Clarke Oduor relishing more advanced role with Bantams

The versatile summer recruit from Barnsley has looked lively in his two outings in the opening week - and scored the decisive penalty in the Carabao Cup shoot-out against Accrington.

Oduor arrived at Valley Parade keen to play further forward again after being used mainly in a wing-back role with the Tykes.

Mark Hughes handed him the opportunity alongside Jamie Walker and Alex Pattison as a support for Andy Cook - and the 24-year-old has made a promising start.

“I’m definitely enjoying it,” said Oduor. “I appreciate the gaffer trusting me and putting me in there and I feel I’ll get better game by game.

“It helps when you’ve got someone like Patto who wants to drive forward and run past you when you’ve got the ball so you can try and find him.

“Obviously Jamie is always very good on the ball and I’m enjoying playing with them and trying to play off Cooky as much as I can.”

Pattison scored City’s first goal of the season in the win at Accrington but Oduor also went close with a solo run and shot in the second half.

He added: “It will come. It’s getting closer and closer.

“We are definitely creating chances. As games go by, we’ll gel more and click and everyone else will be getting in on the act.

“For me personally, I want to score more goals. I think I can create chances and I’d like to get on the end of them myself as well.”

Hughes has been pleased with Oduor’s early contribution and is confident there is more to come.

“Clarke once again showed the ability that he has on the ball,” said the City boss.

“He’s got potential to get in good areas and create chances, not only for himself but others.

“That’s what he’s capable of and you can see he’s gaining in confidence the more games he plays with us.”

Jamie Walker gets off a shot during the Accrington game (Image: Thomas Gadd)

Oduor had never stepped up for a penalty in a shoot-out before - he was not called upon in his only previous experience of the spot-kick drama when Barnsley lost to Bolton at the same stage of the competition in 2021.

But he was eager to step forward and make his mark, especially at the end housing City’s travelling fans.

“I always wanted to take a penalty,” he said. “Luckily for us, it was the winning one.

“Penalties are not nice for anyone because it can go either way. But it went in our favour and we were buzzing.

“I’ve only had one penalty shoot-out before and we didn’t win that one. So it’s 50-50 now!

“It was nice to do it in front of our fans. The support was unbelievable for an away game on a Tuesday night.

“To finish it off at that end on penalties was great and it sets it up for Saturday.

“I’m definitely excited for the first home game. We’ll all be at it and have the crowd behind us as well so it’s going to be very good.

“I don’t know how many friends and family I’ll have there. I’m trying to get loads of tickets.”

Oduor admits the mood for the Colchester clash has been lifted by the cup progress after the disappointment of City’s opening-day defeat at Crawley.

“It was obviously frustrating. Nobody likes to lose the first game of the season.

“But we had a chat about it afterwards to put it to bed and concentrate on the next one.

“We’ve done that and came away with the win.

“It was a test. Credit to Accrington, they stuck to it and got one back.

“They were on top for the 10 minutes after that and we had to weather it. I thought we did that and the back three were nice and solid to keep us in it.”