PHIL Parkinson raved about City’s Good Friday win at Doncaster but James Hanson still believes the victory over Preston remains the best of their eight on the road.

The Bantams are still the only visiting league side to have won at Deepdale, Rory McArdle and a stunning curler from Mark Yeates doing the damage in November.

As they prepare for this afternoon’s crunch return at Valley Parade, Hanson insisted that display was still the benchmark for the Bantams.

“That’s probably been our best away performance of the season,” he said, “if you look at the complete package of how we played.

“We were in their faces, were 100 per cent committed in the tackles, turned them when we needed to – everything the gaffer wanted us to do that day we did it and fully deserved the win.

“At the moment they are flying in second. We know it’s going to be a tough game but we’ll be ready for it again.”

With seven games to go, City are strapped in for the rollercoaster of emotions that accompanies a play-off push. After the despair of losing at home to Chesterfield last week, the emphatic triumph at the Keepmoat has lifted spirits once more.

But Hanson, a veteran of the successful play-off push two years ago, is trying to keep things on an even keel.

He added: “After every result when it’s this time and this tight in the league, you have a look at the table straight away.

“But it’s important not to get too carried away whether you win or lose. Getting beaten in our last home game put a dampener on things but we bounced back.”

Having dealt a huge blow to Doncaster’s top-six hopes, Hanson knows the double impact that playing sides around them can have during the tense run-in.

“We’re relishing all the fixtures that are left. You’ve got this one, Bristol City, Sheffield United away and Barnsley to come. They are all teams around us as well.

“We seem to always raise our game in these sort of matches and it’s important we keep doing so with the table as tight as it is.

“There are no dead games. We’ve got it all in our own hands, which is how you want it.

“Winning against the teams around us gives us that extra advantage.”

Preston come to Valley Parade on a 12-match unbeaten run that has powered them clear in second. Simon Grayson is hunting a fourth promotion from this division after previously taking up Leeds, Huddersfield and Blackpool.

Hanson said: “He has done a brilliant job there and every team he manages in League One seems to get up.

“They are on another good run that has pushed them into second place and they look odds on to go up.

“But we’ve got to make sure we put on a good performance at home because we need the three points ourselves.”