In an all-Yorkshire clash on Saturday afternoon, Harrogate Town host Bradford City, with little to separate the teams both in terms of geography and also league positions. The pair look set to be involved in a tight clash, but given how Bradford have played recently, their fans may be heading to this one worried about their performance.
Harrogate Town Form GuideUp until recently, Harrogate were in the playoff race, but I think they've dropped out of that now, even though they are only six point behind 7th with eight games to play. But they do come here in quite poor form, considering their league position, coming here on a run of eight games without a win.
The positive is that three of those last four games have been draws, the most recent of those a good point away from home against Barrow and before that, another good away point at Wrexham. It hasn't been a good run, but at the same time, I do think we've seen some signs of a recovery from them in recent weeks.
Bradford City Form GuideWhile I talk about Harrogate not being on a great run at the moment, Bradford may have won more recently than Harrogate, but arguably come here in far worse form given what they've done in the past couple of weeks. Bradford begin the weekend three places below Harrogate in the standings, and one point back.
But the big worry for Bradford is their last three games, all of which have been poor results, big losses and all played at home. On Tuesday, they lost 3-0 at home to Notts County, before that, they lost 5-1 at home to Mansfield and before that, they lost 2-0 at home to Forest Green. In all three, Bradford have looked as bad as they've done all season.
Match PredictionI think the bookmaker odds are completely wrong here. Yes, Harrogate are in a slump, but they've been playing far better than Bradford over the past two weeks, and at home, I think they're a huge price to grab a win here. Bradford are in freefall, and I think things get worse here.