City's out-of-contract players will know their fate before this weekend's final game of the season.

A dozen of the squad finish their deals in the summer and are currently being told whether they will receive a new offer.

Four of them played at Sheffield United last night - Claus Jorgensen, Gus Uhlenbeek, Robert Molenaar and Aidan Davison.

Boss Nicky Law has admitted that City could be hard-pressed to keep the players they want because of the budget constraints.

He said: "If I'm really honest it will be difficult to keep many at all with the wage-capping we've got now and having to reduce the age of the squad.

"But it will all be made public before the end of the week and we shall see from there.

"It's another plus for the club, though, that we've got to safety and can still go out and play with the passion that we showed against Sheffield United."

City went down 3-0 to the play-off certainties with all three goals coming after the break. But the Bantams, who have now gone three games without a goal or a point, had good chances of their own in the first half.

Law said: "We should have come in at half-time possibly 2-1 up. But goals change games.

"Danny Forrest had a header he should have put away and Andy Gray was through on the keeper but he kidded him out of it. Whether that's good goalkeeping or poor finishing I'm not sure, but in training you'd fancy him to put that one away more times than not.

"The difference at this level is the finishing. It has let us down for the last three games certainly and possibly overall this season.

"I'm not happy with the fact that since getting to 52 points we've lost three games on the trot. But we came here and had a really good go."

Chairman Gordon Gibb was today hoping to secure the deal with Lombards to take over ownership of Valley Parade.

Gibb remains confident that the mortgage company will accept his offer to buy out the £6.3m lease, which includes an immediate £4m cash down-payment.

Law said: "It's a big plus for us. People have been a little hesitant and unsure because of the time everything has taken but let's not forget last August we didn't know if we'd still have a football club. Everyone at the club and the supporters have been great."