Bradford face Doncaster Rovers in a huge Yorkshire derby at opposite ends of the Sky Bet League One table.
Victory by three goals or more will lift Bradford up to fourth for at least a few hours, whilst Doncaster can move out of the relegation zone for at least a few hours with a draw but a win would put them up to 16th if AFC Wimbledon lose elsewhere.
Team News
Bradford have no fresh injury concerns to report after their 3-0 defeat at Lincoln City with Antoni Sarcevic (knock) and Louie Sibley (ankle) expected to return.
Nick Powell (hamstring) and Will Swan (unspecified) remain absent.
Doncaster will be loanee, Neill Byrne because he is ineligible to face his parent club, Bradford.
Ben Close remains absent with a lung injury.
When is Kick-Off?
Bradford host Doncaster at Valley Parade on Saturday 31 January at 12:30pm GMT, live on Sky Sports+ in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Bradford are winless in their last four league meetings against Doncaster (D1, L3).
- Doncaster have avoided defeat in their last four league visits to Bradford (W2, D2).
- Bradford haven’t gone three league games without scoring a goal since a four-match streak between April – August 2021.
- Owen Bailey has scored in both of Doncaster’s last two away games (W1, L1).
Prediction
After stuttering to consecutive defeats without scoring, Bradford simply must reset because their automatic promotion bid now is a difficult task so they ideally need to copy Sunderland’s Championship approach of last season and try to consolidate a play-off place but keep pace with the top-two race.
Doncaster meanwhile seem to have gotten out of their lengthy rut with two wins and draws apiece in their last four matches, whilst their dominant home win over Leyton Orient is the tonic that they need coming into this Yorkshire derby as they continue to fight the drop in an almighty scrap involving several clubs.
Bradford though will view this as the perfect chance to get their promotion challenge back on track but the first goal will be key because if they get ahead, I can see them winning this but if Doncaster can get in front and kick on then this could well be an away win.
On that note, my instinct is that Doncaster should edge this clash.
Prediction: Bradford 0-1 Doncaster
Result: Bradford 1-0 Doncaster
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