York crashed out of the EFL Trophy without even playing last week, as a win for Newcastle U21 at Rotherham made it impossible for the Minstermen to qualify from the group stage. Nevertheless, there’s still one further game to be played, as City make a first trip to Bradford City in over a decade to play out a dead rubber.
We’ve met before…
The last meeting between York and Bradford came in the League Cup 1st round in 2015/16, when the Minstermen advanced on penalties following a 2-2 draw, with Luke Summerfield and James Berrett on the scoresheet that evening. The two sides also met in 2012/13 in League Two, when an excellent Ashley Chambers strike helped York to a 1-1 draw at Valley Parade before the Bantams ran out 2-0 winners in the return fixture at Bootham Crescent. York’s last win at Valley Parade came way back in 1980, when goals from Ian McDonald and Gary Ford secured a 2-1 victory.
The clubs have met once before in the EFL Trophy, when they played out a 2-2 draw at Bootham Crescent back in 1994, with Paul Barnes and Paul Baker scoring for the home side. Bradford have never won the competition, although they have progressed as far as the semi-finals twice recently, in 2023/24 and 2024/25.
What to expect from Bradford
Bradford made the League One playoffs last season, losing out to Bolton in the semi-finals, and a decent start to this season sees them currently in 7th. They were hit by the departure of manager Graham Alexander to Preston in September, and his replacement Michael Duff is still finding his feet at the club with just one win from his first five league games in charge. Their form in cup competitions has been flawless, with a 7-0 thrashing of Marine at the weekend in the FA Cup and an impressive League Cup run that has taken them as far as the quarter-finals, where they will travel to Manchester City.
The Bantams have also already secured their passage through to the knockout stages in the EFL Trophy with wins over Rotherham and Newcastle U21, so there will be little incentive to risk first-team regulars in this fixture. Their line-up is likely to look fairly similar to their previous games in the competition, where fringe players have been handed starts. Notable players who may feature include forward Stephen Humphrys, who York fans may remember scored the winning goal for Wigan in an FA Cup tie at the LNER in 2023, as well as Australian international defender Hayden Matthews and experienced midfielder Nick Powell. Duff tends to set his side up in a 3-4-2-1 formation.
York team news
Team selection for this game presents an interesting dilemma for Scott Lindsey, who must balance the need to field four qualifying players, a desire to give more minutes to players on the fringes of the first team, and the risk of losing players to injury in what is ultimately a meaningless game.
Several of the players who were named on the bench for Saturday’s game against Northampton may be expected to start, with the likes of George Sykes-Kenworthy, Jack Hunt, Jeff King and Joe Grey all particularly fresh having not come on at the weekend. Young pros Ethan Stiver and Ben Farrar are likely to be involved, while it will be interesting to see whether Dipo Akinyemi makes an appearance having not featured in a matchday squad since September.
