Mark Lawn would love to hear chants of “1-0 to the Bradford boys” every week.

Peter Taylor’s teams have earned a reputation for miserliness.

Wycombe kept 21 clean sheets last season on their way to promotion from League Two. They finished third, despite scoring 12 goals fewer than City.

Taylor makes his sides hard to beat. But Lawn dismisses any suggestion they are also hard to watch.

City’s joint-chairman said: “Peter does build on clean sheets, and that would be nice.

“Someone turned round to me and said ‘it’s not the most exciting football’ but I tend to disagree with that. Winning is exciting for the fans.

“Wycombe did play attacking football as well. Peter was a winger himself and likes to use wingers – 4-3-3 can be 4-3-3 and not just 4-5-1.”

Lawn is confident that Taylor’s know-how and past success at this level can revive City’s fortunes.

The 57-year-old needs no introduction to what life in the basement division is all about.

He added: “With Stuart McCall, we went for someone who was young and inexperienced but very keen.

“This time we’ve gone for someone who is a bit older and has been there, done that and worn the t-shirt.

“Peter knows where he stands with this division. He was down at Accrington last year with Wycombe so he’s seen the state of the pitches we play on and the levels we’re at.

“He believes he can take us through a couple of leagues. He sees the potential and sees no reason why we can’t fulfil that with the fanbase that we’ve got.”

Even with his lengthy managerial career, this is the first time that Taylor has worked under two chairmen. But Lawn insists that the manager will be his own boss.

“People have got the wrong idea with me. A lot of people want to lay the blame and scapegoat me for certain things.

“When I’ve been successful in my career in industry I’ve put managers in and let those managers manage.

“I’ve given them guidelines and criteria to work with and then they’ve gone ahead and done it. I don’t really interfere.”

Even before the job was confirmed, Taylor was putting the wheels in motion by suggesting a couple of potential loan signings.

Lawn said: “We’ll give him a chance to settle in. I’m not going to say Rome wasn’t built in a day because we’ve had that for the last two and a half years.

“But he’ll come in and see what we’ve got here and what he needs.

“I told him there is money for loans available and he’s put a couple of names and ideas to us. He’s digging round.”