Patched-up Bradford City face Birmingham at Valley Parade tonight with frustrated boss Nicky Law admitting: if you're fit, you're playing.

The Bantams have only 16 players available as they try to halt a three-game, goalless losing run that has plunged them back into relegation bother.

City hobble into tonight's home game with resources at crisis level. They are likely to field no recognised centre-half with any experience, a makeshift right back and a midfielder again filling in up front.

Rookie Andy Lee, who has never played for the first team, will also be thrown straight on the bench after returning from a loan at non-league Emley.

Andy Myers is out for the season with his injured hamstring. And Nicky Law's threadbare options have been furthered hammered because Ashley Ward is still struggling with a severely-bruised foot and Simon Grayson is suspended.

It means midfielder Claus Jorgensen will get the nod at right back with Gunnar Halle, operating as an emergency centre-back, joined by Mark Bower. Eoin Jess will have to continue up front to cover Ward's absence.

Chairman Geoffrey Richmond has told Law he can bring in seven to ten new players in the summer. But with City's perilous position, the Bantams boss was desperate to start recruiting now - with his ex-Chesterfield centre-half Ian Breckin the number one target.

City are six points off the drop zone but while relegation rivals like Sheffield Wednesday and Barnsley have been busy recruiting, Law must survive the final critical phase of the campaign with the players that are still standing.

He said: "We are down to the bare bones. Any more injuries will crucify us."

Bower, whose only start was against Macclesfield in the Worthington Cup, last appeared in Law's first game in charge at Walsall on January 8. But following the huge blow of losing Myers against Manchester City, he is the only left-sided centre-half on the books.

Lee - one of seven players out of contracts in the summer and all involved tonight - has been a substitute twice before against FK Atlantas in the Intertoto Cup in Lithuania and then at Coventry on the final day of last season. But the 19-year-old winger did not get on the pitch.

He is unlikely to be kept on in the summer but Law has no other possibilities for bench duty. Myers is the latest addition to a nine-man casualty list which also includes full-back Lewis Emanuel who has a septic toe.