Doncaster Rovers braced for 'tricky' Bradford City task as they look to make it five in a row
Doncaster Rovers are looking to continue the one-way nature of recent meetings with Bradford City in Saturday's tasty-looking lunchtime duel.
Grant McCann and his side make the short hop across to West Yorkshire looking for a fifth straight win against the Bantams in all competitions. The two teams - and their fanbases - have cultivated quite the rivalry in recent years and that's only been intensified by frequent fixtures against each other. This latest tussle will be the seventh match between the pair in the space of just two years.
Rovers' last visit to Valley Parade was back in October 2024, in a season when both sides ultimately achieved their goal of promotion out of the basement division. Rovers were superb that day, with the 2-1 scoreline not doing justice to the dominant, classy performance they posted.
When asked by the Free Press about that result - arguably one of the most assured across the title-winning campaign - McCann reflected: "Yeah, we were really good that day, we were brave and kept the ball well.
"It was a good performance at their place last season and we want to try and repeat that. I feel we're in a good spot at this moment in time and when you're in that spot you need to take advantage of it."
He added: "It's going to be tricky to know what personnel Graham (Alexander) will play because they've changed a bit in the last couple of games. They've had a few issues at the top end of the pitch.
"We know how Bradford play and what they're about. They've had an unbelievable start to the season to put themselves in a really good position. But we're ready for the challenge and know if we can get our plan right we can go and cause them problems."
The only poser in terms of selection for McCann will be who to deploy at centre-half given Neill Byrne cannot compete against his parent club, as per the terms of his loan arrangement.
The defender arrived at Rovers from Bradford last Monday and just 24 hours later helped contribute to a clean sheet in the classy win over Leyton Orient. There's a chance Owen Bailey could once again slip back into the rearguard as he has done to great success in the past, but more likely is that one of Matty Pearson or Sean Grehan comes in alongside Jay McGrath.
"We'll wait and see," McCann said on the centre-half quandary. "We've got different options so we'll see and make a judgement call on what we think is best for that game."