IT WOULDN’T have been too hard to guess James Meredith’s resolution when the clock struck midnight to ring in the new year.

Forget about wishes for the whole of 2015, simply surviving the first week of January without incident should be notable achievement enough.

City’s left back and this particular time of the year don’t get on. Turn the clock back 12 months – and to this same point of the season before – and you’ll see ample proof of that.

Should Meredith come through Saturday’s home game against Rochdale unscathed, it will be the first occasion when he has played twice in January since joining the Bantams in the summer of 2012.

If the Australian sees February still in the team, then it will be totally new ground.

While some complain about greeting a new year with a raging hangover, Meredith’s January ills have been far more serious.

A surprisingly muted New Year’s Day display at Morecambe in his first season was put down to him feeling unwell.

It turned out to be the onset of glandular fever – a condition that kept him house-bound for a month and out of the team for the next 16 games, costing him a trip to Wembley in the Capital One Cup final.

But the curse struck again in January 2014 – and Meredith missed even more.

City had a ten-day gap after their year-opening defeat at Notts County and, during that, the defender broke a metatarsal bone when he went over on his ankle during a training run. He was sidelined for 19 matches, returning in time to make just two substitute appearances at the end of the campaign.

So any reluctance on Meredith’s part to ring in the new year is understandable.

He said: “It’s been unfortunate because I’d not really had any problems before. But then I got glandular fever in my first season and then had the injury last year, which both kept me out for a fairly long period.

“Hopefully this time will be different and I can keep going. It feels nice to be playing regularly again but who knows what will happen.

“I’m just glad the team are doing well and on a good run. I’m trying to build from performance to performance and keep getting fitter and faster.”

Things are good right now. After the contract uncertainty of last summer, Meredith has been back in the side since mid-October and has played every minute of the current ten-match unbeaten run.

“We’ve got a good togetherness and team spirit now,” he added. “That’s built our confidence and you can see it’s paying off.

“We were unlucky for a while in the first quarter of the season. We weren’t getting results even though we were creating the chances and opportunities to put games away.

“And I remember about a month or six weeks ago when the fans were getting a bit worried that we were starting to fall away.

“Some thought we’d have a repeat of last season when we went a long time not winning. But I knew with the quality we’d got, the staff and tactics that we’d start punching out results as the togetherness of the team grew and grew.”

All being well, Meredith should make his 100th appearance for the club in next Wednesday’s FA Cup replay with Millwall. As one of the longest-serving members of the dressing room, he appreciates the input of this season’s new breed.

“A lot of players came in and they are good ones. I knew once the players got to know each other better and how to play to their strengths that we’d do well.

“It takes time to build that understanding but we’ve got it now. We just need to keep working hard and maintain this run of results we’re on.

“This league is very tight this year, even more than before. You’ve got to be on your toes every week.

“There are no real stand-outs like Wolves last season but there are a lot of very good teams – I think we’re one of them.

“We’ve got a good base to build on for the second half of the season. We’ve found that consistency.

“The team are in a good position at the moment and if we can keep going as we are, then I can see us having a proper crack at the play-offs.”