By Jamie Woodhouse
Bradford City return to League One action as they welcome Northampton Town to the Northern Commercials Stadium.
The Bantams have fallen to 4th in the table, eight points off leaders Scunthorpe after their 3-0 defeat to Southend last time out, just their second defeat of the season.
Northampton come into this match without a win in their last two games with defeats against Gillingham and Peterborough. The Cobblers haven’t tasted victory in the league since beating Bury 3-2 in October.
Speaking to the official Northampton Town website, manager Rob Page said: “Bradford will want to bounce back from the weekend and we are looking to bounce back from a disappointing couple of weeks so it should make for an interesting game.
“I know Stuart McCall well and I know we are in for a tough game.”
Bantams manager McCall told the official Bradford City YouTube page: “They are probably where they are expecting to be, Page is a good manager, an ex-colleague of mine at Sheffield United. He’s doing a good job.
“They’ve got good experienced players and we are aware of that.
“As much as we have to be aware of the opponent we have to realise it’s our home game and we only have to look back at our last home game against Rochdale, so let’s put on a performance like that and hopefully get the points.”
JJ Hooper will miss out for the visitors after picking up a thigh strain at Gillingham. Defender Zander Diamond is also out with a fractured cheek-bone.
Bradford will be without top scorer Billy Clarke with a calf injury. Defender Tony McMahon returned to training this week after recovering from a thigh injury which has plagued him this season, restricting him to just four league starts.
Bradford will pay tribute to their all-time top goal-scorer Bobby Campbell, who sadly died last week at the age of 60 with players and management staff wearing black armbands during the game.