County 3 – 0 Northampton Town
2: Northampton Town 2 – 1 Gillingham
3: Carlisle United 0 – 0 Northampton Town
4: Sutton United 1 – 2 Northampton Town
5: Northampton Town 3 – 1 Harrogate Town

Form: WWDWL

Head-to-Head Results:

Head-to-Head Form: LDDWL

13 Jan 2018: Bradford City 1 – 2 Northampton Town
07 Sep 2019: Bradford City 2 – 1 Northampton Town
20 Nov 2021: Bradford City 1 – 1 Northampton Town
09 Apr 2022: Northampton Town 0 – 0 Bradford City
19 Nov 2022: Bradford City 1 – 3 Northampton Town

Head-to-Head Results (All Time):

Won: 22
Drawn: 7
Lost: 8

Biggest Margin of Victory:

17 Feb 1974: Northampton Town 3 – 0 Bradford City
18 May 2013: Bradford City 3 – 0 Northampton Town

For Better or Worse:
First Half of the Season vs Second Half of the Season Analysis

Sutton United: WIN followed by WIN
Rochdale: DEFEAT followed by WIN
Swindon Town: DRAW followed by DEFEAT
Gillingham: WIN followed by DRAW:

Results so far: The second half of the season has seen an improvement of 1 point



Northampton Town 2022/23:
One more win will see Northampton Town promoted after a successful season under Jon Brady

The rallying call from Kieron Bowie yesterday: 'Get the job done' by clinching promotion to League One with a game to spare.

In their way stand Bradford City, a team Northampton swept aside in November with a convincing 3-1 win at Valley Parade. 21 goal hitman Sam Hoskins will be keen to celebrate his League Two Player of the Season award picked up at the expense of City's own Andy Cook, but the good news for The Cobblers is that even their talismanic attacking midfielder is currently being outshone in the form stakes by on-song frontman Louis Appere.

With 4 goals in his last 8 appearances, when Appere scores, Northampton Town usually win. While, overall, Appere's haul of 8 league goals in total this season is not massively impressive, the fact that Northampton Town have won 7 times and drawn just 1 of those 8 league games is spectacular – and a dark omen for a suddenly rather desperate-looking Bradford City.

Another miserable portent is Appere's streak of scoring, then not scoring, then scoring again in successive matches. Appear drew a blank on Saturday in a 3-1 win over Harrogate Town: if he can continue his recent form, that means he's due a goal on Saturday!

Of course, life is never quite that straight forward, and Northampton Town will know that despite their recent ruthless streak that has seen them knocking on the door of automatic promotion as runner's up, there is a lot of hard work yet to be done. Bradford City will be their second-to-last game of the season; if they win, they are up. If they lose, they must travel to Tranmere Rovers potentially needed one last victory.

For the sake of breathing space, then, they must replicate their performance from October on home soil – and The Cobblers are extremely tough to beat at home. The third best home side in League Two this season (some way behind Leyton Orient and Stevenage, it should be noted), Northampton have won 12, drawn 6, and lost just 4 at the Sixfields. That's superior to even Bradford City's much vaunted away performance this season, and it's not difficult to see why given Northampton have rattled in 30 goals at home compared to just 18 conceded.

Stylistically, Jon Brady's Northampton Town are not a side that dither on the ball. It's not at all uncommon for Town to see far less of their ball than their opponents, yet still blow them away in terms of the final score. Harrogate Town, for example, travelled to the Sixfields and saw nigh-on 60 % of possession; it did them few favours, however, as they came away with a 3-1 drubbing (having led in the 3rd minute, it should be added).

Even in the 3-1 win at Valley Parade, Northampton Town needed less than 43 % possession to out-score, out-strike, out-muscle, and out-pace Mark Hughes' men. Stylistically, Northampton Town might just be a nightmare side for Bradford City. Ruthless, clinical, and oh-so efficient, The Cobblers have a great goalscorer in their midst – but don't rely too heavily upon him.

