BRADFORD CITY AFC

City boss Phil Parkinson felt his side deserved praise for their performance against Bristol City this Saturday after a trying week for the club.

With City hit by a number of injuries - two more being picked up during the Bristol City encounter itself - and the saga of Nahki Wells' move out of the Coral Windows Stadium, preparations for this weekend's game weren't exactly the easiest for Parkinson's men.

Despite this though, City put in a spirited performance against a threatening Bristol City side - a team with much more talent than their lowly league position may suggest - to fully warrant the point collected from their maiden home match of 2014.

Parkinson said: "We've having a tough times with injuries at the moment, We have been relatively lucky with injuries since my time here - we have worked hard to prevent such problems - but unfortunately at the moment we have picked up a lot.

"It seems like we have picked up another couple today (Saturday), which is obviously a shame, but we have to stick together and show the commitment we have shown again in this match.

"With Nahki going, there was always going to be a degree of negativity around the ground because of the popularity of the player - you can't hide away from that.

"I spoke to the players about this and told them what could be expected this afternoon in and around the ground. In fairness though, I felt our supporters were great and they really got behind the team.

"I thought it was a decent game overall. Sometimes you get that when two teams go up against each other with different formations - Bristol City coming here with three at the back and ourselves playing 4-4-2.

"We asked the boys to implement what we had worked on in training throughout this week and I felt they did that.

"I was pleased with the way we played, I was just disappointed with the goal we conceded because it was one that clearly could have been avoided.

"After taking the lead, it was a real shame to surrender it up like that. But the way we've played today and the manner of our play was excellent.

"We'd spoken to the lads beforehand about what we needed to do to play well today against their formation, but it was also important to put in a performance full of spirit as well."

To go with City's lengthy injury list pre-match, the Bantams' efforts in this Saturday's fixture weren't helped by injuries during the game to Ricky Ravenhill (ankle ligament damage) in the first half and Kyel Reid (tight calf) after the restart.

Parkinson added: "Kyel has got a slight calf injury - hopefully it won't be too serious.

"We won't know the full extent of it though for the next twenty-four hours or so.

"There is obviously a problem there because we brought him off but we are hopefully it is nothing too serious.

"I felt Ricky started the game fantastically well but then got his injury.

"We'll have to look into Ricky's problem as well to get to the root of it."