Bradford City boss will not be taking winless, pointless and goal-shy Peterborough United lightly
Bradford City boss Graham Alexander will not be taking winless and pointless Peterborough United lightly at the Weston Homes Stadium on Saturday (3pm).
‘The Bantams’, newly-promoted from League Two, are in the unusual position of starting as favourites to win a League One match against the team bottom of the table. The visitors looked to have been handed a tough start to the campaign, but have already achieved wins over pre-season promotion fancies Wycombe Wanderers, Luton Town and Stockport County.
The 2-1 come-from-behind win at Stockport on Tuesday kept Bradford in fourth place.
Bradford are a fierce-pressing physical side which could spell danger for a Posh team missing key players and without the ability to call on any of their three most recent signings, certainly not from the start of the game.
But Alexander told the Bradford Telegraph and Argus: “Peterborough are a well-established League One team that has won promotion to the Championship several times under a fantastic manager in Darren Ferguson.
"The challenge will be there for us. We saw when we played Northampton after their disappointing first game how tough we found that matc.
"I’m sure this will be the same. Their form is something they’ll want to turn around, but we have to focus on ourselves and we have improvements to make.
"We were nowhere near it in the first-half at Stockport and, just because the second-half performance was strong, we can’t think we’re the finished article.”
Bradford could give a first League One start of the season to summer signing to forward Will Swan following his move from Crawley Town. Swan scored in Crawley’s 4-3 defeat at London Road last season and netted against Stockport on Tuesday after coming on as a first-half substitute. He also scored for Mansfield Town against Posh in an EFL Cup tie in the 2023-24 season, albeit from the penalty spot.
Swan told the Bradford club website: “The form of other teams does not change how we approach the challenge ahead. We go into every game the same, looking at ourselves first and making sure we hit our standards. They are a strong attacking side, but we will treat them like any other challenge.”
Posh have scored one goal in four League One games, a penalty in the first-half of their opening match of the season at Cardiff City.