Bantams boss Graham Alexander on Accrington postponement

The home game with Accrington yesterday fell victim to Storm Bert with referee Michael Barlow pulling the plug after a Valley Parade pitch inspection at 10.30am.

It was a frustration for the Bantams – who were also unable to organise a short-notice training session.

But boss Alexander could see the bright side for Pattison and Baldwin, who have just returned to training after being out long term.

“If you’re looking for positives, that’s certainly one,” he said.

“We were obviously fully prepared to play the game, named the team the day before and did all the set pieces.

“Unfortunately, the weather beat us to it. But on the other side of it, it gives the other boys especially Aden and Patto another week of training before the next game and maybe they’ll come into contention.

“The problem with the injuries we have had is that we’re using the same players day in, day out, game in, game out.

“We made some changes in the (Vertu) Trophy but for four or five of them it would have been the third game in a week.

“It just gives us another week to get their energy levels back up to normal and hopefully we’ll have one or two back in the squad.”

City had major issues with their pitch after the winter weather kicked in last season.

Extensive improvement work was carried out during the summer as they hope to avoid similar problems.

Alexander added: “We don’t want this pitch to turn into what it did last year.

“Even if we’d been able to put the game on, the forecast was pretty horrible and it would have only got worse.

“There were probably a couple of games that put our pitch beyond repair last year and we don’t want that again.

Antoni Sarcevic is hoping to be back in training on Tuesday (Image: Thomas Gadd)

“Hopefully we can look after it as long as possible.

“Everyone was ready to play but it’s just one of those things that happens from time to time.”

Antoni Sarcevic is also pencilled in for a return to training after his lengthy absence.

Alexander said: “Sarce had an injection on Thursday so can’t train until Tuesday but he should be available to join in some of it with us then.

“That’s his next step of challenging him and seeing how he reacts to the training, then take it from there.

“We’ll take it step-by-step once he’s out on the field on Tuesday. But he feels really good in himself, feels really strong, so fingers crossed he’s not far behind the other two.”

City dropped a place to 10th without playing. Morecambe, next weekend’s FA Cup opponents, climbed off the bottom with a 3-2 win at fellow strugglers Swindon.