Tuesday 9 March 2010
Coca-Cola League 2
Port Vale vs Bradford City
Kick Off: 7.45pm
at Vale Park
Match Officials:
Referee: N D Swarbrick
Assistant Referee: B Roberts
Assistant Referee: W D Smallwood
Fourth Official: S J Copeland
Bantams team news
Peter Taylor is expected to make very few changes, if any, from the eighteen men squad that travelled to the Don Valley Stadium on Saturday.
Luke O'Brien and Michael Flynn both received knocks during the dramatic victory over the Millers, but will be in shape to face the Valiants this Tuesday.
Zesh Rehman has now recovered from his calf strain, but will have to do with a place in the reserves squad to face Huddersfield Town at Emley on Wednesday.
Chris Brandon and Peter Thorne also remain out of the first team picture and will join Rehman in the reserves.
James O'Brien has returned to training after his successful surgery to solve a problem with his nose, but he will also miss out on the trip to Vale Park and face Huddersfield instead.
Luke Oliver will be looking to make his debut after being forced to sit on the bench at the Don Valley Stadium. Oliver is expected to remain as a substitute though as Taylor looks set to stay with Matthew Clarke and Steve Williams.
Port Vale team news
While Port Vale boss Micky Adams is lucky enough to have a virtually fully fit squad to choose from, Adams main selection problems recently have been over player performance and not player fitness.
Vale's recent results have been too inconsistent for Adams liking and this has lead to a change in personnel on several occasions.
First team regulars Robert Taylor, Kris Taylor and John McCombe have all had found themselves suffering spells on the bench as Adams searches for a settled and successful line up.
Even captain Tommy Fraser has struggled to get back into the side following his return from a two match suspension.
During their recent defeat to Northampton last time out, Adams even shown his frustration over recent events by making all three of his substitutes at half time.
Adams latest changes for the Bantams visit may very well include a recall to the starting eleven for Fraser.
On loan striker Craig Davies may also put back into the line up in place of fellow loanee Sean Riggs.
The Valiants manager also must decide whether to stick with goalkeeper Joe Anyon or reinstate 19 year old Chris Martin after Anyon was at fault for one of Northampton's goals at the weekend.
Port Vale's David Howland would appear to their only injury concern as the midfielder as an issue with his knee.
Since the Bantams last met Vale back in November, the Staffordshire side has changed tactics and formation.
From the safe and containing 3-5-2 formation that was used by Vale at the start of the season, Adams changed to a more attacking 4-4-2 formation in December.
Adams says he has made the formation change as he looks to win more games rather than simply not lose them.
The Vale boss has stuck with his new formation since introducing back in December, although many supporters and observers believe this is one of the main reason for Vale's inconsistencies.
Fancy a flutter?
As usual, the Bantams betting partner, bet365, is offering up a vast array of betting markets to allow you to add even more spice to this Saturday's proceedings.
Along with betting on the winner of the match, with bet365.com, you can bet on several other areas such as first goalscorer, last goalscorer, winning margin, amount of goals scored and even the half with the most amount of goals scored!
For a full listing of Port Vale vs Bradford City betting markets with bet365.com - please click here.
BANTAMS PLAYER coverage
For LIVE & EXCLUSIVE match commentary from the Bantams match with Port Vale, look no further than Bantams Player.
Bantams Player is the best place to hear live match commentary from Vale Park, with coverage starting at 7.30pm.
Please click here more information on Bantams Player.
Bradford City official website
The Bantams own website, www.bradfordcityfc.co.uk, now bring you match updates exclusively from the ground for City fixtures. This ensures City fans can keep up to date with any red cards, penalties, missed chances, substitutions or goals as they happen.
Line ups from both sides are normally on the site approximately 45 minutes before kick off, before the match updates kick in come the start of the match.
Please click here for an example of the match updates layout.
Bantams text alert service
Even on the move, you can still keep updated with the Bantams progress. A subscription to the Bantams text alert service will make sure you receive the followings text straight to your mobile on a matchday.
> Team line-ups
> Red cards
> Half time and full time results from all League 2 fixtures
> Goals for and against
To find out more about the Bantams text alert service, please click here.
City social network pages
From the turn of the year, the Bantams joined the social networking revolution and opened facebook & twitter pages.
Both pages will not only allow you to keep up to date with all things Bradford City during the week, but you can also obtain score updates from a Bantams match on both pages.
To view the Bantams official facebook page, please click here
To view the Bantams official twitter page, please click here.
