Match Preview: Bradford City vs Coventry City

Article by Bradford Correspondent Tim Feather

17/11/13

Kick Off: 3.30pm

Valley Parade

Bradford return home after two weeks on the road in the league and FA Cup and they will want to put a very tough week behind them. Bradford come into this tough league fixture after rolling over at the New York Stadium losing 3-0 against Rotherham. That spelt the end of the Bradford City’s dream of having another cup run this year, but as they say the league is your “bread and butter.”

This is by far going to be an easy game for the Bantams, looking at the league positions is very misleading. Bradford sit in the last playoff position in 6^th and Coventry sit in 11^th despite wiping their ten point deduction for off the field problems. Without that deduction Coventry would be sitting above the Bantams in 4^th. Sky Blues manager told the official Coventry City website “"We will keep moving forward and as long as we do that, we have got a chance. There is no doubt about it, everybody is beginning to get excited.” No doubt that despite all of the protests, despite the fact they don’t have their own stadium at the moment, the mood around the club is looking to a bright future and not letting their club die.

Sunday’s match however is about what happens on the pitch and Coventry certainly have been achieving some fantastic results. They have won four of their past five matches scoring eleven goals. The top two of Callum Wilson and Leon Clarke are two players who could easily play in the Championship, they have eleven goals each, which is the majority of Coventry’s thirty four goals this season. They have a great partnership up front, the two have chipped in with assists of their own, they are on fire at the moment. Behind them you have Franck Moussa, who is one of League One’s top players, he is leading Coventry’s assist table with five. No doubt though Coventry are not as defensively strong as Bradford, they have conceded eight goals more than the Bantams and that must surely give Bradford City some hope that they can get something.

However, Bradford City have a strike force that has had other opposition teams worried. They haven’t been firing on all cylinders recently, James Hanson missing some important chances against Crewe two weeks ago and Nakhi Wells still trying to get up to speed after his ankle injury. Despite this, Bantams’ manager Phil Parkinson believes that Nakhi can finally kick into form on Sunday. He told Sky Sports News, “He's had a couple of games but I really feel Sunday could be a game when he comes alive again.” Bradford City will still be without key defender Andrew Davies who won’t be back until the New Year, and there is also doubt over Rory McArdle. He is away on international duty and he was an un-used substitute in Northern Ireland’s 1-0 defeat to Turkey. He may still be able to make the trip back to West Yorkshire for the game on Sunday but that is yet to be confirmed.

Phil Parkinson is yet to decide his team for Sunday and has admitted he probably won’t name the team to the players until the last minute. It appears the fringe players have answered the gaffer’s call to push harder for a first team place, Parkinson told the official Bradford City Website, "I was really pleased with the reserves at Mansfield this week. Caleb and Andy got the goals and the defenders - Matt Taylor, Luke Oliver and Carl McHugh - all put in really good performances.” Bradford City starlet, Ollie McBurnie is also in the running for a place in this week’s side. The 17 year old came on against Rotherham United last week but didn’t get considerable amount of time prove his worth when he came on with the Bantams already 3-0 down. Parkinson hasn’t decided who will be the two wingers on Sunday, Mark Yeates, Kyel Reid, Raffaele De Vita and Garry Thompson, all pushing for a place. Parkinson desires competition in the team again and there is no denying that is what he is aiming to do.

It is going to be a very tough game for both sides, neither side are a push over but will be definitely an entertaining fixture. The match will be shown on Sky Sports 1 on Sunday from 3.00pm.