Steve Schumacher vowed to banish the Blackpool nightmare by promising fans: We won't be that bad again.

City's home clash with Brighton tomorrow has taken on an added edge after last week's 4-1 beating.

It finished off a wretched October which saw the Bantams collect only one point and drop out of the promotion picture.

They need a win to get the fans believing again - and Schu-macher admitted the players are desperate to put the record straight.

"Last week was the worst game I've ever played in for Bradford," he said. "Whatever we did just went wrong - it was awful.

"We went out there with all the right intentions but it just didn't happen and went from bad to worse.

"It was the first time we'd been beaten by more than one goal and we thoroughly deserved to lose. Every other defeat you could argue we might have got a point but not that one.

"But hopefully that was us hitting the bottom - the worst that we can get. We can only get better than that.

"Every team is going to have a dip. Everyone understands that you can't be brilliant every week of the season. We've just got to make sure that this is our dip and it doesn't go any further." Schumacher's own form has been better than most and he has been named Telegraph & Argus/ Bradford & Bingley player of the month. He will receive the award tomorrow - and plans to celebrate with three much-needed points.

City are still very much in contention with the top six, despite their slump, but the midfielder appreciates that a first victory for five weeks is paramount tomorrow against a side that have recently won at Scunthorpe and Huddersfield.

Schumacher added: "The fans will expect us to put on a performance and we owe them one. We've done okay at home this year until the last couple so we know we're good enough.

"It's been a bad run but we know that when we do play, we can play some good stuff. For whatever reason, that hasn't happened the last few weeks and we've got to change that.

"We're only two points off the first play-off place and six from the relegation zone, so it is tight. We need to start picking up wins again.

"We've put some good work into training this week and the lads have got their spirits back up. Now we have to produce when it matters.

"We took over 1,500 fans to Blackpool and not one of them would have gone away happy. Hopefully they will do tomorrow."