Bradford City 'know what to expect' from Harrogate Town during derby clash, says caretaker boss Mark Trueman

The Yorkshire rivals meet for the second time in the space of just 17 days with the Bantams aiming to avenge a 2-0 loss at Wetherby Road and breathe new life into their faltering play-off bid.

Simon Weaver' s men have been woeful defensively of late, but dangerous going forwards at the same time, and it is their threat in the final third which Trueman expects will cause his side problems.

"Harrogate are a good team. We know their strengths and weaknesses, we know what to expect.

"They are full of energy and will cause us problems with their front-line. I thought we played well against them in the first half [away from home] but they've got their strengths and individual quality. We saw that with the likes of [Jack] Diamond and how positive he is on the ball, while [Jack] Muldoon and [Luke] Armstrong are full of energy.

"We know the strengths of Harrogate and we know it's a derby so we need to be physical. We need to be aggressive with and without the ball, we need to give the fans something that they want, which is work-rate, energy, aggression, but also we've got to be good on the ball in the right areas, take our time and not force things.

"We know as a group of playing staff and coaching staff how big a result would be and could hopefully change the momentum of our season."

Trueman was not in charge of the Bantams when they were beaten by two Diamond goals earlier this month, but he has subsequently replaced Derek Adams in the managerial hot-seat after the Scotsman was sacked early last week.

His first game as caretaker boss ended in a 2-0 defeat at relegation-threatened Oldham Athletic on Saturday and the 34-year-old has admitted that he has not found it easy to change the way City play in the limited time he has had to work with his players between matches.

"Obviously when a manager loses his job there is obviously a little bit of disruption in the camp with regards to training and the way of playing with the new manager," he added.

"I'm trying to change the mentality within the group, I'm trying to add a slightly different way of playing, which takes time. We've learned a lot from the Oldham game and we know what we need to put right heading into Harrogate.

"Unfortunately we've got nine out for this game and probably eight or nine of them could be starters, so we find ourselves in a difficult position, but we're not going to use excuses.

"There will be a little bit of thinking outside the box and players that don't always play in the back-line might have to on Tuesday."

Bradford will in fact only be without eight players for their clash with Town after centre-half Paudie O'Connor's red card at Oldham was rescinded.

Neither City nor Harrogate head into Tuesday’s clash in any kind of decent form, both sides having managed just one solitary win during their last six outings.

Town’s head-to-head record against the Bantams makes for much healthier reading, however, with Weaver’s men having come out on top of all three of their previous derby encounters.

Their 2-0 win at Wetherby Road on February 5 followed on from a 2-1 success on home soil towards the back end of last season, Glasgow Rangers loanee Josh McPake netting a stunning late winner.

And the Sulphurites also came out on top on their last visit to Valley Parade courtesy of Lloyd Kerry’s second-half strike in front of the Sky Sports cameras.

Kick-off on Tuesday evening is at 7.45pm.