Ashley Ward today warned his Bradford City team-mates: "We'll be marked men next season".

The Bantams centre-forward has become a reluctant expert on Premiership relegation. City will be the fourth club with which he has gone down from the top flight after Norwich, Barnsley and Blackburn.

Ward has learned that at this time of the year, City's future First Division rivals will already be sizing them up - and their recent form revival can send out a statement of intent.

He said: "It's always difficult when you go down because you become a yardstick for the other players. They see players who were in the Premier League last year, playing at a nice ground, and they want to measure themselves against that and raise their game.

"That's part of being one of the stronger sides in the division which we would obviously aim to be.

"But the squad here now must give us a very good chance, especially the way we have been playing since the change in system.

"Now we have gone more positive there has not been a game when we haven't looked like scoring. Liverpool may have kept a clean sheet on Tuesday but that was the first for eight games and I felt we did enough to have got something from it.

"At the start of the season we couldn't buy a goal, yet with virtually the same personnel we are now looking dangerous all the time. That's down to the system we're playing now and the nice balance.

"It's put extra onus on the defenders playing a back four. At times you can have that many men back, you don't know who is responsible for what and people drift between players.

"When you've got a back four you are asking a lot of the defenders but they've answered it brilliantly.

"It's just a shame we couldn't have played like this over the whole ten months of the season or you feel things might have been different.

"Playing this way over a short amount of time, looking at games like Newcastle, Man City and Liverpool, we feel a bit hard done by. But if you had spread that over the season I'm sure we would have got our just rewards and stayed up."

Ward is determined to help City sign off their home campaign with a win against a Middlesbrough side still not clear of the dropzone themselves.

He added: "Our objective is over but we can have a say in what other people do so that keeps the season alive.

"It's a big game for Boro but we want to finish at home with a good result.

"We've played well here in the last few games and the supporters have appreciated that and created a good atmosphere.

"We want to do the same again tomorrow and hopefully this time we'll get the result that we deserve."