Match Preview Bradford (H)

Another win in a run of eight unbeaten following Tuesday’s win at Barrow as we head into our home fixture against Bradford City. You can find all of the key information regarding the game, below.

Fixture: Port Vale vs Bradford City

Competition: Sky Bet League Two

Date: Saturday 24th April

Kick-Off: 3:00 pm

Venue: Vale Park

Referee: Benjamin Speedie

 

Port Vale

Manager: Darrell Clarke

Form: WWWDW

Top Goal Scorer: Devante Rodney (11 goals)

Five consecutive clean sheets have made the Vale’s defence look impenetrable to opposition strikers in this run of games.

Tom Conlon is in fine form after scoring a brace against Barrow on Tuesday night and has three games left to try and get into double figures for goals this season, starting tomorrow.

A 0-0 draw in the reverse fixture in December as Vale managed to take a point back to Burslem after a solid defensive display during a poor run of form. Now at the end of April the Vale have been transformed so will be in search of going one better tomorrow afternoon.

A win tomorrow would see us leapfrog tomorrow’s opponents and could see the Valiants in the top half of the table in 11th place if results go the Vale’s way.

"We win together, we lose together as a group and a football club. That togetherness is very important."

Darrell Clarke, Port Vale Manager

Bradford City

Managers: Mark Trueman, Conor Sellars

Form: DWLLL

Top Goal Scorer: Andy Cook (8 goals)

Bradford had a poor start to the season finding themselves in the lower regions of the table before a resurgence in form from the duo of Trueman and Sellars on the touchline.

Bradford sit in 13th, one point above Vale but the Bantams do have a game in hand.

They are most likely out of the playoff race coming into the game with three consecutive defeats so this is a huge game for the visitors to try and narrow the gap.

One to Watch: Paudi O’Connor

The Vale forwards will have a tough task getting past the young central defender who has impressed in his two and a half years at Bradford.

He came in on loan from Limerick in 2019 and impressed manager Gary Bowyer so much he was given the armband for the rest of the season.

He then signed a permanent deal with the Bantams and has been a mainstay in the Bradford defence ever since.

Talk:

Darrell Clarke: “At Bradford they’ve got a massive fan base, they used to be in the Premier League. Their fans don’t expect League One, their fans expect Championship/Premier League football."

Mark Trueman: “Port Vale are a good team, they’re scoring goals. They will look to get the ball into the box as much as possible and use their arieal threats."

Coverage:

iFollow The Vale will be providing full 90-minute coverage of the match for all domestic supporters, whilst the Port Vale Twitter and Facebook feeds will be providing live updates for the entirety.

To purchase an iFollow match pass click here.

There will also be the build-up to the game with the official Snapchat and Instagram accounts: @officialpvfc

Reaction will be available on the website post-match, as well as on YouTube, iFollow and our official social media channels.