Match Preview

Will Walsall Defeat Bradford City? Will We Actually Score A Goal?

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Will this be the weekend we finally get a win or for that matter a goal? The Saddlers have won just one game so far this season and have scored just three goals.

We face fellow relegated side Bradford City who have also started the season inconsistently but find themselves five points clear of the Saddlers.

TEAM NEWS

WALSALL

Apart from Kory Roberts injury we should have a full strength side to choose from. What that side will be is anyone’s guess.

BRADFORD

Bradford will be without former Walsall winger Zeli Ismail after he was sent off last weekend.

Former Saddlers number one Richard O’Donnell will start and former Walsall loanee Aramide Oteh may have to settle for a place on the bench.

Hope Akpan and Shay McCartan are pushing for a return into the side.

LIKELY LINE UPS?

Walsall – Roberts, Norman, Clarke, Liddle, Jules, Pring, Guthrie, Kinsella, Sinclair, Lavery, Gaffney

Bradford – O’Donnell, Mellor, O’Connor, Richards-Everton, Wood, Connolly, Palmer, Devine, Pritchard, Donaldson, Vaughan

ONES TO WATCH

JAMES VAUGHAN (BRADFORD)

Vaughan needs no introduction having built up a reputation of being a hot shot in the lower leagues.

Vaughan has already scored three goals this term.

RORY GAFFNEY (WALSALL)

Eyes will be on former Bristol Rovers striker Rory Gaffney this weekend hoping that he and Caolan Lavery can take over the scoring responsibilities following the blanks from Josh Gordon and Elijah Adebayo.

Gaffney scored eleven goals for parent club Salford last season but has seen his chances limited this time around.

Gaffney scored one goal in every three games in League 2 for Rovers.

PAST MEETINGS

The Saddlers and Bradford have met on forty-nine occasions – Walsall 14, Draw 20, Bradford 15

Bradford have not won in their last five visits to Walsall.

The last time the two sides met came in February this year where the Saddlers won 3-2 despite Andy Cook being sent off after six minutes. A brace from Josh Gordon and a goal from Joe Edwards was enough for a vital win.

Their last win at Walsall came in 2013 thanks to goals from Kyel Reid and James Hanson.

Our last five HOME games v Bradford

23.02.19 – Walsall 3-2 Bradford

26.08.17 – Walsall 3-3 Bradford

17.12.16 – Walsall 1-1 Bradford

28.11.15 – Walsall 2-1 Bradford

16.08.14 – Walsall 0-0 Bradford

MATCH OFFICIALS

The match officials have been announced for this Saturday’s game and are as follows –

REFEREE – ANTHONY BACKHOUSE

ASSISTANTS – Declan Ford and Steven Plane

FOURTH OFFICIAL – Matthew Bristow

Backhouse has only officiated one game involving the Saddlers this came in February this year where we went down 3-0 to Coventry City at the Ricoh. Backhouse awarded Coventry a penalty that day.

So far this season he has officiated six games – dishing out twenty yellow cards, one red and awarding two penalties.

Backhouse became the first Cumbrian referee in the Football League for over forty years.

VITAL PREDICTION – WALSALL 2-1 BRADFORD CITY

This weekend will begin our climb up the League 2 table – you heard it here first.

UP NEXT

TUESDAY 17TH SEPTEMBER

Sky Bet League 2

Morecambe v WALSALL

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