Adam Clayton on tough life lessons and learning to love football again at Bradford City

At a place he knows well in Brunton Park - where he spent a loan spell in the early days of his career - Clayton was part of a Bantams side who went down 3-1 after extra time in Cumbria to bow out of the League Two play-offs at the semi-final stage following a 3-2 aggregate loss.

The wounds will take a short while to heal, understandably. But for Clayton, his stint in West Yorkshire has still been time to treasure, even accounting for last weekend’s hurt.

The midfielder, who turned 34 in January, joined City on a short-term deal from Doncaster Rovers in the winter window.

His contract expires at the end of June and he dearly hopes to have done enough to stick around for a bit longer after featuring 16 times for the club since joining.

Manchester-born Clayton, who has spent a rewarding time across the Pennines in Yorkshire for the bulk of his career, said: "I had my time at Middlesbrough and before that at Huddersfield and Leeds and they were really happy times.

"I probably had an eight or nine year stint of playing week in, week out. Then, I came out of the team at Birmingham.

"I am happy for that now as it made me a stronger person and makes you look at life and what I had. Coming down to League Two, I have really embraced it and I am playing and happy.

"It does matter the division I am in as I want to play as high as I possibly can, but I am playing football, the thing I love, for 20,000 fans every week and we are trying to achieve something. I am in a real good place."

The dark days that Clayton alludes to came in the Midlands at Birmingham City, who he joined from Boro in September 2020 - initially linking up with someone who he knew well in ex-Riverside chief Aitor Karanka.

The move would ultimately turn sour with Karanka leaving Blues in March 2021 and the Mancunian fell totally out of favour at St Andrew's the following season.

It was a very fraught time in the career of Clayton. But thankfully he came out on the other side.

He continued: "I was driving two and a half to three hours per morning to Birmingham to train with the under-21s. It's not nice and a nice place to be.

"I did it and am through it and I am a better footballer for doing that. One thing I will tell my kids is to fail on the way up in life.

"Because if you don't fail early on, I think you can end up falling off a cliff in future.

"If everything goes right for you and then something goes wrong - which it invariably will in life - I think failure is one of the best things you can do as a young person."Whatever happens now in terms of Clayton's footballing future, he will have the tools to deal with it.