Bradford City: Derbyshire's delight to work with Mark Hughes again

The veteran striker has reunited with Hughes again after joining the Bantams - and made his debut off the bench at Stockport last week.

It is nearly two decades since Derbyshire first worked with the City boss at Blackburn. But he hasn’t noticed any difference.

Derbyshire said: “It’s nice to be working with the gaffer again and everything is still the same with him.

“His approach to the game and the way he is before and afterwards, the way he looks at their team and how he can improve us all the time, nothing has changed.

“I had a great time working under him before and he’s kept those standards pretty high from what I’ve seen to date.

“He’s at a massive club and you can see for yourself with the number of season tickets that have been sold and the history as well. He’s obviously picked a great club to take forward.”

Derbyshire is back in England for the first time since 2016 and admitted there were a few nerves when he came on at Edgeley Park.

“If there are no butterflies then you should hang up your boots,” added the 36-year-old.

“It’s always good to have that feeling, that buzz, when you come into the game of wanting to do well.

Colin Doyle and Mark Hughes were contributing factors (Image: Thomas Gadd)

“It’s very important to start off well. I put myself about a bit and it was a decent result in the end for us.

“It was end-to-end the minute I came on. Obviously, we would have loved to have won but it was good to walk away with a point.

“I know it’s difficult to nail down a place straight away. It’s going to take time but I’m happy to help the team and the club however I can.

“If I can use my experience on and off the pitch and help the younger players get better, that’s always been a thing I like doing. Obviously, I’ll still fight for my own place as well.”

Derbyshire revealed the role that goalkeeping coach Colin Doyle played in convincing him to sign for City.

“Colin is a friend of mine and I spoke to him about playing there. He said about how big the club was and the set-up.

“He’s very happy there, so that was a big attraction for me. It’s going great so far.”