Bradford City ace says lowly trio sign of League Two quality

All three were relegated from League One last season, and all three are currently stuck in the bottom half of the fourth tier.

Carlisle look to be in genuine danger of back-to-back relegations into non-league as it stands, with that fate befalling Forest Green just a few months ago.

While the situation is nowhere near as dire currently at Fleetwood, they will be disappointed to be sitting 15th, with just four wins from their first 13 league games.

They will be looking to make it five at home to seventh-placed City this afternoon, but not if Walker can help it.

He told the T&A: “League Two is a very, very competitive division and there are no easy games at all.

“You’ve seen that already this season, because you could sit and look at a fixture list on the Saturday morning and predict who’ll win that day, then come in at full-time of your game and the complete opposite has happened.

Morecambe are bottom, but they came minutes away from beating City last month, then 11 days later got their only league win so far at Barrow, who would have gone top of the table with a win that afternoon. (Image: Thomas Gadd.)

“There are probably about 15 teams who’ll think they’re capable of being up in the promotion mix at the end of the season, us being one of those.

“It’s a 46-game marathon, we’re nearly a third of the way there, so it’s just about staying consistent.

“We have to show that through November, December and into January.

“There’s another transfer window then where you can make the changes you need and coming out of that, you’re into the run-in.

“You’ve seen it so many times over the years, teams that are well placed heading into February putting together good performances and results.

“They’re often the ones that go on to take those top three places in League Two or carry their momentum through to win the play-offs.”

The Bantams were knocked off course slightly by losing their last league game to Doncaster, which brought their five-match unbeaten run to a halt.

But while not a league match, they can take confidence from riding out the storm in a difficult FA Cup first round tie against National League Aldershot last weekend, coming from behind to win 3-1 at Valley Parade.

Walker was crucial to City’s victory and reflecting on the game, he said: “Aldershot impressed me, but I wasn’t surprised by that.

Aldershot gave City a real scare last Saturday, and were 1-0 up at half-time. (Image: Thomas Gadd.)

“If you look at the way English football has gone over the last decade, the money that’s gone into the game at the top has filtered its way down, so the levels have become much stronger.

“The National League is very decent now and you could see that in some of the other FA Cup games last weekend, not just ours.

“The quality on show is not what you saw in non-league in years gone by.

“We knew it would be a difficult game against Aldershot and that we had to go into it with the right attitude, but I thought we showed that throughout.

“We expected them to come out hard and I thought they were really bright in the first 15 minutes.

“We had a few chances to put our stamp on the game after that, but they didn’t quite come off, then they scored a great goal.

“When that happened, I felt quite calm and confident in our ability to show our character and do what we’re good at.

“But it was still important I made the save I did just after Aldershot had gone 1-0 up because that allowed the team to go on in the second half and perform in the way they did.”