This Saturday's Football League One 3pm fixture sees 9th place Bradford city take on 24th place and bottom of the table Crewe Alexandra, at Valley Parade.
Bradford will be hoping to see plenty of home support at Valley Parade and will hope Bradford's recent form will continue. Bradford go into the game with an unbeaten run of five league games, three of those being wins, where Crewe have only won two of their last five and only won three games all season. Bradford sit comfortable at 9th place with 24 points the same as 8th place Sheffield United and only three points behind 6th place Bury and 5th place Wigan Athletic.
Where as, its a whole different story for bottom of the table relegation zone Crewe, who only have 13 points, the same as 23rd place Swindon, three points for them however could possibly lift them from that place to 19th depending on the other teams yet to play. Crewe will also have to forget and put aside their mid week FA cup loss to Eastleigh by 1-0, where Bradford faired not much better drawing to Aldershot 0-0.
Bradford will be without three players for the home tie clash, with defender James Meredith on international duty with Australia after making his first senior start for them on Thursday's world cup qualifying win over Krygystan (3-0), they also lose defender Reece Burke to England under 20's, and midfielder Lee Evans to Wales under 21's.
Bradford however do have options to replace those players away on internationals, as they have Chris Routis back in training after a calf injury and could play in either midfield or defence, with the likes or Nathan Clarke and Greg Leigh both fit to take up roles also.
Bradford have injury worries to contend with as well, with both Filipe Morais and Paul Anderson still out with knee injuries.
However Billy Clarke will be looking for his return to action after he came back from his own knee injury to make his first start for the club since August, in the goalless FA cup match against Aldershot.
Crewe however don't get away without losing one to international duty also, as Marcus Haber gets a late call up for Canada, after being on the reserves.
They do however look set to replace Marcus Haber with Lauri Dalla Valle for the match. Crewe will be thankful that the red card shown to goalkeeper Ben Garrett, which he picked up at the FA cup meeting with Eastleigh has been overturned, allowing him to once again be ready for selection. Also central midfielder Billy Bingham will look to make his return following a hamstring injury, picked up in the August in Crewe's game at Wigan Athletic, Billy did appear last Saturday's in the clubs win over Sheffield united, but only on the bench, but played a full 45 minutes in Crewe's under 21's 1-1 draw against Bolton. Should he be fully fit and ready to return that would mean that Crewe will have four fit and able central midfielder's with James Jones, and Adam King currently filling the roles and Chris Atkinson fighting fit and ready for contention also.
Thoughts of the last game will surely ring in the mind of Steve Davis, when Bradford went to Gresty Road, Alexandra Stadium, last season, where the Bantams would come away with the share of spoils in a 1-0 win. Bradford manager Phil Parkinson will be looking to upset the boat again by having a repeat performance, and propelling his team into a six game unbeaten run and look to climb higher up the table towards play-off places.
However with the unpredictability of League one, and Bradford's past sketchy league record, anything can happen, one thing is for sure both managers have their reasons for wanting this win, and the will both do all they can to achieve it.
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