MARK Trueman is confident City can pick up where they left off after a delayed start to 2021.

Successive postponements have left them inactive since the Port Vale draw a fortnight ago.

That stretched the unbeaten start under Trueman and Conor Sellars to five games but that momentum has been put on hold.

Trueman, though, sees no reason why the Bantams cannot build on that feel-good factor when they finally see their first action of the new year against Leeds’ FA Cup slayers Crawley on Saturday.

The interim manager said: “There’s been no real changes in terms of the intensity of how we’ve trained so I think so.

“It doesn’t look like we’ve dropped off in terms of our work rate and that’s been half the battle in regards of how we play.

“Obviously, it will be clear to see how it does affect us on Saturday against Crawley. But the way the players are and the way they’ve rested up, it shouldn’t be a problem.

“There will be another backlog of games but we’ve proven that we can cope and perform when we have got a high volume of fixtures.

“The preparation we try to put in both on the training field and with individuals is important to us. We’ve got to make sure it is done right and we are thorough in what we do.

“We’re optimistic and looking forward to playing again.”

Trueman and Sellars have had the chance to do some proper work on the training pitch, although the recent wintry weather meant the squad have had to use an artificial surface until this week.

He added: “It was a hectic routine from when we took over but it worked for us.

“But the Morecambe postponement probably came at the right time because of the amount of strain on the body that the players were having.

“I think everybody could see that. The stats showed against Port Vale that although we had a lot of the ball, we probably didn’t run as much.

“But we’d had a good week’s training and were well prepared for the Scunthorpe game.

“With it not being called off the day before, we were thinking it would be on so that came as a disappointment after we’d travelled down there for the pre-match meal.

“But we’ve planned for a tougher week now and we’ll be ready.”

As revealed in the T&A, City are among the clubs eyeing Leeds striker Ryan Edmondson whose half-season loan at Aberdeen expired at the weekend after he came on as a late substitute against Rangers.

There are others keen to take him and the Bantams have made it clear that their policy is never to have to convince a player to come.

They snapped up Leeds winger Jordan Stevens on Friday for the rest of the season and Trueman believes City are in a good position in the window.

He said: “We’re happy with the way that it’s going. Comfortable is a good word for it.

"There’s a lot of plate-spinning and hopefully we can bring in one or two more.

“We’ve prepared well and made sure we did our homework with Lee (Turnbull) looking at players who can add to the squad.

“The most important thing is being the right characters. The group is galvanising, which shows on the pitch.”