No time to rest for Dale as the run of games against some of the toughest teams in League Two continues, so how will we do back at Spotland against Bradford City this Saturday?

Saturday’s League Two clash between Rochdale and Bradford is the first for over twenty years (excluding the Dean Windass show in the Carling Cup.) And it’s been a steady rebuilding process for McCall’s City which sees them past the halfway point to safety, sitting 17^th in League Two, on thirty points, eleven points above Mansfield and eleven points behind us.

But their league position should certainly not give us a right to be complacent. Especially with the Bantams being another side with a 100% record in 2008 and if history is anything to go by, they’ve certainly had the better of us for the majority of the time. And averaging two goals a game in the last four fixtures, it looks like McCall’s rebuilt City squad are starting to gel now. This is something McCall reflected on recently whilst being interviewed with the local newspaper The Telegraph and Argus said "I still believe there is a lot of room for improvement. Confidence is obviously good and we're looking forward to the next game but we're nowhere near the finished article yet.”

"It was good to put a strong scoreline on the board last week. Without being disrespectful to Notts County, they weren't the strongest team we've faced this season… but there have been other games when we've been on top and not killed off the other team.”

“We created a lot of chances and I'm delighted we took three of them but, watching it again this week, I know there is more to come from this team.”

The players are also feeling confident on the wave of the results this January with the much experienced midfielder Paul Evans telling the same local newspaper that Bradford should not be ruled out of the playoff chase just yet. “It doesn’t matter where you go, everyone in this league look for where Bradford are. People are always watching us because of who we are. Other teams are expecting us to come on a run and hopefully we can do that and we can scare some people.”

“We’ve put in two solid displays and hopefully like to think that we’ve turned the corner, but we’ve had this before, you can’t take anything for granted. But me and the lads are working as hard as we can and things are falling for us at the moment. Well, for ten of us anyway, because I feel sorry for Barry Conlon who’s doing everything but score,” continued Evans.

And if the former Darlington striker Barry Conlon has been struggling to put the ball in the net recently, it’s a problem his strike partner is benefiting from. Ex Norwich City Peter Thorne has four goals in the previous four games including a hat trick against Notts County at the recently renamed Coral Windows Stadium. Those four goals have helped him catch up with another ex Darlington striker, Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu who is joint top scorer with Thorne, on six goals.

Also playing for the Bantams at the moment, you will recognise names like David Weatherhall, who seems to have been around in football for since forever. Weatherhall was part of the Leeds team that won the old Division One title before the Premiership came to the fore. And has been with Bradford since their first season in the Premiership, and is still a regular in the City team now.

Other recognisable names are Jamaican international goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts. On loan Hartlepool midfielder Lee Bullock who we were paying a lot of attention to recently. Defender Paul Heckingbottom who made his recent loan deal with city a permanent one. However, the biggest threat I’m told by Bradford fans is Kingston born Jamaican international midfielder Omar Daley who’s apparently faster than, well, any other player in the League apparently.

And Bradford aren’t having much luck as they try and add to their squad with the Bantams having a ‘derisory’ bid for Morecambe midfielder Garry Thompson recently which was believed to have been around £10,000. And City were hoping to have a look at ‘four or five’ trialists in the reserve match against Huddersfield Town.

The named trialists being former Wolves youngster, Martin Riley, who was recently released from his contract. Aswell as Nottingham Forest striker David Brown and Birmingham City’s Northern Ireland U21 international midfielder David Howland. Unfortunately the fixture fell victim to the dismal weather we’ve all had to put up with recently.

Team news for City is that former Manchester United trainee and Crewe Alexandria and Coventry City striker Eddie Johnson is set to return to the first team after spending two months out on the sidelines with a back injury. But he any appearance at Spotland will have to be on the bench due to the form of Peter Thorne and Barry Conlon recently.

And a massive positive for everyone at Rochdale is that City manager Stuart McCall has promised that the Bantams won’t be parking the team bus in front of their goal. In the same interview with a local paper, the manager said “You can see why Rochdale are doing so well and they try to play the right way. I can see it being an open, entertaining game. There will be times when we are under the cosh and will have to defend strongly - but we've had two clean sheets and, just as much as scoring goals gives forwards confidence, clean sheets are a real boost for the backline and goalkeeper.”

"If we can put a run of three or four wins together then you'll see how far it can take you. Look at Morecambe, who've had a terrific run and pushed right up there. Now we've got to strive to do the same."

So we have another entertaining fixture on our hands and as chairman Chris Dunphy says, let’s get every possible Dale fan into Spotland on Saturday for what will be another test of just how good a Dale side we have at the moment.

Photo: Action Images

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