Opposition in focus - Bradford City...
Bradford City provide the opposition for Paul Warne's Rotherham United at the AESSEAL New York Stadium on Tuesday in Sky Bet League One. Here, we review our visitors in our opposition analysis...
In the Dugout
Stuart McCall will be the man in the dugout for the visitors. As a player, he played a total of 763 appearances, representing Bradford City, Everton, Rangers and Sheffield United respectively. He also appeared for Scotland forty times between 1990 and 1998. In his time as a player, McCall won three Scottish Cups, three Scottish League Cups, six Scottish Premier Division titles as well as two Football League titles; third division and first division.
As a manager, McCall started at Bradford as a caretaker in 2000 before taking up coaching roles within Bradford and Sheffield United. His first full-time managerial appointment was with Bradford in 2007 before moving to Motherwell at the end of 2010. He spent over four years with Motherwell before moving to Rangers in 2015. He rejoined Bradford City in June 2016 and took them in his first season to the 2017 EFL League One Play-off Final, where his side were edged out 1-0 by Millwall.
Stats
Bradford are currently sitting fifth in the League One table on 48 points. However, the visitors have lost their last two league matches and were knocked out of the FA Cup by League Two side Yeovil Town recently. After winning their first game in 2018, a 2-1 away victory at Fleetwood, Bradford have lost against Northampton Town and Bristol Rovers.
Previous Meetings
This is the 79th time the two teams will have met. Rotherham have won 36 times while Bradford have won 28 times, with 14 of these meetings ending in draws.
In the last nine fixtures, Bradford have only won once, losing seven times and drawing one. Bradford also haven't won at Rotherham since 2010 and are yet to taste victory at AESSEAL New York Stadium. In the last fixture between these sides, it was Rotherham who prevailed as 3-0 victors at the Northern Commercials Stadium in November 2017. In the Football League Trophy Group F North fixture, goals from Jerry Yates, Jonson Clarke-Harris and Richie Towell sealed the victory for the Millers.
Ones to Watch
Our ones to watch start with German goalkeeper Rouven Sattelmaier. The former Bayern Munich goalkeeper won the DFL Supercup in 2010 with Bayern as well as being runner-up for the Champions League and DFB Pokal in 2012.
In the defence, experienced defender Nathaniel Knight-Percival is one to watch. After representing Histon, Wrexham, Peterborough and Shrewsbury, he joined on the Bantams on a free transfer from Shrewsbury in 2016. He has won promotion out of the Conference South, Southern Football League Premier Division and League Two and will be hoping to add the same feat to his resume from League One with Tuesday’s opponents.
In the midfield, captain Romain Vincelot has scored five goals and has two assists this season. The Frenchman is assisted by on-loan Newcastle winger Alex Gilliead who has been attracting interest from Championship clubs.
Upfront, Charlie Wyke has been the focal point of a deadly strike force for Bradford. The former Middlesborough player has scored 13 goals this season, coupled with six assists since his winter move from Carlisle United in 2017.