STUART McCall has revealed he would like to have kept Jordy Hiwula at Valley Parade – but could not match what Fleetwood are paying.

City's top scorer from last season returns tonight with Uwe Rosler's Cod army, who have taken him on loan for the year from Huddersfield.

McCall enjoyed working with Hiwula, who hit 12 goals in Bantam colours, and felt he left as a better player.

Yet City's chances of bringing him back were quashed with Fleetwood prepared to pay the striker's Premier League parent club his full wages.

McCall said: "I've never had chance to speak to Jordy since and thank him for what he did. He was really good to work with and I think he improved with us.

"He played a big part in helping us get to where we did and he's a smashing kid.

"I spoke to Huddersfield at the back end of last season before the play-offs and they were asking if we wanted to keep him longer.

"Huddersfield made us aware we were only paying part of his wage last year and there were a couple of clubs in our division who were happily going to pay the full whack.

"It would have been nice to be in for him again but we couldn't commit because we didn't know what division we would be in.

"Once we knew a couple of clubs had already committed to paying the full amount, we were looking elsewhere."

City faced Fleetwood four times last season, edging them out in the play-off semi-finals 1-0 on aggregate after both sides recorded comeback wins in the league.

McCall will not name his team until just before kick-off because of a couple of "serious" doubts. He had planned changes to freshen it up anyway.

But he expects another tight contest against a club with significant financial muscle through owner Andy Pilley, despite their modest size.

"Fleetwood this year have invested and recruited well in the young ones and brought in the likes of Conor McAleny and Kyle Dempsey," said McCall.

"They've got the youngest squad in the division but they've also got some good, experienced players.

"Another good thing for them was not losing some of their better players in the transfer window. There were rumours that (Cian) Bolger was going, Devante Cole to Sheffield United and Amari'i Bell but they managed to keep them.

"Cole looks to be on a hot spell of scoring and Jordy we know from last season.

"But it's a game we are looking forward to. It's a year to the day since playing them here (in the league) and the same ref (Graham Salisbury) – so hopefully we'll get the same result."

Midfielder Jake Reeves knows Rosler well from their time together at Brentford, where the German gave him his full debut in 2011.

Reeves said: "He's very animated and very strict in the way he works and how he wants his teams to play. At the same time, he's a manager you can knock on the door and talk to.

"He seems to be doing very well at Fleetwood and it's probably similar to when he went to Brentford. I'm sure he will be getting into their boys about Bradford knocking them out the play-offs."

Meanwhile, Shay McCartan and Adam Thompson will miss City's trip to MK Dons on October 7 after being named in Northern Ireland's squad for their upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Germany and Norway.