St James’ Park awaits – Newcastle v Bradford preview | OneFootball

Welcome to the Newcastle v Bradford preview.

Wednesday 24th September – 7.45pm kick-off.

Cup holders Newcastle United (a phrase I never thought I’d use) begin the defence of their title at home to League one Bradford City on Wednesday night live on Sky Sports+.

With almost five thousand Bantam fans making the trip to St James’ Park, the atmosphere promises to be very decent.

Eddie Howe has shown how seriously he takes this competition with the Toon reaching two finals and one Quarter-final in the last three seasons, famously lifting the trophy at Wembley in March.

Hopefully this will be the start of another memorable adventure that ends at Wembley in six months time.

Bradford City however will be hoping they can repeat their unbelievable run to the 2013 final. Playing in League Two at the time, the Bantams saw off Premier League sides Wigan, Arsenal and Aston Villa to reach the Wembley showpiece against Swansea City. They were the first fourth tier side to make the final for fifty-one years.

Form

Newcastle have played six matches in all competitions this season, winning one, drawing three and losing two. Three 0-0 draws and a 1-0 win show how hard we’ve been to break down, whereas unlucky defeats at home to Liverpool and Barcelona saw the Toon have their moments, scoring three goals and worrying the opposition during strong starts in both matches. We’ve scored four goals in total and conceded five.

Bradford have played nine matches in League One this season, winning six and only losing one. The twenty points they’ve already secured has them top of the league, having scored an impressive seventeen goals. In the League Cup, they’ve gone away to Championship teams Blackburn and Stoke and returned with brilliant 2-1 and 3-0 wins. Here’s hoping this is where their League Cup journey ends.

Last time out

The Toon made the long trip to Bournemouth on Sunday afternoon and came away with a valuable point from a 0-0 draw. A match of few talking points could have turned out differently had Woltemade been awarded a second-half penalty when his shirt was clearly pulled in the area but in the end, we had to be content with a point and another clean sheet – our fourth in six matches.

Bradford went away to Cardiff City and smashed the table-toppers after racing into a three-goal lead. They won the match 3-1 to replace the Bluebirds at the top of the League One tree.

Stat attack!

Newcastle have won their last ten matches at home to Bradford in all competitions.

Bradford have visited Newcastle for a league Cup tie on three separate occasions, finishing on the losing side each time.

The Toon have reached three League Cup finals in our history with two of them coming in the past three seasons.

Memorable match

In 2000/01, Sir Bobby Robson’s Newcastle hosted fellow Premier League side Bradford in the third round of the League Cup. We raced into a three-goal lead through two Alan Shearer strikes and an effort from Daniel Cordone before the thirty-minute mark. Bradford pulled one back before the break but 3-1 to the Toon at half time looked to be enough to see us into the next round. Bradford had other ideas and scored goals in the fifty-seventh and seventieth minutes to equal the match. The bantams may well have scented blood at this stage but were denied a famous comeback victory when up popped Steven Caldwell on his debut to score his first goal for the club and put the Toon 4-3 ahead. There was still time for Steve Harper to make a point-blank save near the end but the night belonged to United. Final Score Newcastle 4-3 Bradford.

Played for both

Des Hamilton is fondly remembered by Bradford fans for scoring a cracking goal at Wembley in the 1996 second division play-off final as the Bantams achieved promotion. He signed for Kenny Dalglish in 1997 and scored on his debut at home to Hull City in a 2-0 League Cup victory. At this point, things were looking rosy for Des as he played for England under-21s against Portugal and also lined up away to Barcelona for NUFC in the Champions League. Unfortunately, his time on Tyneside was wrecked by injuries and he wasn’t even given a squad number at the start of the 99/00 season. He was loaned out to a number of clubs before signing for Cardiff City where he’d endure yet more injury nightmares as his career fizzled out.

Andy O’Brien was signed by Sir Bobby Robson from Bradford in 2001 and actually made his debut in a 2-2 draw away at his former club. He’d played one hundred and thirty-three matches for the Bantams, scoring three goals. As soon as he signed for NUFC, there was speculation on whether or not he could emulate his namesake Liam by scoring away at Sunderland and unbelievably, in only his fourth ever match, he did. A late equaliser in a 1-1 draw has been immortalised in song and gone down in Toon Army folklore. He also scored the equaliser at Highbury on a glorious night when Sir Bobby’s team topped the league by beating Arsenal 3-1 for their first win in London for over four years. He stayed at the Toon for over four years and made one hundred and seventy appearances in all competitions for the black and whites. Representing us in the Champions League as Sir Bobby masterminded progress to the last-sixteen.

Paul Huntington came through the NUFC youth side and made sixteen appearances for the Magpies in all competitions. He scored a fine goal in a fabulous 3-2 away win over Tottenham Hotspur that is best remembered for an absolute rocket from Obafemi Martins. He signed for Leeds in 2007 and also played for Stockport, Yeovil, Preston and Carlisle before ending up at Bradford last season. He isn’t currently on their books but was training with the bantams over the summer.

Managers

Eddie Howe after a 0-0 draw away at Bournemouth:

“We showed the strength of our squad today because I did think it was a good performance without being a match-winning one. We used a lot of different players, so that’s a really positive sign. I think there were some really good things within our performance. Defensively, we were really good. You want to see the team defending our box well, hard to play against, strong, robust, and I think we were all those things. Obviously, the concern for us is that we weren’t free-flowing in creating the amount of chances we would want, but it’s a very difficult place to come. I think a point here is a good result. If you look at the games we’ve played, it’s not by luck that we’ve kept these clean sheets.”

Graham Alexander after a 3-1 win away at Cardiff:

“The main word once again to describe the performance is impressive. Coming to a team who are unbeaten and top of the league, I think the attitude of our players was fantastic. They are a great team with lots of good players who can hurt you, but we stood strong. We could have had a couple more goals. We were a little careless in the final third, but to win 3-1 away at Cardiff is top work.”

Charity

Newcastle United fans food bank will once again be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end and gratefully receiving food, money and toiletries for those in need. Of particular interest are non-perishable food and drink items (such as noodles, pasta, rice, canned food, soup, cereal, cordial, long life milk etc) as well as toiletries such as shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste and sanitary products. Please give whatever you can, any donation is very much appreciated.

I think this match could be a lot harder than many people think.

Bradford are in very good form at present and buoyed by a sell-out away end, could be a force to be reckoned with.

Newcastle however are the cup-holders and won’t be giving up their trophy without a fight. A draw after ninety minutes means the match will go straight to penalties and that’s what I think will ultimately happen. Bradford to take an early lead before the Toon grab an equaliser and win in the shootout. Final score Newcastle 1-1 Bradford (Toon win on pens)