Two play-off chasing teams come head-to-head on Tuesday night as Fleetwood Town host Bradford City at Highbury Stadium.
Fleetwood currently sit 4th in the table and have not lost in 14 league matches, making them the division’s most in-form team. However, they have fallen into a bit of a trap at the moment as they have drawn their last three games on the bounce. Most managers would probably prefer to be winning and losing than simply drawing, but remaining unbeaten for so long is not be sniffed at and Fleetwood are a very hard team to beat right now.
It has mainly been the Trawlermen’s defence which has seen them keep up this unbelievable run and it is no surprise that they have kept the most clean sheets in the division – 12 in 31 matches.
Uwe Rosler’s men do not tend to outscore opponents but, thanks to their defence, they tend not to need to. However, the fact their not-so-potent front-line could not find a way past Rochdale at home on Saturday could come back to haunt them.
Fleetwood have been excellent at home so far this campaign with just one defeat which came all the way back in September. The Trawlermen have the third best home record in League One with 33 points from 16 games at Highbury Stadium – better than 2nd place Scunthorpe United.
Although they still sit in the play-off places, Bradford have been on a bit of a lull recently with just one win in their last five league matches.
The Bantams have not kept a clean sheet since 7th January and this decline in defence has been the main reason why they cannot put a winning run together. Having said that, they do still have the second-best defensive record in the league with just 27 conceded in 31 matches.
Stuart McCall’s side do struggle a bit in the final third and their Goals For record of just 39 is the worst in the league’s top 10 sides.
Bradford are pretty good on their travels with 23 points taken from 15 games, however, they have failed to record back-to-back away victories in the league since 16th August.
Out of the 20 collective matches these two sides have played recently, 11 of them have been draws. You might say that these two teams are sleepwalking a bit at the moment and I expect this duo of draw specialists to once again share the points. With neither looking outrageously threatening in the final third, a ‘1-1 Draw’ makes plenty of appeal at 11/2.