MARK Trueman heads into his second spell as City boss confident he has learned plenty from last time.

Trueman begins his caretaker role against Oldham on Saturday in the first game since Derek Adams was sacked.

The experience of his 30-game tenure in the dug-out alongside Conor Sellars last season has armed him for the task of rejuvenating the current campaign.

Trueman insists there is plenty to play for in the final 15 games as City try to bridge an eight-point gap to the play-offs.

And he will be a wiser boss leading them for as long as he remains in charge.

He said: “There were times last year where we could have been a little bit more aggressive in our style of play against certain opposition.

“That’s something we’ve reflected on and learned as well as the management of some players when they got injured.

“We tried to play players at times when they weren’t performing when we maybe needed to tinker slightly with the team.

“They are all little things that I’ve learned from and hopefully can implement between now and for however long I’m in this job.”

Trueman will be on his own in the Boundary Park technical area but the club’s professional development phase support coach Ryan Farrell has stepped up from the youth team to help him take training.

Trueman added: “My job was to be the assistant manager this season and my mindset was on it.

"But if called upon and given that opportunity again, I’ll use the experience I had from last season.

“I’ll try to learn from my mistakes and implement the positive things that put us on a run early on when we took over.

“I’ve obviously been working with these players along with Derek so I can see who’s on form and performing.

“Whereas before it was a case of come in, quickly choose a team and then learn as much as we can at very short notice. I already know what this group of players are about.

“The players are positive because of the reaction I got in the team when I took over last season. They want to get a result against Oldham and then hopefully build on that as we did before.

“I’ve obviously got different ways of playing that I’ll try and implement and hopefully that will give them something to build on.”

Trueman lost only one of his first 15 games at the joint helm last season to take the team from third-from-bottom to within touching distance of the play-offs.

City are banking on a similar bounce to keep their fading top-seven ambitions alive.

“It’s not about changing too much but building confidence,” he said. “Yes, there will be slight tweaks in terms of how I want them to play both in and out of possession.

“But my job now is to build confidence by the way we set the team up, what I’m asking from them and hopefully we can take that into the rest of the games.

“We’re going to set ourselves a challenge to get as many points as we can in the next couple of games.”

This weekend will be the first time that Trueman has led the side in front of City fans - with just under 2,000 away tickets sold.

Two of his first four games last season were in front of a home crowd at Crawley and Tranmere but the rest were played behind closed doors.

“It will be nice to be in charge and get the reception off the fans but also for them to get behind the team.

“We’ve seen that Bradford fans can be the 12th man and push us on. We’ve got to put in the performances that they are happy with and will get behind.

"That’s by us being positive with the ball and as aggressive as we can without it. That’s what the Bradford fans want to see and what we’ll try to deliver.”