Letting a two-goal lead slip with just 25 minutes remaining of their clash with West Ham has left many pundits predicting City will not recover from such a Hammer blow.

The 5-4 defeat was a devastating defeat for City with the stunned expressions on the players' faces as they trooped off the Upton Park pitch telling their own story.

Jamie Lawrence's double strike inside four minutes just after the break had looked like sealing City's third successive victory. But an exhilarating final 25 minutes from Joe Cole, Paolo Di Canio and Frank Lampard helped West Ham pull off a thrilling 5-4 victory.

The reaction to City's collapse in the national press and on television was along the lines of "this will knock the stuffing out of Bradford's season and they won't bounce back".

Seven days earlier, Derby scored two stoppage-time goals to earn a 3-3 draw with Sheffield Wednesday and the doom-mongers were saying the same thing about the Owls. They duly went on to lose 1-0 at home to Southampton last Saturday and in this case the critics may well be right.

But I don't think comparisons can be drawn between City and Wednesday.

The Owls certainly have some talented players, as they illustrated when beating the Bantams 2-0 last month. But when things are not going well, Wednesday have a tendency to collapse due to what appears to be a lack of backbone.

I have seen the Owls on television three times this season. In the games at Chelsea and Liverpool they started very brightly and should have gone ahead, but once behind they collapsed completely.

At West Ham, they were also undone by a Hammers fightback in a seven-goal thriller which they should have won.

In contrast, no matter how critical people have been of City this season, the one thing everyone appears to agree on is the side's renowned fighting spirit.

Whenever City have suffered a setback, they have invariably bounced back. If they come up against a side who threaten to over-run them, such as Chelsea in last month's Valley Parade clash, Paul Jewell's men dig in and fight for a result.

That's why I feel last weekend's heartbreaking defeat will not have any long-lasting effects in the season.

City have also impressed when going forward in the last three games with nine goals being scored as a result.

This is in stark contrast to the seven which had been scored in the previous 11.

That must give City heart for what looks like being a dogfight for survival.

Dean Saunders and Dean Windass have been a revelation up front with their understanding causing problems for Wat-ford, Arsenal and West Ham.

And the great thing for City is that both Lee Mills and Robbie Blake, currently out of the side, impressed for the reserves this week in the 2-1 victory against Sheffield Wednesday.

Jorge Cadete also looks like adding to City's attacking options in the next few days after encouraging reports from Portugal over his fitness.

On current form, Saunders and Windass must partner each other up front because they are quite clearly the two form strikers at the moment.

But with the trio of Mills, Cadete and Blake waiting in the wings, City are in an envious position as the battle for Premiership survival really hots up.

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