PHIL Parkinson is confident that Ben Williams will be in City’s goal for the FA Cup third-round trip to Millwall on Saturday.
The experienced stopper’s current half-season contract runs out today, which potentially could leave the Bantams with only the untried Matt Urwin to face the Championship side.
But it appears that a new deal will be struck in time with the former Hibs keeper after talks with the board.
Boss Parkinson said: “Hopefully we’ve got a deal agreed with Ben so he can stay with us at least for another month, possibly longer. That’s great news for us.
“As I’ve said before, Ben has not only done well for us as a player but the way he’s trained alongside Jordan (Pickford) and Matt Urwin has been exemplary.
“We’ve built everything we’ve done at Bradford around having a really good core of characters in the building. Ben is certainly one of those.”
Williams has played five games for the club – all in the cup competitions because Sunderland would not allow on-loan Jordan Pickford to play. The 32-year-old last appeared in the previous round against Dartford.
With Williams secured, that will turn the attention to the future of Filipe Morais and Jon Stead. As it stands, they are both out of contract after the weekend.
The club are very keen to tie them down but Stead’s situation hinges on what parent club Huddersfield decide and Morais may be tempted to stall after being watched by a scout from Bolton on Sunday.
The Portuguese is an injury doubt for the Den after suffering a dead leg in the win over Notts County.
Andrew Davies is already expected to be out with a minor hamstring strain, which forced him off early in the game.
Mark Yeates, who has had trouble with his knee after suffering a bad tackle at Fleetwood on Boxing Day, had a scan with physio Matt Barrass yesterday.
Parkinson said: “Hopefully that’s only a precaution but we’ll have to see.
“It’s getting better by the day but Matt just wanted to scan it to make sure there’s nothing sinister going on.”
Meanwhile, Parkinson has played down a report from Scotland that City are in the chase for Inverness striker Billy McKay.
He said: “I honestly don’t where that’s come from. We certainly haven’t got the money to pay transfer fees.
“I know he’s out of contract and he’s a player we’ve watched before. He’s got a good goal-scoring record but someone’s just plucked that from thin air.”
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