Walsall v Bradford City - Silence is golden for Bantams boss Gary Bowyer

The first clear week of the season, not dictated to by midweek games or transfer window machinations, has been well received by the Bantams chief, who has utilised the time to good effect at the club’s Woodhouse Grove training ground.

Last weekend’s come-from-behind victory over Northampton Town has added to a sense of well-being, albeit with the acknowledgement that City remain a work in progress just a month-and-a-half into the campaign.

On a steady week for once, Bowyer said: “It has been really noticeable, for sure. It has been brilliant as the phone has been very quiet and I have only had maybe one or two agents ring this week.

“You do not realise until it actually happens. You are obviously aware of how frantic it is in the window, but this has probably been the first week where it has been calm.

“It has been nice to be perfectly honest to be able to focus on the football.”

For those Bantams players at the club last season, today’s trip to the Midlands, arguably the scene of the club’s darkest hour last season when they went down 3-2 in a grim defeat to a direct relegation rival, offers the chance of redemption.

It was a day when City’s battling qualities, which have come to the fore in the early days of Bowyer’s reign, were wholly absent and Bantams followers should at least be able to count on better in that regard today.

Bowyer said: “One of the first things we speak about is playing the whole game, no matter what the scoreline is.

“We keep going to the end, win, lose or draw and we have certainly seen that in these opening games and it is a great quality to have.”