Talent of Doherty is now shining as Bradford City climb table

The 31-year-old former Northern Ireland international was the marquee signing of the summer by the Bantams with supporters left delighted by his acquisition from Hungarian club Ferencvaros.

Doherty arrived at Valley Parade with two promotions on his CV – with Bristol City to the Championship in 2004 and from League Two with Wycombe Wanderers four years later.

However, despite the widely-held belief among fans he would be able to make it a hat-trick of successes this term, the move initially turned sour with Doherty being booed during City's 2-0 defeat at home to Port Vale after a miscued back pass by the midfielder led to the second goal.

The reaction of the crowd led to Taylor, who had been the midfielder's manager at Wycombe, hitting back at the boo-boys after the game by saying: "If someone can explain to me how that is going to help, I will introduce booing in training. How will that make the player feel next time?"

Seven weeks on from that defeat to Vale, however, and Doherty has won over the critics with his name being sung loudly by the 1,198 fans who made the trip to Bury on Tuesday night as City pulled off a stunning 1-0 win.

Manager Taylor said: "I think the fans are enjoying watching Tommy play. Our players are also getting more used to playing with him as well. He is also fitter (after suffering a summer injury) and that is showing in his performances.

"To be fair, that can be said about a lot of the players. Four or five games ago, I don't think we were working as hard as we did against Bury.

"And that is not good enough, it is why we are in the position we are in.

"Now, all of a sudden, the players have that bit more belief and are working hard to show they are better players than they looked a month ago."

Tuesday night's win at Bury, which ended the home side's four-game winning run, saw City climb to 10th in the table and continue the progress made since the nadir of October 2 when a 1-0 home defeat to Morecambe saw Taylor's side slump to second-bottom of the Football League.

The City manager said: "I hope the momentum is now building. Five matches ago, we were 23rd and now we are tenth.

"The great thing for me now is whoever plays now knows they have to work extremely hard to stay in the team."

Loanees Tom Adeyemi, Jason Price and Louis Moult will all be available tomorrow after City were given permission by their respective parent clubs.