JAMES Meredith is backing City to come galloping up the rails in the League One promotion chase.

Buoyed by back-to-back wins against potential play-off rivals, the Bantams now head into three games against sides in the bottom nine.

Two of those are at Valley Parade, starting with Rochdale’s visit on Saturday, and Meredith believes home form can be a big factor in City’s ambitions.

The defender said: “We’re over the Christmas period when the pitches are bad. This is where that horse comes round the pack and makes its way towards the front.

“I think we could be the team to do it and go on that run.

“It was mentioned in the changing room (on Tuesday) that we’ve got a lot more home games than away.

“We’ve only got a couple of overnight trips left, which makes it easier in terms of conditioning.

“The team is starting to come together. You can feel a really good spirit among the players.

“We’ve bounced back after Burton and we’re hoping to take the some sort of attitude into the next couple of games. Hopefully we can build ourselves into a play-off position.

“We’re starting to build a nice confidence but we won’t take them for granted.”

Meredith has been impressed with the contribution of latest loan recruits Wes Thomas and Josh Cullen in the wins over Peterborough and Southend that have lifted City into eighth spot.

“The new additions are both good players,” he added. “Josh and Wes have worked hard and fit really well into the team.

“You can see it in training as well. Wes is athletic, he can run the channels and has a real mixture to his game.

“Josh, for someone so young, seems to be a bit more experienced beyond his years. You don’t realise how much ground he covers and he shows people the right way.”

Having been one of the lowest scorers in the division, City have hit six goals without reply this week. James Hanson has scored three of them to move into double figures.

Meredith said: “I said earlier in the season that once one goal goes in they will all start coming and hopefully over the next couple of games we can continue like that.

“It’s taken a lot of pressure off us the fact they are going in. We’ve just got to keep doing what we have been.

We’re playing good football with those two new additions and it’s good to see.”

Phil Parkinson feels top scorer Hanson is back on his best game after dominating the opposition defences in both victories.

Parkinson said: “Hans backed up his performance at the weekend. He worked so hard for the team and was absolutely tireless in his efforts.

“When he’s in the mood like he has been the past couple of games, you wouldn’t want to mark him.

“I think he would be (a handful) at a higher level personally.”