Stuart McCall reckons City's destiny this season will be shaped by the next two results.

The Bantams boss made it clear to the players that Boxing Day's performance was not good enough, even though they pinched the win over Lincoln at the death.

He is demanding a big improvement for Saturday's visit from second-placed Hereford - and has laid down the challenge to back up that unexpected victory with two more from the remaining holiday games.

"I don't like setting targets," he said. "But if we could win all three then it could just give us a little glimmer of hope.

"I told the players before we played Lincoln that the next three games will be a mark of what the season's going to be like for the next 20.

"Will we be in a dogfight at the bottom? Will we be looking at mid-table obscurity? Or will we just give ourselves an outside sniff of getting somewhere near the play-offs with a strong run?

"After Wednesday's performance that might be a little bit over-ambitious but if we put two more wins together against Hereford and Accrington then maybe we'll have a chance.

"But I'm not going to get carried away because we need to be a lot better than the last game. We certainly need to show a lot of improvement against a very good Hereford side."

City were beaten 4-2 at Edgar Street in September, beginning a nightmare run of five straight losses which blew away the early optimism and sent them crashing down League Two.

That defeat was self-inflicted with McCall claiming there were more individual mistakes that afternoon than in any other game this season.

Those type of performances have been symptomatic of City's fortunes so far and demonstrate why McCall gets so frustrated.

"We've said from the beginning that it's all about finding a level of consistency. But never mind from game to game, we sometimes don't get consistency from half to half. The lads were left in no doubt what we expect after the Lincoln game. But maybe I've got more belief in their ability than they have themselves, because what I see during the week is better than what we produced the other day.

"But we've seen plenty of games this season when we've played a lot better than that and got nothing. Would I have been happier if we'd put on a swashbuckling performance and only got a point? Probably not.

"You can't have everything but we need to be a lot better on Saturday, without a doubt."

Hereford, like City, are coming off their first Boxing Day win for five seasons. Theo Robinson's goal at Macclesfield saw them bounce straight back from last week's shock 3-0 home loss to Morecambe - their only defeat in the last 13 games, which have included the FA Cup scalps of Leeds and Hartlepool.

Ironically Robinson, currently on a season-long loan from Watford, could have been lining up in a City shirt this season if McCall had been quicker off the mark.

He said: "I actually enquired about Robinson in the summer, though I didn't know too much about him at the time. But I was a day too late and he'd already gone to Hereford.

"He's only a young kid but he looks very good up front and we'll have to watch him carefully."

McCall also knows all about Simon Johnson after the former Leeds striker kicked off pre-season on trial at Valley Parade, playing in the opening friendlies at Harrogate and Farsley before being offered a chance with Hereford.

Saturday's clash pits two managers at the opposite end of the scale. While McCall is still finding his feet as a gaffer, Hereford supremo Graham Turner has over 1,400 games in charge under his belt and will celebrate 650 for the Bulls on New Year's Day.

Turner has been Hereford manager since 1995 and is also the club's chairman and owner.

McCall added: "Graham does pretty much everything there - managing director, manager, physio, kitman and probably centre forward! He does the lot and he's done a terrific job.

"I've seen Hereford a couple of times now and been impressed. There's a good mix of young loan lads and the experience of players like Steve Guinan and big Trevor Benjamin.

"I saw them the other week at Bury when it looked like finishing in a draw but Robinson turned it on its head with a great goal in the last minute.

"That's probably the difference between ourselves and teams up there like Hereford. Teams at the top nick those results while we had a similar game at Mansfield recently and couldn't get that goal."

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