That, ultimately, could prove the biggest difference between the 2 sides this season (and on the day).

Bradford City 2022/23:
From having the automatic promotion places within their grasp, Bradford City's hopes of a top 3 finish lie in tatters

Results have not gone Bradford City's way lately. The last two game days (when Bradford City played), virtually all of their promotion rivals either won or picked up a valuable point against another rival. Tonight (Tuesday 25th April), Stevenage won to effectively consign The Bantams to a play offs-or-bust finish – and although Mansfield Town were defeated in a crunch tie against League Two Champions Leyton Orient, doing City a favour, Bradford City are left with a nightmarishly tough run in that perhaps puts them as underdogs to actually clinch even a play off place.

Bradford City could not afford the defeat at Swindon Town; but worse, the last gasp equaliser at the hands of Gillingham on Saturday really turned a very promising situation into a rather desperate one.

Bradford City must pick up at least 1 win from their next 3 fixtures: but none of them look massively easy, and even then, 1 win still might not be enough.

Northampton Town look to have the perfect set up to counter a modern, possession-based style such as Bradford City under Mark Hughes. They proved it at Valley Parade this season, and have proved it against several other teams as well. Crewe Alexandra haven't lost since February at home, and have picked up 13 points from their last 5 games at Gresty Road. And Leyton Orient? Still not doing teams any favours, a bizarre 13-minute spell at Gillingham aside.

Perhaps it is having all their goalscoring 'eggs' in one basket that has been the ultimate failure for Bradford City this season? One thing is for sure: whether The Bantams are in League One or League Two next season, there must be far fewer passengers in terms of attacking threat, and far more people looking to get themselves on to the scoresheet regularly. Even with Andy Cook netting an astonishing 29 goals, the wheels have still very nearly come off for The Bantams.

If City cannot win at Northampton, and that in itself is a mighty tall order, where do they win?

Highlights:

Bradford City 2 - 2 Gillingham



Northampton Town 3 - 1 Harrogate Town



Bradford City 1 - 3 Northampton Town



Outlook:

Anything can happen in a 90 minute game of football.

Nothing is ever pre-ordained ahead of kick off.

Every side's fate is in their own hands at the start of a game.

These are the key hopes to which Bradford City fans must now cling, as their side look forward to 3 successive Herculean-scale trials. Perhaps the fact that the Sixfields has been a happy hunting ground for Bradford City throughout history, and that Bradford City have routinely dominated their Cambridgeshire opposition, are more positive omens than the ones we've seen this season.

Perhaps, also, the fact that Bradford City can boast a comprehensive 3-0 win over Northampton Town in that all-important play off final fixture in 2013 shows City really can turn it on when it matters.

If, for some reason, Swindon Town and Gillingham weren't the games that really really mattered, then this one certainly is – lose here, and all hope of promotion could quickly fade away (results pending, at least). Are the players up for the fight? Are they big enough in terms of character to get the job done? Are they good enough?

Northampton Town will approach this game with fantastic morale. Their confidence will be soaring after back-to-back wins, no defeats in 4, and an easy win over City late last year. Their incentive could not be bigger; win, and they are a League One side next season. Their approach, unchanged: play the same way they have done all season, and they should be capable of unlocking the Bradford City defence without seeing unnecessary amounts of possession.

But if these players, the current Bradford City squad, deserve to be in League One themselves, they will need to put in one heck of a performance, overcome all the odds, and leave Northampton Town in need of a final-day win themselves. It won't be easy... but it's time for these players to either prove themselves as heroes, or the squad that wasted the best chance of promotion this club has had in several seasons.

Odds:

6/4: Northampton Town
11/5: Draw
15/8: Bradford City

Predicted Outcome (THE VOICE):

Northampton Town 3 – 1 Bradford City (Head)
Northampton Town 1 – 2 Bradford City (Heart)