Jim Jefferies has put a commanding centre-half at the top of his Bradford City shopping list.

The City boss wants to bring in a big central defender in time to play in Saturday's next episode of the Premiership survival saga when Coventry City come to Valley Parade.

Jefferies, pictured at the Riverside on Saturday, has targetted a stopper to fill the massive gap left by the injury to David Wetherall, whose groin operation has ruled him out until at least the end of February.

Celtic's former Sheffield United centre-half Olivier Tobily has been mentioned, along with Blackburn's Christian Dailly, Coventry's Colin Hendry and Middlesbrough's Gianluca Festa.

Jefferies said: "We need to look at that area. I tried to get someone in for the Middlesbrough game but didn't want to rush it.

"I've got one or two ideas and I'll sit down this week and think about my options before making my mind up who to go for.

"I've not used any of my loan options and the chairman backed me with Billy McKinlay coming in. There was no transfer fee but he had to be added to the wage bill and the chairman sorted that out.

"I'm sure if it improves the team he'll want Bradford to do well, as he's shown in the past.

"The problem on Saturday is we didn't have the height in defence. Wetherall was out and Andy O'Brien is just coming back and although Andy did well his timing isn't quite there yet.

"Peter Atherton is a good, honest pro but we lacked height with the full-backs. Dan Petrescu's not known for being good in the air and Ian Nolan is not a big lad.

"Whenever Boro peeled off the back it was always causing us a problem. We didn't have the options to change it."

Jefferies has again been linked north of the border with Hearts playmaker Colin Cameron and said: "He is good enough to play in the Premiership but he's not available. And Hearts would probably ask for money I might not have."

The Bantams nearly presented the new manager with a three-point start at the Riverside after snatching an early two-goal lead.

But Jefferies swallowed his disappointment at the final 2-2 scoreline, saying: "Overall, with the chances that Middlesbrough had, it was probably fair.

"The players gave me everything and just lacked a bit of fitness, but I'm not going to blame them for that. Now we've got to tinker with things so that when players are too tired we have other options to replace them.

"A win would have been a massive start but to come away with something stops the rot and you can build on that. If we show the same commitment in our next two home games perhaps we can win them both."