GRAHAM Alexander hopes an early start to pre-season can help to forge a stronger City for League Two.

The Bantams return to Apperley Bridge on Monday to begin their build-up to the new campaign.

That gives Alexander and his coaching staff seven weeks to get the squad in shape for the opening game on August 10.

City have not kicked a ball since beating Newport 4-1 on the final day of last season at the end of April.

It has been a longer break than usual – finishing three weeks earlier than they had done in the unsuccessful 2023 play-off bid – and Alexander insists the players will be ready and raring to go.

The Bantams chief said: “There are improvements we have to make as a squad and a club and being ready for a full season.

“I didn’t want to leave anything to chance. The players have still had a really good break by the time we come back for the first day.

“I think they’ll have had eight weeks, which is quite a long summer in the modern game.

“It’s important that they had a complete break for a few weeks before they started their off-season programme.”

Alexander is keen to reduce the number of injuries that affected his plans after taking the Valley Parade helm in November.

He believes a well-paced warm-up programme can get the players tuned to the energetic way he wants the team to play.

“We have to prepare the players,” added Alexander. “We lost a few throughout the course of the season through injury.

“We don’t want to be in that scenario again.

“We want to create a stronger and more physically resilient group if we can.

“But we don’t want to rush that into a cramped five-and-a-half week period.

“We want to make sure the players have time to do it in a safe way and one they will all be able to get through.

“If the players are not prepared for it and miss chunks of pre-season, it’s really difficult to get that time back and that opportunity.

“We want as many players to get through that period as possible because we’ll need them all. That’s why we set the return date a little bit earlier.”

The 2024/2025 fixtures will be published at 9am on Wednesday.