RICHARD O’Donnell makes a living out of keeping things away.

Three clean sheets out of four proves that City currently have no issues at one end of the pitch anyway.

But the Bantams stopper’s prevention skills are also being put to the test within the dressing room as he fights to ward off the sickness bug that has taken root.

With team-mates continuing to be struck down on an almost daily basis, league ever-present O’Donnell is determined to keep his own symptoms under control.

“My throat has been bad but generally I’ve got away with it,” he said.

“You can try and be careful but it’s obviously not easy when something like this is going around.

“We’re in the dressing room together, we all eat together, we’re in the same gym together, it’s impossible for it not to spread.”

The sight of James Vaughan retching on the touchline at Carlisle after his 15-minute appearance from the bench underlined the problems that City are tackling right now.

There was the further blow when Harry Pritchard pulled up in the warm-up complaining that his back problem had resurfaced.

It is not a time for the faint-hearted but O’Donnell is adamant those players still standing will not buckle as they head into back-to-back games at Valley Parade.

He added: “The lads want to come in and work every day. We’ve got on with it and we’ll try and deal with what’s thrown at us.

“We’ve had a lot of trouble off the pitch in terms of injuries and illness. To be fair to the group, not one of them has moaned.

“There were lads playing out there on Boxing Day who were coughing up. You could see Vaughany almost struggling to walk off the pitch.

“The lads are so honest and professional. There’s a fine line between coming in and making everyone ill and wanting to come in and train."

Pritchard was down to captain City at Brunton Park after Jake Reeves suddenly pulled out ill on the morning of the game.

But his unexpected departure just before kick-off meant O’Donnell had the honour of wearing the armband.

From his own point of view, another shut-out extends an impressive run since the keeper’s out-of-character error at Plymouth last month.

The jeers from the travelling support, though, told a different story after another frustrating stalemate on the road.

O’Donnell admitted: “We’re all desperate to win games.

“It was a frustrating point but we’ve created chances again.

“It would be easy to criticise the performance if we’d not created enough or played poorly.

“But in the last five games, we’ve been the better team in all of them and created chances. If we weren’t, it would be an issue.

“We know as a group that we will put them away. It’s just being highlighted at the minute because we’re keeping a few clean sheets and games are finishing 0-0.

“But we all believe in what we’re doing and we know it will come.”

Mansfield are another opponent from the wrong end of League Two and have not won in two months. But they are still in the honeymoon period of new boss Graham Coughlan.

O’Donnell said: “They’ve just changed manager so might get an extra lift from that.

“But it’s about us. If we’re right, we’ve got a very good chance in winning every game that we’re playing."