Jamie Walker discusses "rollercoaster" form from Bantams

The Scot’s return to the starting line-up at the weekend turned out to be a nightmare for the Bantams in a 5-1 thrashing by Mansfield.

Now Walker and his team-mates must strap themselves back in for another Valley Parade outing against Notts County tomorrow night.

The play-off dream, remarkably, has still not disappeared completely round the bend but time is fast running out.

Back-to-back home losses since Accrington have given the Bantams no leeway.

“We’re disappointed but if we play like we did against Accrington Stanley then hopefully we can salvage something from the season,” said Walker.

“If we play like we did on Saturday, then let’s be serious there’s no chance.

“It’s been probably a lot like that since I came into the football club. It’s been like a rollercoaster and up and down with performances.

“If you want to stay in a promotion challenge, you need to be quite steady along the way.

“If we’re up and down like we have been in the last few weeks, then we probably won’t have a successful season.”

Walker lasted just over an hour against Mansfield to back up a full second half in the Forest Green defeat as he builds up the minutes following his lengthy absence.

“It wasn’t the greatest circumstances but it was good to be back out there on the pitch. Hopefully that’s the case for the rest of the season.

“It was quite tough. It’s been nearly three months which is a long time to be out the game.

“More of the frustration came because I was in good form at the time I got injured. I was playing well, scoring goals and we were winning games.

“But hopefully I can contribute a bit between now and the end of the season.

“I’m lacking a bit of match sharpness, which you’ve probably seen, but we’ve got nine games to go and I want to be fit for the remainder and see where that takes us.

“My aim is to get fully fit, play a lot of minutes and hopefully I can contribute to the team with goals and assists.”

City’s heaviest home loss since 2020 made for uncomfortable viewing and there was plenty of dissent in the stands. With just one point from the last three home games, nothing less than a win against Notts County will help get the crowd back onside.

Jamie Walker missed a glorious first-half chance to score (Image: Thomas Gadd)

Walker added: “Saturday was unacceptable and I apologise to the supporters. There’s not much more I can say about it.

“Everyone in the stadium has seen it for themselves. It wasn’t good enough from myself and not good enough from everyone.

“Mansfield showed defensively and offensively why they’re at the top of the league. They were ruthless when they got the chances and put the game to bed inside 20 minutes.

“But there were obviously things we could have done a lot better. We were all over the place in and out of possession and didn’t help ourselves.

“You want another game straight after a defeat like that. It happened earlier in the season at Notts County and then after that we really kicked on.

“Hopefully we can use that as motivation. There’s still a lot to play for and we’ve got good characters in the squad.

“We kept going in the second half, got the goal and never went in our shells. We kept trying to do the right thing.

“We need to see what we can do going forward now.

“The gap (to the play-offs) is still the same and you can look at it both ways.

“If we had picked up a few points along the way, we’d obviously have been a lot closer.

“But despite losing we’re still seven points behind and have got a couple of games in hand.

“But we keep saying that and the games are running out. We need to be picking up wins and be a lot better.”