Peter Taylor fears that too many managers are paying the price because chairmen and directors cannot handle the pressure.

Headlines have been dominated by a glut of sackings in the past week.

The veteran City boss believes that clubs are too quick to pull the trigger when results go wrong.

And he feels they can be swayed too easily by a negative reaction from fans.

Taylor said: “Most managers can handle the pressure. They do take the results very personally and work extremely hard to put them right.

“As long as directors give it as long as they possibly can to try and get it right, then I can understand there being a change.

“But some of them are a bit unrealistic. Unfortunately maybe supporters put the board of directors and chairmen under pressure – I think that does happen.”

Taylor was on thin ice himself earlier in the season following City’s poor start to the campaign. There were reports that he was facing the axe if they had lost at today’s opponents Barnet.

A win at Underhill that afternoon and three in the next four games lifted the danger and the Bantams have now recovered to within three points of the play-offs.

Taylor sees that as an example of a club keeping faith in their manager to pull things round – and after Thursday’s capture of Hull hot-shot Mark Cullen, he hoped City’s two chairmen would continue to back him.

He said: “When we were second from bottom, I take that incredibly personally. I think that’s my fault and I’m the one that’s got to improve.

“But it makes me even more determined to get it right. Then all of a sudden, they (the board) let people know from above that they are unhappy.

“I still look at our situation here and it’s the same as August. You give me a budget and we go and try to get promotion.

“I look at us now, it’s January, we’re three points off the play-offs and we’re improving.

“I still say now ‘don’t start cutting’ because this is the time when we need to stay really positive to make sure we achieve our aim.”