Matt Clarke was out of favour at Valley Parade for so long that Eoin Jess never saw him play.

Apart from the last half-hour of the pre-season friendly in Portadown, Jess and Clarke never featured on the same side.

But the Scot saw enough in nine months as a non-playing team-mate to know that City's strikers will have a job on their hands tonight against Crystal Palace.

Clarke's acrimonious departure has spiced up an already demanding evening and Jess is expecting no favours from the Palace goalkeeper.

Jess said: "It's funny that in all the time I've been here, I've never actually seen Matt in a proper game.

"But I've watched him enough in training to know that Matt is a real quality keeper. And of course, he'll be trying to keep a clean sheet to prove a point.

"It will still be nice to see him but hopefully he doesn't play too well. We need to improve our results quickly."

Clarke eventually completed his £1.35m Palace switch after being slapped on the transfer list in December - a fortnight before Jess arrived from Aberdeen.

City manager Jim Jefferies said: "Matt made it known he wanted to move on when things didn't work out.

"While he was here when he came back in pre-season there were no problems. It was just a case of waiting around until an opportunity came for him to move on.

"He's got that with Crystal Palace and I understand he is doing very well. And no doubt tonight he will be there trying his darnedest to keep Bradford City out - while we'll be trying our darnedest to put one past him."

Like at Watford last week, City have never beaten Palace on their own patch in nine previous attempts.

But Jess has assured the travelling fans there is no chance of a repeat of their awful display at Vicarage Road seven days ago.

"We were all over the place that night and didn't deserve to get anything. But it was a 100 per cent improvement against Wolves even though the result didn't go for us.

"Effort-wise Saturday was much better than the two previous performances and if we can take that into tonight, we've got a good chance.

"Palace are flying like Wolves but the pressure will be on them to get the result. If we continue to work hard, then hopefully we might get the rub of the green."