Alex Pattison's praise for Bantams captain Richie Smallwood

The skipper is the only ever-present in Graham Alexander’s squad as he approaches 500 career games.

Pattison is set to line up alongside him again in the heart of midfield for tomorrow’s Valley Parade clash with Wimbledon.

And he revealed the huge influence Smallwood has on the team around him.

“He’s been brilliant since the first game,” said Pattison. “I would say he’s been our best player so far this season.

“It’s a privilege to play alongside him. He’s obviously experienced and is always available to play in every game.

“He’s a good professional and he helps my game as well. I think we complement each other quite well.”

Smallwood has started all nine games of the early season.

The only time he has not been on the pitch came in the first group game of the Bristol Street Motors Trophy against Newcastle under-21s when he was subbed for Pattison after 64 minutes.

Pattison has been earmarked as the understudy for Smallwood’s holding role – a position where fans worry that City are light on cover.

There was a moment of concern when the captain went to ground in a heap in the closing minutes of Tuesday’s win at Mansfield – only to spring back up without a problem.

Pattison added: “He’s not the type to go down and stay down. He gets straight back up.

“I reckon he was probably wasting a bit of time but he’s absolutely fine.

“He’s never injured. He’s always out there and still looks fresh after games, he never looks tired.

“Fair play to him, he’s obviously a bit older than me but he must be doing something right to build up for that many games a season and play the majority of them.

“But that’s what you want to do as a professional. You want to play as many games and as many minutes as you can.

“Everyone should look to him, see what he does and that’s what you need to be doing if you want to be playing 50 games a season, as the gaffer says.”

Boss Alexander remains an admirer of his leader on the pitch.

“Richie’s really important to us,” he said. “He’s important to me as the manager as captain and to the team.

“When we make a lot of changes, he gives us stability in there to have that consistency.

“He’s understanding more about what I require from the team and we need that player on the pitch to take our message across in the changing room as well.

“I just feel he benefits from playing regularly – and wants to play regularly.

Alex Pattison is relishing the change to City's formation (Image: Tom Pearson)

“He’s got a really good influence on the rest of the team in loads of different ways.

“If I asked Richie if he wanted to be rested, I’m sure the answer would be no. So, I don’t, I just decide that I want him in the team.”

City’s switch to a 4-4-2 formation since the injuries to centre halves Neill Byrne and Ciaran Kelly at Walsall has worked in favour of Pattison.

His box-to-box duties next to Smallwood is a throwback to when he was at previous club Harrogate in partnership with their captain Josh Falkingham.

Pattison said: “I spoke to ‘Skip’ after the Mansfield game and said how much I enjoy that position, running from deep with the ball, winning tackles and doing the defensive work as well.

“That’s the way I want to play. Obviously, it’s depending on what the gaffer wants to go with formation-wise but, for myself, that suits me better.

“It was very similar with Harrogate. Dicky is more defensive, he loves to have the ball and gets us ticking.

“I scored quite a lot of goals at Harrogate. If we play that formation, I’m ready to do that – that’s me.

“But we were winning the games at the start of the season with 3-5-2. Whatever the gaffer decides, I’ll do my best in either role.”