Bradford City v Northampton Town: Deadline-day signings could feature for Bantams

New Bradford City man Aramide Oteh celebrates after scoring from the penalty spot for his parent club QPR in an FA Cup clash with Leeds United. Picture: Getty ImagesNew Bradford City man Aramide Oteh celebrates after scoring from the penalty spot for his parent club QPR in an FA Cup clash with Leeds United. Picture: Getty Images
New Bradford City man Aramide Oteh celebrates after scoring from the penalty spot for his parent club QPR in an FA Cup clash with Leeds United. Picture: Getty Images
Bradford City's two newest recruits could be handed debuts in Saturday's League Two clash with Northampton Town.

Winger Dylan Connelly and striker Aramide Oteh both agreed season-long loan deals at Valley Parade on transfer deadline day, taking the total of new players recruited by Gary Bowyer this summer to 15.

And with the Bantams desperate to get back to winning ways following back-to-back league defeats, both players are in contention to feature this weekend.

"Dylan and Aramide are in the mix," boss Bowyer revealed.

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"They have trained with us for the first time today and will add further competition to the squad.

"We had been looking at Aramide for a few weeks and Dylan became available very late on Monday.

"I think we got in by two minutes [on the last-minute deal that saw Connelly arrive from AFC Wimbledon]."

Skipper James Vaughan will return to the squad, though City will be without the services of Jamie Devitt, who was injured during Tuesday's Football League Trophy encounter with Bolton Wanderers.

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"We have had a setback with Jamie and are awaiting a medical report after he went down on Tuesday night," Bowyer added.

Forward Shay McCartan and defender Adam Henley are also injury doubts for the visit of the Cobblers, who come into the game in decent form.

They won 2-0 at Peterborough in the League Trophy in midweek having beaten Plymouth Argyle 3-1 on Saturday, a result that lifted them up to 17th in the League Two standings, just a point behind Bradford.

"They will be organised and competitive," Bowyer said.

"They enjoyed a good win over Plymouth last weekend, and will come to us on the back of that, with confidence."

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The Bantams boast a very good recent record against Northampton, though they did lose out 2-1 the last time the sides met, at Valley Parade in January 2018.

Prior to that, City were unbeaten in 11 matches with Saturday's opponents, a run that stretched back as far as March 2011 and saw them win all but two of those fixtures.

The most memorable encounter between the two came six years ago at Wembley as Bradford romped to a 3-0 victory in the League Two play-off final thanks to strikes from James Hanson, Rory McArdle and Nahki Wells.

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