Play-offs still possible for Bradford City says defender

In a League Two campaign where the pessimists spoke about the National League and namely avoiding a catastrophic relegation during a desperate late autumn and early winter, the narrative has changed following an outstanding run of form under the interim management team of Mark Trueman and Conor Sellars.

City have lost just once in ten matches under the duo, winning six matches in the process with the latest coming in Tuesday’s 2-1 victory over Morecambe when the hosts came from behind to triumph in a league game for the first time since September 26.

The win moved City up to 16th and they are now closing to the play-off positions than the bottom two, an impressive achievement given that the club were outside of the relegation zone by goal difference only when Trueman and Sellars were handed the reins in mid-December.

In their ten games at the helm, City have averaged over two points a game with 21 points. No fellow League Two side has taken more points in their past ten outings.

As for talk of the play-offs, O’Connor - who netted in his 100th start for the club against Morecambe - believes it is not as unrealistic as it seems at first glance.

On the prospect of the play-offs, with City nine points behind seventh-placed Exeter with twenty games still to play in their campaign, he said: “Why not? It is going to be tough, but seven points is not impossible and we can definitely claw that back.

“But every week throws up different challenges and it is all about the next game. Cheltenham are a team at the top end of the table and it will be a tough game for us. But we had a good game with them earlier on in the season at Valley Parade.

“But one thing we have really worked on in the last nine or ten games is being hard to beat and cutting out stupid goals, which we have done a lot.

“We will take the next batch of goals and see how they go and see where we are then after them and who knows. We will keep plugging away anyway.”