Peterborough vs Bradford Predictions

Bradford had started to show improvement, though it was back to square one on Tuesday night, as they were on the wrong end of a 4-0 battering away at Luton. Facing a Peterborough side, who sharpened their appetite by regaining the winning thread on home soil last time out, probably isn’t what the doctor ordered, though the Bantams were the better side when the teams drew 1-1 recently, so perhaps they’ll fancy themselves to bounce back.

Peterborough did return to winning ways with a rather routine win over AFC Wimbledon at this venue in the week, though they were held to a draw hosting Bradford here a fortnight ago, so manager Steve Evans will know that his side cannot afford to take anything for granted. On that occasion, Posh were lucky not to lose, as they clocked a pathetic 0.33 expected goals and gave away 1.07 at the other end.

In truth, it is hard to be impressed with Peterborough’s efforts on their own patch during the current campaign. As a side that wants to challenge for promotion, it would be fair to expect Evans’ men to be in imperious form in front of their own fans, but that’s certainly not been the case. Posh have won just four of their ten home matches in the league, while their underlying numbers are very worrying. Peterborough are currently averaging 1.22 expected goals for and are giving up 1.73 at the other end.

The visitors have also been disappointing from a performance point of view this season, but they have done better of late. To be quite honest, it’s not worth judging the Bantams on their efforts at Kenilworth Road on Tuesday night, as there is no shame in being on the end of a battering when taking on a very strong Luton side. Better teams than Bradford have (and will) be met with the same fate when they take on the Hatters at that venue.

Prior to Tuesday’s defeat, David Hopkin’s men had begun to improve. They got the better of Oxford on home soil last weekend, while they were the better team when drawing 1-1 at this venue prior to that. Based on those efforts, it’s not overly hard to see the Bantams doing well on Saturday. After all, Peterborough are nowhere near as good as the league table suggests.

Based on the overall efforts of both this season, even though they have often underwhelmed, Peterborough do merit favouritism at home to Bradford, but have they really been good enough to warrant strong odds-on favouritism, based on what happened between the pair just a fortnight ago? Absolutely not. At the prices, Hopkins’ men are backed to once again defy the odds by getting a positive result at ABAX Stadium. A repeat of their efforts a fortnight ago would likely see them make things tough for the lacklustre hosts at the very least.