Port Vale v Bradford City: Parkinson eager to embark on City run

The Bantams travel to Port Vale today and then host Milton Keynes Dons in front of the live Sky cameras on Monday.

Then comes the eagerly-awaited FA Cup fifth-round tie at home to Sunderland, the first time Bradford have reached this stage of the competition in 18 years.

Parkinson said: “This is the start of a terrific eight days for the club. These are exciting times, 
especially in terms of two big, big league games.

“The FA Cup is there, of course it is, and I went to the Fulham versus Sunderland replay this week to see who we might play in the next round. But that is now on the backburner.

“We play Port Vale and MK Dons in the space of three days.

“Of course, from a football point of view, the MK Dons game being brought forward wasn’t ideal, but it brings useful finance in and it is the same for both teams.

“Plus, we have already shown this season by winning two games in three days over Christmas that we can do well. We have got four or five players who have been out of the team for whatever reason and they are chomping at the bit to be involved.”

City’s incredible Cup win at Chelsea has quite rightly earned the club plenty of plaudits.

Either side of that Stamford Bridge triumph, however, the Bantams have claimed just one of a possible nine points.

Parkinson added: “The league has to be our priority so good results in these back-to-back games could help us a lot.

“The window was pleasing, from our point of view. We kept hold of the players we wanted to keep hold of. It was also important to get another central defender (Gary MacKenzie) with experience into the building. We have a lot of games coming up and we will need the squad.”