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Bradford City keeper Richard O’Donnell is relishing the prospect of shutting out former team-mate Eoin Doyle in the Carabao Cup on Saturday.
Wanderers kick-off their season with a knockout clash against another one of League Two’s heavyweights and could give out debuts to any one of 14 new signings.
One of them, Doyle, is well-known to the Bantams after finishing as the club’s top scorer in an unsuccessful 2018/19 season which saw them relegated from League One.
The Irishman left Valley Parade for Swindon the following summer, initially on loan, finding a rich vein of form and scoring 26 goals in total.
Now O’Donnell is looking forward to a swift reunion at the University of Bolton Stadium.
“I got on really well with Eoin and have a lot of time for him and he obviously did extremely well at Swindon last season,” he told the Telegraph and Argus.
“But it will be like any other game for us in terms of what we’re coming up against.
“Don’t get me wrong, we’ll have to pay attention to a player like Doyler because we know he’s a good finisher after what he did last year.
“We’ll prepare for that as we would any other striker and threat in the league. It’s just any other game except it’s a familiar face that we’ll be playing against.”
Wanderers are the title favourites in League Two, turning heads with signings like Doyle, Antoni Sarcevic and Nathan Delfouneso during the summer.
O’Donnell insists Stuart McCall’s team will not be intimidated, however, and will be looking to book their place in the second round of the competition.
“It’s a good gauge of where we’re at going into the season,” he said.
“It’s been well-documented that Bolton have spent quite a bit of money and there’s a lot of expectation on them.
“They’ve signed some big-name players and spent a bit before the salary cap came in. They are a big club at this level as are we.
“We’ll go there looking to win the game. We definitely don’t fear anyone in our league.
“We feel that we’re in a good place and really looking forward to getting going.
“If we need to iron a few things out before the league season starts, we’ve obviously got another week to do so.”
Wanderers have had six pre-season friendlies in the last eight weeks, winning four. Bradford have played three games in preparation for the new campaign, losing against tough opposition in Doncaster Rovers, Huddersfield Town and Wigan Athletic.
Form, notes O’Donnell, is difficult to predict at this stage.
“I don’t think you can really gauge where anybody is going to be at with the start of the season,” he added.
“It’s going to be difficult because it’s been such a long time. A lot of things can happen in that time, both as a team and individually.
“When you’re on a hot streak, you want the games to come thick and fast.
“But nobody’s had that luxury of playing for six months so it’s going to be interesting to see.
“You’re probably looking at the first 10 games and we might still not know where everybody is at because of the lack of pre-season matches compared to what they normally have.”
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Wanderers kick-off their season with a knockout clash against another one of League Two’s heavyweights and could give out debuts to any one of 14 new signings.
One of them, Doyle, is well-known to the Bantams after finishing as the club’s top scorer in an unsuccessful 2018/19 season which saw them relegated from League One.
The Irishman left Valley Parade for Swindon the following summer, initially on loan, finding a rich vein of form and scoring 26 goals in total.
Now O’Donnell is looking forward to a swift reunion at the University of Bolton Stadium.
“I got on really well with Eoin and have a lot of time for him and he obviously did extremely well at Swindon last season,” he told the Telegraph and Argus.
“But it will be like any other game for us in terms of what we’re coming up against.
“Don’t get me wrong, we’ll have to pay attention to a player like Doyler because we know he’s a good finisher after what he did last year.
“We’ll prepare for that as we would any other striker and threat in the league. It’s just any other game except it’s a familiar face that we’ll be playing against.”
Wanderers are the title favourites in League Two, turning heads with signings like Doyle, Antoni Sarcevic and Nathan Delfouneso during the summer.
O’Donnell insists Stuart McCall’s team will not be intimidated, however, and will be looking to book their place in the second round of the competition.
“It’s a good gauge of where we’re at going into the season,” he said.
“It’s been well-documented that Bolton have spent quite a bit of money and there’s a lot of expectation on them.
“They’ve signed some big-name players and spent a bit before the salary cap came in. They are a big club at this level as are we.
“We’ll go there looking to win the game. We definitely don’t fear anyone in our league.
“We feel that we’re in a good place and really looking forward to getting going.
“If we need to iron a few things out before the league season starts, we’ve obviously got another week to do so.”
Wanderers have had six pre-season friendlies in the last eight weeks, winning four. Bradford have played three games in preparation for the new campaign, losing against tough opposition in Doncaster Rovers, Huddersfield Town and Wigan Athletic.
Form, notes O’Donnell, is difficult to predict at this stage.
“I don’t think you can really gauge where anybody is going to be at with the start of the season,” he added.
“It’s going to be difficult because it’s been such a long time. A lot of things can happen in that time, both as a team and individually.
“When you’re on a hot streak, you want the games to come thick and fast.
“But nobody’s had that luxury of playing for six months so it’s going to be interesting to see.
“You’re probably looking at the first 10 games and we might still not know where everybody is at because of the lack of pre-season matches compared to what they normally have.”
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