BRADFORD City's 2-0 win at Sutton this afternoon delighted Mark Hughes, but he was arguably happiest over Abo Eisa's return to the starting line up.

The Sudanese winger has had no luck with injuries since joining the club last summer, and today's game marked his first start since November 27, 2021.

But he was impressive in the hour or so that he played, and it was his cut inside and deflected shot that led directly to Andy Cook's opener at Gander Green Lane.

Hughes beamed: "We were really pleased for him today.

"We were missing Tyreik (Wright) today, and he's been great for us, inluding on Tuesday, but he's still struggling with that back spasm.

"It was an easy decision for me to put Abo in today for Tyreik, as I knew he could do what I asked of him.

"We've been careful with him, because he's been out for so long, but he's in a good place at the moment.

"He's training every single day now and we're not having to manage his workload during those sessions, it's just his game time we're having to be careful with initially.

"A bit like Lee Angol last season, we're just looking to maybe give Abo a steady rise in terms of minutes.

"He's had a great week and he's very happy at the moment, because he feels strong and he's looking forward to the games ahead."

On the other side to Eisa was Scott Banks, who curled in a sensational second goal to seal the points for the Bantams.

Hughes said: "We know he has that quality, and he's produced it before for us.

"We see him do that in training day in, day out, and he's got great delivery and execution from those positions.

"When he cuts in you always sense that he's going to at least test the keeper or get it on target, and it was actually the perfect position for him today.

"You always fancied he was going to convert that chance, which he'd created himself in all honesty."

Hughes added: "He just had a moment earlier in the season, when he picked up a little injury and found himself out of the team.

"His performance levels just flattened a bit for a while, like Jake Young, his form just plateaued.

"But that happens with young players, and they almost, without fail, come back again.

"He's done that, come back strongly, and he looks full of confidence again."

Sutton were impressive in the first half, especially Rob Milsom and Will Randall down the left and City had to be at their best to keep them out, before taking the lead against the run of play after 37 minutes through Andy Cook.

Reflecting on that tricky first half, Hughes said: "I don't know if we were second best, but we were the team trying to play and Sutton didn't really allow that.

"They were putting the ball into areas and chasing after it and while that's not my type of football, it's effective, that's why people go down the route.

"We know we have to come to places and be up for the challenge, that was the important thing today.

"We did it after going to 10 men on Tuesday, and it was really important to show our personality again today, which I felt we did."

City were particularly impressive from Cook's goal onwards, with Hughes saying: "We will always try and play when we have the opportunity and I think we picked the right moments to do that.

"There were two great pieces of quality to take the game away from them.

"You expect a response from the opposition but because of how we're playing, and how resolute we were today, we didn't have too much momentum go against us after Andy's goal.

"That's credit to us, that we're able to stop things at source and stop things going into our box in the first place."