City boss Gary Bowyer is calling on his side to make “forward strides” when the Bantams battle Oxford United tomorrow (kick-off 3.00pm).
Victory could move City to within one point of safety in Sky Bet League One.
And the Bantams enter the contest having recently defeated Peterborough United and lost out narrowly to league-leading Luton Town.
Bowyer said: “You can see the passion in the players’ recent performances. There is a huge amount of fight and desire in the dressing room.
“It hurt them losing out on a clean sheet against Luton - with the late penalty, which should have never been given.
“You only have to look at how Luton reacted after the final whistle. They knew how much of a tough game they had been in.
“We have to take the confidence from those two performances and keep fighting. I have laid it on the line to the players. They will fight for everything, in every minute.
“We have people who can score goals but they need servicing and we have been working on how we can best do that.
“Oxford have some good footballers and plenty of pace. Like every team in this league, though, you can identify their strengths and examine their weaknesses. We have to exploit those.
“We have made some progress in the last 10 days or so, but we need to go out there at Oxford and make further forward strides.”
City will be without Kelvin Mellor and Calum Woods, who suffered injuries during last Saturday’s 3-1 victory over Peterborough.
Sean Scannell has enjoyed a full week of training, following a lengthy lay-off, but will not travel to the Kassam Stadium.
“Kelvin and Calum are going to be out of action for several weeks,” said Bowyer.
“It is difficult to work out exactly how long their recoveries will take but we have to look after them. When they come back we need them fit the rest of the season.
“Sean is continuing to progress well but we cannot afford to rush him back, given the length of time he has been injured for."