Preview: Bradford City vs Mansfield Town - prediction, team news, lineups

Both with identical records after four matches, Bradford City and Mansfield Town come head to head at Valley Parade for a League One clash on Saturday afternoon.

The Bantams began the 2026-27 campaign with successive wins but have since suffered back-to-back defeats, losing late on to Cambridge United during the week, while the Stags were thrashed 5-0 away to Reading.

Match preview

Following playoff heartbreak at the hands of eventual promoted side Bolton Wanderers, Graham Alexander's side will be determined to go one step further this time around as they look to return to the Championship for the first time since 2003-04.

However, their strong start has suffered a setback after successive defeats to Plymouth Argyle and Cambridge United followed two impressive opening wins.

The Bantams fell behind early in the second half before drawing level with less than 15 minutes remaining, but substitute Ben Knight came off the bench to snatch a winner for Cambridge in the 88th minute.

While the defeat will hurt Bradford City, they can take plenty of encouragement from their performance after U's shot-stopper Jake Eastwood made a number of high-quality saves to keep the West Yorkshire side at bay in the first half, with the goal they conceded coming against the run of play.

Should Alexander's side return to winning ways at the weekend, they could move back into the top six.

As for Mansfield Town, they travel north also boasting two wins and two draws from their opening four matches, with only goal difference keeping them below Bradford City.

That goal difference took a significant hit on Tuesday night after the Stags suffered a heavy 5-0 defeat to Reading, conceding three times in the space of nine minutes before half time.

Conceding five goals would have come as a major shock to boss Nigel Clough, with strong defensive performances having been a key aspect of their mid-table finish last season, when only two teams conceded fewer than their total of 50.

However, they now enter the fifth League One matchweek with the second-worst defensive record in the division, having also shipped four goals against Manchester City Under-21s in the EFL Trophy.

Despite the poor midweek result, Clough can take confidence from an earlier-season victory over promotion hopefuls Luton Town, with Mansfield running out 5-2 winners to close out August in style.

While the Bantams finished 12 points clear of Mansfield Town and secured a place in the top six last season, they failed to beat the Stags home or away and will be searching for a first league victory over them since November 2022.

Bradford City League One form:

Bradford City form (all competitions):

Mansfield Town League One form:

Mansfield Town form (all competitions):

Team News

Bradford came away from their late defeat without any further injury concerns but could make changes after suffering successive losses.

Expect new striker Jake Beesley to continue leading the line as he searches for his first Bantams goal, while Alexander could hand Nick Powell a start on Saturday.

However, the Yorkshire-based side will be without Tyreik Wright, who is likely to remain sidelined until October with a quad injury, while Stephen Humphreys is yet to feature this season and is not expected to return in time for this one.

As for Clough's Mansfield Town, they also came through Tuesday's defeat without any fresh injury concerns, although the heavy loss could prompt changes to the starting XI.

Irish international David McGoldrick came close to finding the back of the net on a number of occasions on Tuesday night and is likely to retain his place in attack.

Bradford City possible starting lineup:

McCracken; Welch, Baldwin, Gillesphey; Neufville, Connolly, Sarcevic, Touray; Phillips, Beesley, Pointon

Mansfield Town possible starting lineup:

Lewis; Hewitt, Oshilaja, Sweeney; Reed; Akins, Moriah-Welsh, Thompson, Dodgson; McGoldrick, Oates

We say: Bradford City 2-1 Mansfield Town

Both sides sit on the same number of points after four league matches, and we expect a tight and cagey contest between two evenly matched teams.

With that said, however, home advantage could prove decisive, and we see Bradford doing enough at Valley Parade to edge out Mansfield and claim all three points.

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