Bradford City boss confident of different outcome at Stockport

The Bantams make their first visit to Edgeley Park since 2010 looking to avenge their 1-0 home loss earlier in the season.

But Hughes insists you should not read anything into that result with plenty of changes in the line-up since.

“They’ll expect a different team and different reaction - and we’re obviously hoping for a different result,” he said.

“Stockport have had a nice run. They are a difficult team to go up against as we found out at home.

“We didn’t really get going, for whatever reason. We just didn’t come out the blocks.

“We obviously recovered from that afterwards but, clearly, we need to do a lot better and I have a feeling we will because there’s some different personnel who will want to make an impression.

“There are new players in different positions, so we’ll be a different team.”

Newest recruit Adam Clayton could be set for an immediate debut as well as Tolaji Bola after the frustration of another weekend postponement.

Yann Songo'o has a chance in City's home loss to Stockport (Image: Thomas Gadd)

“We’re in winter and unfortunately there’s the potential to lose games, particularly at our level,” added Hughes.

“I know there’s been a lot of talk that there should be undersoil heating at clubs but we’re not in position to do that. We’re in the same boat as a lot of other teams and that’s why so many games in League Two were cancelled.

“The galling thing is we were able to train on the pitch after it had been called off.

“But clearly there were areas we couldn’t have played on and that was the reason the game was postponed.

“I think it was the freezing fog that lost us the game. If the sun had been shining, we’d have had it on.”

City have another blank weekend coming up after Stockport but then face Mansfield and Stevenage - a tough run for their promotion credentials.

“We’re going through a period of games that will test us but we’ve got to be ready.

“It’s important we get back to winning ways. We obviously had a difficult game last time out (at Wimbledon) because of the circumstances of going down to 10 men but we can be better.

“We’re looking forward to the game - we just want to play! It’s been so stop-start.

“I imagine it will be a full house. Stockport get good numbers and we’ll obviously take a full allocation.

“It will be a good atmosphere with two decent teams going head to head. It doesn’t surprise me that there is a lot of interest.”

Clayton, who joined City on a short-term deal on Thursday, played in a 2-1 win over Stockport with Doncaster in August. He is in contention for his first outing since Boxing Day.

Hughes said: “He’s settled in really well. I didn’t have any worries about that or throwing him in very early.

“He’s an experienced player who can deal with that. He’ll be fine.”