Colchester United will welcome Bradford City to the JobServe Community Stadium on Saturday afternoon (KO 3pm) in what will be Danny and Nicky Cowley’s first home match in charge of the U’s.
The duo joined the North Essex side just over a week ago and led Colchester to an enthralling 2-2 draw in their first clash against Swindon Town last Saturday at the Energy Check County Ground.
They will now be aiming to go one step further and secure a victory in front of the U’s supporters.
The Opposition
Standing in the way of that is a Bradford team that is hovering in and around the middle of the league table.
The Bantams haven’t seen much movement in the standings throughout the season sticking mostly between 11th and 14th position.
After picking up some good form towards the end of November that resulted in a run of eight unbeaten games in all competitions (six wins and two draws), the West Yorkshire side dropped off slightly succumbing to two draws and two losses in their last five games.
Last time out, however, the Bantams played out a somewhat eyebrow-raising 1-0 victory against League One highflyers Derby County in the EFL Trophy.
Speaking after the clash, Bradford’s Head Coach Graham Alexander [pictured above] praised his side’s “superb” defending adding: “We had some unbelievable chances in the first half. In the second half, we maybe did not create as much as in the first, but we got the goal.
“We knew we were coming to play a quality team and they made some quality substitutions at half-time. The players trusted each other, they felt connected and we did not take a step back.
“We wanted to turn the ball over as high as we could and create from there. Every player did their job, and more.”
Bradford have not only proven to be dangerous in attack this season, but they have also been putting in decent defensive performances conceding a respectable thirty-five goals in twenty-six League Two matches.
Someone who has massively contributed to that is defender Bradley Halliday. The twenty-eight-year-old has featured twenty-five times for Bradford City in League Two this season, not only helping his side keep eight clean sheets but also contributing to four goals – he found the back of the net himself once and assisted three times.
Nonetheless, the biggest threat for the U’s should come from forward Andy Cook [pictured above]. The thirty-three-year-old has been in prolific scoring form this season and has ten goals and four assists to his name in twenty-three league appearances.
Last Time We Met
Despite going 1-0 up through Joe Taylor’s ninth-minute strike, the U’s ended up succumbing to a 2-1 defeat at Valley Parade on 12th August 2023.
Ticket Info
Tickets are available to purchase from Col U Tickets - click HERE to get yours.
Tickets will also be available to purchase from the self-service ticketing machines in the Club Shop on the day, although you will not be able to select your seat on these. No home game sales will be available from the Ticket Office Windows.
Tickets can be printed out or shown on a smartphone at the turnstiles, with gates opening at 1:30pm.
iFollow Info
If you can't make it to the game on Saturday, you can keep up with it via iFollow. Audio Passes (£2.50) are available to supporters in the UK, with Video Passes (£10) available to fans outside the UK. Click HERE to see what options are available for you.
