Gutted Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu will wave goodbye to City tomorrow on his way back to Gillingham.

The Congo-born striker will be at the training ground for the final time to say his farewells after Stuart McCall opted not to extend his loan deal.

Ndumbu-Nsungu is City's current top scorer with six goals, though his form had tailed off in recent games. But he was keen to stay on at Valley Parade - and wanted to come permanently when his contract runs out in the summer.

But McCall pulled the plug, partly for financial reasons and also because he wants to focus on other areas of the team.

The City boss believes he is well stocked for strikers. Willy Topp finally made his debut from the bench in Saturday's 3-1 home loss to high-riding Hereford while Omar Daley was used up front - a role McCall reckons will prove more productive for the Jamaican than the wing.

Ndumbu-Nsungu was left out of the squad and watched the game from the stands.

McCall said: "G's agent led me to believe that Gillingham were looking for us to pay the full amount of his wages. We've been paying a good part up to now and we can't really afford the whole lot.

"And from a team point of view, I need to strengthen in different areas. We've got four strikers now with Peter Thorne, Barry Conlon, Billy and Omar, who I think is more dangerous down the middle with his pace to get in behind defenders.

"As well as G's done for us, his style is to come short and we've got enough people who can do that. Maybe I need to strengthen more in the wide areas.

"The lad's obviously disappointed but I'm also disappointed with Gillingham. I've called them three times and nobody's had the decency to get back to me.

"Whether they were playing games I don't know but it's not done G any favours. But that's football and you live and learn."

Nathan Joynes and Tom Harban have also gone back to Barnsley but McCall was today hoping to hammer out deals to keep Paul Heckingbottom and Kyle Nix. The midfielder's short-term deal expires tomorrow and needs to be renewed by midday for him to play at Accrington on Tuesday.

McCall blamed the weekend defeat on City's failure to deal with set-pieces against taller and more powerful opponents, who clinched a league double over the Bantams to stay second.

"In as much as our lads can blame the referee for this, that and the other, you can't blame him for not defending at set-plays," he added.

"We haven't defended three set-plays and everyone knows how important that is in this league.

"I was really pleased with the first half and we had far more of the play against a better team than we'd had in the Lincoln game. But in the second half we huffed and puffed and didn't do enough to merit coming back."

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