Graham Alexander glad to have Jamie Walker back for Bantams

Walker came through his longest run-out in midweek since his injury – and could be pushing to start against leaders Mansfield this afternoon.

Alexander is delighted to have the livewire Scot back in action for the 10-game finish.

The City boss said: “He’s missed three months of football and training. He hasn’t been training with us that long.

“If we were at an earlier stage of the season with a lot longer left, his return to play might have taken another week to 10 days.

“But the games are running out and Jamie’s absolutely desperate to help us be successful.

“He’s not up to full match speed but neither is Tyreik (Wright). They are both creative, attacking players and great options for us.

“We just have to give them the minutes to get up to speed because we know how valuable they are to us.

“Jamie gives us something that we’ve missed because he’s slightly different.”

Walker gave a reminder of that in the Forest Green defeat when he nicked a ball on halfway and set up Wright for a shot saved by keeper Vicente Reyes.

Alexander added: “We’re an aggressive team that press a lot and Jamie’s got this natural intuition to understand which side the opposition player’s going to take the ball.

“He changes his angle of press right at the last minute and he’s got that natural timing of arriving just when they can’t see him.

“That was him all over. It was a great pass through to Tyreik who had a good shot at the end of it.

“Jamie was a really bright spark for us when we first came in. Unfortunately, we lost him for three months and it’s great to have him back.

“Fingers crossed, he stays fit for the rest of the season.”

City require an immediate boost as they tackle Nigel Clough’s Mansfield in the second of their run of three consecutive home games.

After the low of Tuesday night, Alexander insists his team are ready to bounce back against the current pace-setters.

Clarke Oduor takes a tumble in City's draw at Mansfield (Image: Thomas Gadd)

He said: “That’s the challenge and we have to hit it head on. “That’s why we showed (clips) of what we did well at the start in the Accrington game and what we didn’t do on Tuesday so we can correct that.

“The players are intelligent guys. They will take it on board.

“They are extremely ambitious to be successful and if you want to do that then you have to take on all-comers.

“You have to come up against the best and currently Mansfield are the best in the division.

“They’ve been striving to get out this division for a good few years and they’ve gone really close.

“They’ve got a vastly-experienced manager who has been there for a little while and gone through the ups and downs with play-offs and so forth.

“He’s got them rolling along really well this season.

“They have similar aspirations to us but are obviously in a much better position. That’s where we have to show we can compete with the best in the division on this one-off game.

“If we can do that, then we have to show we can be consistent and do it in the next game and the one after that. But they are all different challenges.”