A HUGE bottom of the table six-pointer awaits Bradford City Women this weekend as they head to Chorley on Sunday for a key clash.

The Bantams currently find themselves sat at the foot (12th) of the FA Women's National League (Division One North) table and Sunday's hosts occupy 10th, the spot just above the relegation zone. Despite having a game in hand on Chorley, City still remain five points adrift of safety, so a victory this weekend would be gargantuan for Charlotte Stuart's side.

Looking ahead to the fixture, Stuart's assistant Gareth Davis, said: "It's a big game for us. When you've not been winning games any victory that comes along is going to be a good one, but first an foremost, we need the performance too. We've become a bit inconsistent in our performances as well as results lately. Postponements and the stop-start nature of our fixture list may well have played a big role in that, however we've got a good run of games now where we can truly kick on.

"We've highlighted a points total for us to be looking at over the next few weeks, so if we don't get a victory this weekend, obviously we'll be extremely disappointed, but we can see fixtures in the future where we can certainly pick up points as a group."

Davis added: "We always have a tough battle against Chorley because they are a very physical group. The times when we have played them, they've played well and given us a close encounter pretty much every time I've been involved in this fixture. We are certainly looking forward to playing them and we are up for the challenge."

With the stop-start nature of the current women's calender, it's meant that City haven't been able to find rhythm and with Stuart only taking over as manager in the summer, it's not given her side much chance to put her ideas into practice.

Despite losing eight out of their opening ten league fixtures, Davis, like club chairman Qasim Akhtar, has full confidence in Stuart and the team to turn their fortunes around.

He said: "I have full belief that we can turn things around as a group. We are obviously not looking through rose-tinted glasses, we know what job we've got to do to get out of the relegation zone because we've been there before and we are under no illusion with the fact that we need to start winning games.

"However, we believe in the process we are going through and we believe in the quality of the players. As I mentioned, we've got a nice run of fixtures coming up now and it's important that we reach our desired points total in those games. It's going to be a crucial period for us and we are all ready to tackle it head on."