Diamonds are Mark Hughes's best friend as system switch reaps a dividend against Harrogate Town

City were under scrutiny on the back of a four-match losing sequence in all competitions, which culminated in a poor Boxing Day loss at Carlisle United, with concerns abound that Hughes's side are falling off the League Two promotion pace.

On a key night, City - who operated a diamond system, with Tyreik Wright partnering Vadaine Oliver up top and Levi Sutton and Alex Gilliead playing in front of Richie Smallwood - secured three home points for the first time since September.

It was also their maiden win over Harrogate at BD8.

Hughes said: "It was very good. I am really pleased with the level of performance we put in. I thought we were excellent from start to finish and had a great start to the game with the opening goal.

"We changed things around a little bit with the formation personnel. I think it caught Harrogate out a bit in the opening period as I don't think they probably expected us to go the way we did. We reaped the benefit of that, albeit after 50 seconds. You don't expect to score so soon.

"But we were grateful for that and for the most part, we were quite comfortable and created chances and had some good performances from guys like Vadaine and Levi coming into the side.

"I thought they were excellent and they were all backed up by the rest of the lads who improved on their performance from the weekend.

"I was really pleased for them. I thought it was a good, strong performance and they never really put us under any sustained pressure and I think that is credit to the lads.

"We had a bit of pace and the physicality of Vadaine and it obviously caused them problems."

Bradford, who are back up to seventh in the table and occupy the final play-off position, welcome the side just below them, Salford City, at the University of Bradford Stadium on Sunday afternoon.