Bradford City have kept four successive league clean sheets

Notts County have fallen away in the promotion chase since the turn of the year.

But they still top the division’s scoring charts with 69 goals from their 34 games. That is coupled with the second worst defence.

Notts County matches have seen a whopping 135 goals this season – the most in all four divisions by a long way – at an average of four each time.

“They’ve got an identity of how they want to play and I don’t think they’ll change that,” said City boss Graham Alexander.

“It’s been one of their strengths. They’ve had a consistent run with the previous manager who had a while to work on his team and structure his squad to play in a certain way.

“It was certainly the case when we played them down there.

“I’ve not seen anything different from then until now to emphasise a change of style since the new manager came in.

“They’ve certainly been one of the highest for entertainment and goal-scoring value. There have been a lot of goals in the games they’ve been involved in.

“Notts County have shown even in their game on Tuesday night when they got beaten, they still scored three goals.”

The Bantams go into the Valley Parade clash on the back of four league clean sheets on the bounce. Sam Walker went through the whole of February without conceding a goal.

Muzzling the Magpies and 24-goal hotshot Macaulay Langstaff is the big challenge as they chase a fourth straight win to close on the play-off pack.

Alexander added: “Our structure has been really good for quite a while.

“There were just a couple of games when we were a little bit ill-disciplined or unfocused at the start which has put us on the back foot.

“In general terms, the defensive side of our game and team has been pretty good.

“Since Sam’s come in, I think he’s added to that and the clean sheets we want to build on.

“There are still bits we need to improve on that side of it as a team. We’re not perfect on that score.

“But every credit to the players so far, they’ve done it really well.

“They’ve worked exceptionally hard on the pitch and off it to make sure we give ourselves the best chance of being hard to beat.”

City have tightened up since conceding four at Notts County (Image: Thomas Gadd)

City have not conceded in the last three home league outings – clamping down on letting in goals in the first 15 minutes to leave them chasing games as they had done previously against Morecambe, Crawley and Salford.

“We wanted to try and start games strongly but we went through a period when we were probably over-committed and left ourselves open,” admitted Alexander.

“We’ve tried to show a little bit more control and patience and not try to win a game in the first 15 minutes.

“There’s loads of little things that happen that steer a game towards a certain result. We have to be good enough, and I believe we have been, to have consistent performances over the full scope of a game not just a really bright start and diminish from there.

“I just want my players to maximise their potential and quality.

“That’s where our success lies. It’s not about what the opposition can produce, it’s about us.

“The players are in a determined mood. We’ve built up a consistency and good momentum and we’ll be in a strong position mentally to give it our best shot to win the game.”