Bradford City v Colchester United: Phil Parkinson expects Bantams to face tough time against his former club

With 10 points from as many games, the Bantams were sitting 19th and all the pre-season talk of building on the previous campaign’s FA Cup exploits looked fanciful at best.

Colchester, meanwhile, looked set to confound the predictions that the Essex club would struggle with that victory over the Yorkshire side moving them up to eighth.

Fast forward five months, however, and Bradford are a club on the up after a dramatic upturn in form that means Phil Parkinson’s men are just one place and one point outside the play-off places.

In contrast, Colchester’s campaign has collapsed with just one win from 23 games since that September triumph over City making a return to League Two look inevitable.

Parkinson, a former manager of the U’s, is all too aware of how contrasting the two clubs’ fortunes have been over the past five months. Despite that, he is adamant that Colchester cannot be taken lightly tonight.

The City chief said: “If you look at the games against Oldham and Fleetwood, we beat them both but they were hard-fought. We had to fight tooth and nail to get the points.

“You look at Oldham’s subsequent results and Fleetwood’s victory on Saturday (against Coventry) and that tells you everything you need to know about playing the teams down the bottom.

“They went to Bury a couple of weeks ago. Bury weren’t on it and found themselves two down and it could have been more.

“It was only when Colchester had someone sent off then the pattern changed and they got beaten 5-2.

“Obviously, because Colchester are down there, there are cracks in their armoury; there have got to be for a team in that position at this stage of the season.

“We have to work hard to find those chinks and it will take a very good performance to do that.”

Reece Burke is a doubt, but Steven Davies is out as Bradford await the results of a scan on a suspected knee injury.

Last six games: Bradford City WLWWDW, Colchester United LLLDLD.

Referee: G Salisbury (Lancashire).

Last time: Bradford City 1 Colchester United 1; January 31, 2015; Championship.