Bradford City will welcome Notts County to Valley Parade on Thursday for a crucial contest at the top end of the League Two table.
Having both suffered defeats at the weekend, the hosts sit second but only lead fourth place by two points and their visitors find themselves sixth and three points ahead of the chasing pack in the playoff places.
Match preview
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Bradford City return to Valley Parade on Thursday aiming to bounce back from a setback in the League Two top-three race and take a major step towards automatic promotion.
Looking to make a return to England's third tier at the fifth time of asking, the Bantams currently find themselves second with 73 points on the board from their 42 games, winning 21 and losing 11 of those.
Two of those defeats have come in the last three outings for Graham Alexander's men, though, and four in their last seven games, having fallen in a 2-0 loss away at fellow promotion-chasers Port Vale at the beginning of April before bouncing back and moving top with a 2-0 home victory over Crewe Alexandra last weekend.
The Bantams then visited Swindon Town on Saturday and eventually came away empty-handed from a dramatic contest, having led 2-0, 3-1 and 4-3 through a Calum Kavanagh hat-trick and a Brad Halliday goal, despite an early red card, only for Harry Smith to equalise in the 90th minute and a Jack Shepherd own goal to make the final difference deep into injury time, seeing the hosts snatch all three points.
Having dropped off the summit of the table as a result of that setback, now only leading fourth-placed Doncaster Rovers by a single point with four matches remaining, Bradford City will aim to get their automatic promotion bid back on track with what would be a huge home victory on Thursday.
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Their visitors make the trip to Yorkshire in search of a return to winning ways in their own promotion bid on the back of consecutive defeats.
With four games of their own regular season remaining, Notts County find themselves clinging on in the race for top-three spots in League Two, having previously moved onto 68 points from 40 outings in fourth spot with consecutive wins over Newport County and MK Dons across late March and early April.
The Magpies have been unable to extend that run and return to the automatic promotion spots since, though, going on to suffer an 11th league defeat of the season in a trip to Colchester United, as Tyreece Simpson netted the only goal, before they most recently hosted Salford City last Friday.
A Matty Platt own goal and a Kelly N'Mai finish had the visitors 2-0 up on the hour mark of that game, and despite halving the deficit through David McGoldrick, Stuart Maynard's side were unable to come away with a result as Luke Garbutt made it 3-1 13 minutes from time.
Now sitting sixth in League Two, four points outside of the automatic promotion spots and three above eighth spot, Notts County head to Valley Parade hoping to narrow a five-point gap to the hosts and strengthen their slim hopes of a top-three finish with a 20th league win of the season.
Team News
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Bradford City head into the weekend without key midfielder Richie Smallwood, who is suspended after his early red card last weekend, while Andy Cook and Lewis Richards remain sidelined by long-term injuries.
Having returned from an injury layoff of his own to feature off the bench against Swindon, Antoni Sarcevic could join Alex Pattison in the midfield in Smallwood's absence, while Ciaran Kelly and Callum Johnson will compete for defensive spots.
Calum Kavanagh will continue to lead the attack, having moved onto nine league goals for the season with his hat-trick last time out, making it four in his last two appearances and six in his last five, while Bobby Pointon and Brandon Khela will hope to continue in support despite competition from Tyreik Wright and Michael Mellon.
Notts County continue to contend with several injury issues of their own, with first-choice goalkeeper Alex Bass confined to the treatment room alongside Sam Austin, Scott Robertson and Lucas Ness.
Alasanna Jatta will again spearhead the attack, with his tally of 17 goals this term only topped by one player in League Two this term, while David McGoldrick offers plenty of quality going forward having notched up 16 of his own, taking his tally to 28 since the beginning of the 2023-24 season.
Elsewhere, mainstay Matty Platt will continue at the heart of a back three against the side he joined the Magpies from last summer and will again be joined by Lewis Macari and Jacob Bedeau.
Bradford City possible starting lineup:
Walker; Byrne, Shepherd, Crichlow; Halliday, Pattison, Sarcevic, Adaramola; Mellon, Kavanagh, Pointon
Notts County possible starting lineup:
Slocombe; Macari, Platt, Bedeau; Tsaroulla, Palmer, Hinchy, Jarvis; Whitaker; McGoldrick, Jatta
We say: Bradford City 2-1 Notts County
With both sides boasting an abundance of quality and in desperate need of three points in their promotion bids after recent slips, we can only envisage a tight and hard-fought contest in West Yorkshire on Thursday.
Bradford City have excelled at home this season, with their 51 points in 21 home games being eight more than any other side in the division has managed, and we see that giving Graham Alexander's side a slight edge.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Sam Varley
