Saturday afternoon sees second of three straight home games with Bradford City arriving in South Cheshire looking to get back into League 1 following their relegation last season.
So far this season, they have beaten Oldham Athletic and Stevenage, drawn with both Cambridge United and Grimsby Town and lost to Forest Green Rovers as they sit in 9th in the league. They were knocked out of the EFL Cup by Preston North End in Round 1 and they are to play against Rochdale, Manchester City’s Under-21 and Bolton Wanderers in the EFL Trophy.
Over the summer, Bradford have signed 12 players over the summer, 9 of which are permanent signings and 3 season-long loans. Joining the club are goalkeeper Sam Hornby, defenders Tyler French, Adam Henley, Jackson Longridge, Paudie O’Connor and Ben Richards-Everton, midfielders Matt Palmer, former Alex loanee Callum Cooke and Jamie Devitt (who are all on loan) and Zeli Ismail and forwards James Vaughan and former Alex forward Clayton Donaldson.
Looking back in the archives, the two teams have met 97 times with Bradford leading the head-to-head with 43 wins to 35 with 19 draws. Bradford’s biggest win came in April 1979 at Valley Parade as the game finished 6-0 to the hosts while Crewe’s biggest win came in September 1965 with a 7-1 win at Gresty Road. The last season that the two clubs met was the 2015/16 season with City winning both games, a 2-0 win in Yorkshire and a 1-0 win in South Cheshire.
Who are the officials for the game?
The officials for this game see Darren Handley as the man in the middle with Alan Clayton and Danny Gratton his assistants and Conor Brown as the fourth official. The following Crewe games has been refereed by Handley in the last 5 years:
- Walsall 0-1 Crewe Alexandra (18th October 2014) – Dugdale
- Crewe Alexandra 1-0 Yeovil Town (10th February 2015) – Ajose
- Crewe Alexandra 1-3 Millwall (12th September 2015) – Dalla Valle
- Crewe Alexandra 1-1 Walsall (13th February 2016) – Inman
- Accrington Stanley 0-3 Crewe Alexandra (30th August 2016, EFL Trophy) – Cooper, Ainley, Udoh
- Crewe Alexandra 0-0 Cheltenham Town (28th January 2017)
- Port Vale 0-1 Crewe Alexandra (26th August 2017) – Dagnall
- Newport County 1-2 Crewe Alexandra (24th March 2018) – Bowery, McKirdy
