GREG Leigh is hoping he can finally make a name for himself when City’s JPT tie comes around again next week.

The left back was set to make his debut against Barnsley at Valley Parade because James Meredith was away on World Cup duty with Australia – only for the freak weather to force a late postponement.

Meredith flies back over the weekend from Jordan but Leigh is keeping his fingers crossed that Phil Parkinson will keep him pencilled in for the rearranged second-round date on Tuesday.

The former Man City defender said: “This is the longest I’ve not played since I can remember. It's been ages.

“Hopefully people are looking forward to watching me play. You want to be involved in the team.

“A lot of fans come up and ask for your signature and then say ‘who are you again?’

“I want to make my name known in football, especially at Bradford.”

Leigh, who has just turned 21, played 42 games on loan at Crewe last season. But he rejected the chance to sign permanently with them in the summer to join City – even though he knew that meant a junior role backing up Meredith.

Leigh added: “I know my career has been a short one but one thing I’ve always done is test myself.

“For example, I played ’21s football (at Man City) when I was under-19 so I was playing two years ahead. Then I had to test myself again so I went on loan last year.

“I felt that I needed another challenge. Being a second-choice left back, you’ve got to fight your way to get in the team.

“Being the club this is with the players we’ve got, it would test me more. That’s what I felt.

“When you get the opportunity, you’ve got to take it.

“I watch what Mez does on the pitch. The most I saw him last year was the two games Crewe played against Bradford.

“It’s good to get a sense of how he plays and I’m definitely going to learn more off him.

“He’s someone of a high calibre who always plays so well. You’ve always got to be on top form to compete.

“That’s a good thing because if you’re getting tested all the time, you have to progress and improve.”

Meredith, Rory McArdle and Stephen Darby have been among the first names on the team sheet since they all arrived at Valley Parade three years ago. But Reece Burke’s emergence at centre half has shown Leigh that there can be opportunities for other players.

“When the manager has a back four that he trusts and has known for years, it’s always hard to break in,” he said.

“But they have to change over time. They can be there for three or four years but it’s also about getting people in who you think can come in one by one and do the job.

“Reece Burke’s come in and the manager obviously trusts him straight away. You’re going to have change things over time and it’s about doing your best when you get that chance.”

Leigh joined Man City as a nine-year-old and went on to be voted their academy player of the year three seasons ago. He got a close-up of the club’s spectacular rise but missed out on playing at their new state-of-the-art training pitch.

He added: “I was there through the takeover from Abu Dhabi and it was interesting to see how the club developed.

“It’s getting bigger and bigger. I used to train at Platt Lane, where the facilities were always good but from there to Carrington and moving to the Etihad campus now has been amazing to watch.

“Unfortunately I never played at the academy stadium. They opened it last year and I went straight from pre-season on loan.

“I trained one session and then went straight off to Crewe so didn’t have the opportunity to play there.

“I was very lucky with the people I worked with. There were the same group of lads, probably nine or ten of us, and I worked with them from when I was nine all the way through.

“The coaches we picked up along the way always keep in touch to see how we are.”

Meredith was an unused sub as the Socceroos slipped to a 2-0 defeat in their Asian group World Cup qualifier.

But there was better news for Rory McArdle, who was on the bench for Northern Ireland's 3-1 win over Greece - a result that rubber-stamped their place at the Euro 2016 finals in France.

McArdle travels with the squad to Finland today for their final group game on Sunday.