Our season starts from here. That is the rallying call from Bryan Robson ahead of City's crunch Christmas schedule.

The Bantams are eight points off safety at the midway point of the campaign - and ten adrift of Rotherham, the visitors on Saturday.

But Robson is urging his new side to forget what has happened so far and focus on the job ahead.

He said: "We can't get too downbeat. We're halfway through the season but if we have a good second half then it turns everything right round and we can climb the league. We need to get on a decent run and that has to start with the next few home games. Rotherham is a vital game for us.

"It's so important we get the three points again. We can't keep hoping it's going to happen, we've got to make it happen and nothing less than a win will do."

City are desperate to break a run of three successive 1-0 defeats that has turned up the pressure ahead of the holiday games with Rotherham, Sunderland and Coventry.

"It's frustrating for everybody because the performances have been good," Robson added. "When I assess the four games we've played since I've been in charge, we shouldn't have got beaten in any of them.

"Rotherham are a big, strong side who rely a lot on set plays. We're going to have to be strong at set-pieces and the concentration levels must be good.

"But West Brom were very similar and we coped well with them. We're going to have to stand up and do exactly the same on Saturday.