Lee Sharpe today urged fans not to panic as City try to halt the alarming slide which has sent them plunging to the brink of the relegation dogfight.

The Bantams face a critical home game tomorrow against Portsmouth, another team in free-fall, needing to stop a run of five straight defeats.

Injuries and suspensions have ruled out ten players from City's plans giving new boss Nicky Law the toughest possible backdrop to his first league game in charge.

Angry supporters turned on the team during Tuesday's FA Cup exit at Walsall and chairman Geoffrey Richmond has called it the "biggest crisis on the field in my time here."

But Sharpe is calling for calm as fans eye nervously the diminishing gap between 17th-placed City and the bottom three.

Sharpe said: "It's not the time to panic. It's a difficult time for everyone but it's a matter of all pulling together.

"There is a lot of frustration at the moment but the players feel it too.

"We just need to inject that little bit of confidence and I'm sure a win at home will do us no harm.

"You have to understand how far the team have come in the last five or six years.

"I know we reached the heady heights of the Premier League but it's not so long ago these bad times were here.

"If you appreciate the good times, you have to battle through the bad ones to enjoy the good again.

"Every club goes through a bad spell even Man United at the start of this season. They rallied together and came good and we need to do the same.

"We need to keep together as a close-knit team and pull together as friends to get through it."

Portsmouth have lost seven of their last nine games and come to Valley Parade on the back of a 4-1 home thrashing by Third Division Leyton Orient.

City assistant boss Ian Banks said: "They had a terrible result and depending how they react, we could feel the backlash or hopefully they will fade away and die.

"It's our first game at home and we're looking for a more positive and ruthless performance than Tuesday with a lot more passion.

"Supporters aren't daft and we're not going to defend a performance like the one at Walsall. The fans are intelligent enough to see what's going on and didn't feel the passion was there.

"I wouldn't have swapped any of Walsall's players for ours but they were organised, determined and wanted it more.

"There is no hiding place in football and there is another chance tomorrow.

"The team picks itself because we're down on numbers so it's up to the players to turn it round.

"They know they're much better than that but they've got to go out there and prove it."