Bradford City winger Jamie Lawrence is battling to shrug off flu in time for the vital clash at Queens Park Rangers this weekend.

The 28-year-old missed the 3-2 derby defeat against Huddersfield Town after falling ill late last week.

Lawrence was not at training today with the rest of the squad but boss Paul Jewell is hopeful he will be fit enough to travel to London.

Jewell said: "He is still suffering with the flu and it is still too early to know if he will be fit to play at QPR.

"But we are hoping to see him back in training later this week when we will be able to assess how well he is."

Meanwhile, the City squad returned to training to hear an upbeat promotion message from Jewell.

Although bitterly disappointed to lose against Town in Saturday's thriller at Valley Parade, Jewell has no intention of moping about the result and will make sure there is no hangover for players either.

Despite the fact that City's rivals for second place Ipswich also lost to Bolton, Town's game in hand means they are favourites to take second place.

The match in hand is against Stockport at Portman Road tonight and Jewell said: "I would be telling lies if I didn't have one eye on the Ipswich game. It would be a great result for us if Stockport win, but I am not holding my breath.

"All we have got to do is to try to get three points at QPR on Saturday. We cannot control what happens at Ipswich tonight."

Although Ipswich have the advantage of a game in hand on City and will go three points clear if they beat Stockport, Jewell believes the pressure is now on Ipswich and added: "Pressure is a funny thing."

He added: "It was a miserable weekend after the Huddersfield defeat, but that has gone now and we have got to pick ourselves up.

"You can't start feeling sorry for yourself and think the world is against you - that is no good - you have to bounce back from the setbacks."

One area of concern for Jewell to think about before the visit to QPR is the defence, which conceded three goals in 14 minutes on Saturday.

He said: "In the first 20 minutes we played some smashing football, but what saddens me is that from being in control of the game, we went to pieces and conceded three goals. That is what disappointed me.

"Lapses in concentration are costing us dear."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.