Southend United v Bradford City: Away days proving popular for confident Bantams

Charlie Wyke celebrates scoring against Doncaster Rovers. Picture: Bruce Rollinson.

The Bantams have taken 23 points from 10 games on the road this season.

Only Blackburn Rovers can match that tally in the three divisions, but Tony Mowbray’s team have played one extra match.

Elsewhere, Championship duo Wolverhampton Wanderers and Bristol City boast 22 points apiece, while Swindon Town lead the way in League Two with 21.

Bradford City boss Stuart McCall. Picture: Tony Johnson.

Ahead of tackling Southend United, managed by Phil Brown, at Roots Hall, Wyke said: “We are getting used to it (away form) now. It is nice to go away from home and be so confident.

“We know that we can take the game to the opposition. We went to Wigan and Shrewsbury, the top two teams in the division, and took six points.

“I thought we were the better team at Wigan.

“Maybe we didn’t play so well against Shrewsbury, but we showed we can grind a game out.

“Results like that give you confidence that you can win in different ways.

“Shrewsbury was a hard shift, but it was a fantastic reward for us to get three points against the (then) league leaders.”

Those victories at the home of the top two are understandably the most eye-catching of City’s results on the road.

But Stuart McCall’s men have also won at Portsmouth, Milton Keynes Dons, Northampton Town, Peterborough United and Gillingham. The trips to Walsall and Oxford United both yielded a point apiece, with their only loss coming at bottom club Bury.

With Southend one of several sides plotting a new year assault on the top six, today’s fixture is a big one for a City outfit fresh from the confidence boost of prevailing in last weekend’s seven-goal thriller at home to Rochdale.

“That game was typical of us in terms of we carry goal threats from all over the pitch,” added Wyke, City’s top scorer with 10 goals.

“I don’t think teams will look forward to playing us at home because of that.

“Defenders like Tony McMahon and Matt Kilgallon can score and teams won’t like playing against us.

“This time of year is always a busy period. We have a fair few games over the next few weeks, but we are up there and we will see what happens.”