Bradford City will mark their return to English League One when they welcome Wycombe Wanderers to Valley Parade on Saturday afternoon.
The Bantams finally brought an end to their five-year stint in the fourth tier with a dramatic 1-0 win over Fleetwood on the final day of last season.
Promotion back to League One has prompted the Bradford hierarchy to reward manager Graham Alexander with a new three year contract.
A season of consolidation will be the aim for Alexander and co, and they will be keen to hit the ground running when Wycombe come to town this weekend.
The Chairboys suffered heartache at the end of the 2024-25 campaign as they missed out on automatic promotion after a dip in form and then lost out in the play-offs to Charlton at the semi-final stage.
Manager Mike Dodds has been busy refreshing his squad over the summer, with no fewer than 10 new players arriving at Adams Park.
How the bookies view it: Bradford to edge it
The bookmakers are struggling to separate the two teams ,with Bradford marginal 7/5 favourites on Boylesports.
Wycombe are narrow outsiders at 17/10 on Boylesports while a point apiece at Valley Parade has been priced up at 11/5 with the same firm.
Head to head: Chairboys in charge
Wycombe have triumphed in 10 of the overall 17 meetings between the two teams, including three of the last four. It’s also worth noting that three of the 10 previous encounters have featured Under 2.5 Goals – a repeat here pays just 4/6 on Boylesports.
Players to watch: Lean on Leahy
Luke Leahy chipped in with seven goals and eight assists for Wycombe last season, making him an attractive anytime goalscorer option on Saturday at 7/1 on Boylesports.
New signing Stephen Humphrys could spearhead Bradfords’ attack for their curtain-raiser with Wycombe this weekend. The 27-year-old has plenty of experience at this level and he looks overpriced to grab a goal here at 3/1 on Boylesports.
Predicted line-ups
Bradford remain without talismanic forward Andy Cook who is still recovering from the ACL injury that he sustained at the beginning of the year, while defender Neil Bryne is also in the treatment room.
Wycombe boss Dodds has a relatively clean bill of health ahead of the opening weekend of the season, with Garath McCleary and Josh Scowen the only reported absentees for the visitors.
Bradford: Walker; Wright, Tilt, Pennington; Halliday, Pattison, Metcalfe, Power, Touray; Humphrys, Swan
Wycombe: Van Sas; Back, Allen, Casey, Harvie; Westergaard, Leahy; Quitirna, Mullins, Tilley; Udoh
Anything else catch the eye?
In front of a passionate Valley Parade crowd, Bradford look good value to earn a minimum of five corners on Saturday afternoon at 22/25 with UniBet.
The Bantams were winning an average of 5.35 corners per home game in English League Two last season.
Look for that trend to continue when they play host to a Wycombe side that were conceding an average of five corners per 90 on their travels last term.
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