Peter Taylor has reminded City’s pre-season opponents to play in the right spirit as they kick off the warm-up programme tonight.

A bumper crowd is on the cards at Eccleshill United for the first of eight friendlies facing Taylor’s men in the countdown to August 7.

Seven of those are against non-league clubs and Taylor does not foresee any problems from part-time players trying to score points.

Taylor said: “I’m looking for all the teams that we play to do it right and to make sure that we build up a good relationship with them.

“If there’s a lot of kicking going on, we won’t be going back to places again.

“I expect people to appreciate Bradford City are playing them. We don’t want anybody trying to be a superstar by kicking one of our players.”

The City chief pulled the plug on next week’s Guiseley game after the sides failed to agree on the kick-off time. But he is looking forward to meeting up with former Bantam player and assistant manager Ian Banks at Eccleshill.

“I’m delighted that there’s an ex-pro involved there. He understands what we are trying to do.

“I’m sure it will go well and we will be playing them again for many years to come.

“For us, it’s just about fitness really. I never ever worry about the results during pre-season. They are of no importance.

“I just look for a good performance and good fitness levels. Although sometimes, funny as it sounds, you can get more out of a bad performance because there are more things to sort out.”

But City fans may have to wait for a first glimpse of new signing Tommy Doherty, who is one of four minor injury doubts feeling the effects of a return to training on the hard ground.

Doherty (calf), Michael Flynn (back), one-time Eccleshill striker James Hanson (back) and Louis Horne (ankle) could all sit it out.

Taylor said: “We want to give everybody a run-out but we can’t take any risks at this stage.”

But City will take a look at trialist strikers Matthew Tipton and Lee Morris.

Tipton has been training with the Bantams after being released by Macclesfield, where he netted 60 goals in three separate spells.

He scored five in 31 appearances last season, although 20 of those games were off the bench. Morris cost Derby £3m from Sheffield United in 1999 but his career since has been hampered by injuries. He played 12 times for Hereford last season as well as loan spells with Mansfield and Forest Green in the Blue Square Premier.

Meanwhile, Chris Brandon is currently training with Port Vale.