Bury v Bradford City: Plenty of hard work lies ahead for Bantams, says Stuart McCall

The Bantams head to Gigg Lane today having spent all but the first 10 days of the season sitting in the top six.

Despite that impressive level of consistency, Bradford are guaranteed nothing with five games remaining due to seventh-placed Millwall being just three points adrift of McCall’s side.

“Unless Oxford or Rochdale can win their last five games, it looks like five of us battling for four spots,” said the former Scottish international.

“Fleetwood got a terrific result at Oxford the other night, then there are Scunthorpe, ourselves, Millwall and Southend. If Oxford had beaten Fleetwood, they would have still been in it.

“I don’t want to rule them or Rochdale totally out of it but it is looking like five of us now.”

City sit fourth in the table with 69 points, three behind Fleetwood with Bolton Wanderers in the second automatic promotion place a further seven ahead.

“We have just got to concentrate on ourselves for these last five games,” added McCall. “I have noticed other managers talking about 74 points (to qualify) recently but now it looks like they might have to revisit it.

“If a couple of teams win a couple of games each, it could be more than that. You just never know, anything can happen.

“On the day we go to Sheffield United (April 17), Millwall play Fleetwood. Scunthorpe have also got Bolton on Saturday, while Southend have no-one to play in the top half now but they do have to go to Charlton.

“We have still got some really tricky games, there is no doubt about that. But you look at the results lately, like Swindon beating Fleetwood last week, and there are ones that pop up that no-one expects.

“You can’t predict things. You have just got to make sure you are at it each game. If we can win another couple and maybe nick a couple more points elsewhere, who knows? But that is easier said than done.”

Bradford have won five of their last eight league outings and will take on Lee Clark’s men full of confidence.

“We are far from nearly there,” added McCall about the race for the top six. “There are some good teams around us who are all capable of winning three or four games. Southend have got the firepower, so have Millwall, Scunny and Fleetwood. The hard work is still to be done.”