MARK Hughes licked his lips at the prospect of City locking horns with leaders Leyton Orient and declared: “Bring it on”.

The Bantams head for London currently 12 points adrift of the League Two’s pace-setters.

But Hughes wants his side to relish the test - and insists there is plenty of time to peg back the gap to first place.

“Absolutely,” he said, “we’re halfway through the season give or take and there are still a lot of games, lot of twists and turns and we’ll be part of that.

“Our ambitions are still the same. Everybody’s still in the mix.

“You saw last year teams who had a really poor start to the season went on unbelievable runs.

“Bristol Rovers had tailed off at this stage of the season and came back with a really strong run.

“There are any number of teams who can go on similar runs, including ourselves.

“We’ve had a good start. It could have been a hell of a lot worse, could have been slightly better maybe. But we’re in decent heart and in a good position.”

Hughes has been impressed with Richie Wellens’ Orient, who have been beaten only once at the Breyer Group Stadium.

He added: “Orient are a good side and I like the way they play. They get the ball down and they are progressive.

“They are very much like ourselves in terms of their approach to the game. I think it will be a good game of football.

“It’s about who gets on the front foot the quickest. We’ve got to make sure we get the first blow in and if we do that, I back us to manage the game to a successful conclusion.

“We know that but on our day we don’t fear anybody in the league.

“We’ll come up short sometimes but for the most part, certainly before games, we don’t feel any apprehension.

“It’s more about what we feel we can do to the opposition than the other way. ‘Bring it on’ is my message.

“They are top of the pile at the moment and setting the standard for everybody else. We’ve got an opportunity to damage their ambitions.

“We weren’t able to do it against Northampton but we’ve got another opportunity to go up against a team that’s ahead of us.

“It seems an age since the last time we played so that enthusiasm is there.”

City’s last game was nine days ago with the Papa Johns Trophy defeat at Salford. Hughes gave the players some extra time off with no FA Cup involvement.

“I just felt we needed a little break and I think it will do us good,” he said.

“Sometimes you need a break from day in, day out coming into the club and the same environment.

“I’m happy that we’ve come back this week and been really bright in our work and focused on the job in hand at the weekend. We’re in fine fettle.”