Aston Villa v Bradford City Preview

Bradford 90 Minutes away from Wembley

Aston Villa v Bradford City
League Cup
Villa Park, Aston
Tuesday 22 January, 2013
19: 45 GMT

Aston Villa will be looking to overturn a 3-1 first leg deficit when they welcome Bradford City to Villa Park. Bradford were superb in the first leg and as things stand, are just 90 minutes away from a cup final at Wembley Stadium.

Aston Villa Preview

Aston Villa will go into this game with a little confidence after a hard fought 2-2 draw away at West Brom. They have only won two matches at home in the league all season but will be given a massive boost by having home support for the second leg. Villa have scored only eight goals at home this season, the worst tally along with QPR.

Injuries and Suspensions

Villa are suffering with a long list of injuries ahead of this match with Stilian Petrov, Chris Herd, Gary Gardner, Karim El Ahmadi and Marc Albrighton all ruled out. Richard Dunne and Shay Given are rated as 50/50 ahead of the game while Nathan Baker and Fabian Delph are still being assessed after suffering knocks in the weekend match against West Brom.

An Aston Villa win is odds on with most bookies but the best price is 2/5 from bookmakers Ladbrokes.

Bradford City Preview

Bradford will be confident after the way they played in the first leg. They will also be slightly fresher as their weekend match against Port Vale was postponed due to bad weather. They have lost both of their games since beating Aston Villa but will take a lot of support to the match.

Injuries and Suspensions

Stephen Darby will not play because of a foot injury, Will Atkinson is rated as doubtful with a stomach problem and Garry Thompson is 50/50 to return after a recent knee injury. James Hanson should be fit after missing the last two defeats with a fractured toe injury.

Aston Villa v Bradford City Statistics

It’s not been a good league season for Aston villa who are staring at a current record of four wins, eight draws and 11 defeats which has left the club 17th in the Premier League. Their problem has been scoring goals with just 19, only QPR have scored fewer.

Bradford are just outside the play-off places in League Two and they have taken points in eight matches away from home this season; three wins, five draws and five defeats. They have scored 15 goals away from home which is a better record than Rotherham and Northampton, both in the play-off places.

Head to Head: Aston Villa and Bradford city have met in the Midlands on 19 occasions. Aston Villa have 13 wins, Bradford have four and two matches have ended in draws. The last time the clubs met at Villa Park was in the 2000/2001 Premier League season where Villa won 2-0.

Recent Form

Aston Villa’s recent form has been poor with the side winning only one match in January which was the FA Cup win against Ipswich Town. They have not won in their last three with one draw and two defeats.

Bradford have also had an appalling January with their win over Villa in the first leg, their only victory. To go with this win they have three defeats and a draw. They haven’t won away from home since beating Port Vale at the start of December.

Aston Villa v Bradford City Prediction

Bradford are going into this game with a nearly fully fit squad of players. Villa should be able to get themselves up for the match and the pressure should cause them to be cynical all over the pitch. Aston Villa 3-1 Bradford City; forcing extra time.

Back this score prediction at 10/1.

Written by Lewis Doe.