Phil Parkinson has pleaded for officials to give City’s flair players more protection.

The Bantams boss voiced his concerns to Football League referees supremo David Allison in the wake of Ian Goodison’s forearm challenge on Kyel Reid that went unpunished.

Sunday’s ref Darren Drysdale has been reprimanded for making a wrong call – as well as his failure to crack down on Tranmere’s time-wasting.

Parkinson felt the touchline block on the City winger was the latest in a string of potentially dangerous ways to halt his team’s key men.

Nahki Wells is currently out with an ankle ligament injury caused by a hefty foul from Shrewsbury defender Dave Winfield, who was later sent off.

City’s top scorer was also the victim of a high lunge from Brentford keeper David Button, which resulted in an instant dismissal.

And Colchester’s Daniel Pappoe also saw a straight red for aggressively sliding into the back of Mark Yeates.

Parkinson said: “We play in a very attack-minded way, so you are going to draw those type of fouls.

“We’ve got attacking players who go past people with pace and skill and they will have some bad challenges on them. But I do think they need more protection.

“Look at Button’s tackle on Nahki – that’s an horrendous challenge. Then there was the one in the Colchester game when we thought the lad had broken Yeatesy’s leg.

“Nahki gets injured from the foul from Winfield, who doesn’t even get booked for it. And you’ve got the one on Sunday when Goodison elbows Reidy and nothing is given.”

Drysdale was marked down in the match assessor’s report for missing the incident. Goodison was booked before play resumed but that was for a shove on the City manager in the fracas that followed.

Parkinson wondered if the fact that the three previous visiting sides to Valley Parade all had players sent off had an influence.

He added: “The ref may have come into the game with that in mind. Maybe he had a preconceived idea that the atmosphere had swayed the officials. I had a good chat with Dave and he said he’d looked at the previous matches and agreed that each sending-off was justified.

“He’d also spoken to the assessor from Sunday and his feedback backs up what we saw. I’m pleased about that.

“It doesn’t change the result but it helps to be able to have that interaction. We are always liaising and we had a ref in a couple of weeks ago for a training session.

“We’re trying to build up relationships with referees. The LMA (League Managers’ Association) are encouraging it through Terry Dolan and that is a good thing.”

City also had a couple of strong penalty shouts rejected by Drysdale (pictured). Their last spot-kick was in the first play-off semi-final against Burton in April – they have not been awarded one this season.

Parkinson said: “I just think there have been a lot of half-decisions as well as definite ones that we should have got.

“To have played 11 games without a penalty is a lot and that worries me. We could have had five or six by now.”

* City’s FA Youth Cup first-round tie at Scunthorpe takes place on Monday (7pm). The Valley Parade youngsters have won all seven league games so far – with Oliver McBurnie scoring four hat-tricks.