New boy Adam Reach can wing it for City as Kyel Reid’s understudy.

Andrew Davies saw enough proof when the Middlesbrough youngster gave Stephen Darby a tough time earlier in the season.

The left wideman, who has joined the Bantams initially for a month, spent the first half of the campaign with Shrewsbury.

And Davies remembers him proving a real Valley Parade handful for right back Darby, who is arguably City’s most consistent performer so far.

Reach set up Shrewsbury’s early goal that game before City came back to win 2-1 – their last home victory.

Davies said: “He’s a good young player. He’s quite nimble, he’s a good height and he’s quick.

“He certainly gave Stephen Darby some trouble when we played against him. Giving Stephen a bit of a run-around is no mean feat. Not a lot of people do that.

“I was with Adam at Middlesbrough when he was younger and I went back there on loan from Stoke. Speaking to a few Boro lads, they rate him highly – Jonathan Woodgate says he’s a really talented boy.

“He’s a good player and he works hard for the team. It’s not always the case that you get both with wingers, so fingers crossed he will do a good job.

“He’s also match fit and comes into the team after playing a lot of games this season in our league. That’s important.”

Reach made 24 appearances for the Shrews, featuring in every game after joining on loan in mid-August. The 20-year-old also scored three times.

He trained with City for the first time yesterday and, with the blank weekend, should be well settled in by Preston’s visit on Tuesday.

Reach has a remarkable habit of scoring on his debut – something the Bantams could do with to end the current win drought.

He was on target on his first appearance from the Middlesbrough bench in 2011 and again on his full home debut with a screamer against Burnley, which was nominated the club’s goal of the season.

Reach marked his first cap for Peter Taylor’s England under-20s last summer by scoring against Uruguay.

And he kept up that record with another goal in his first outing in a Shrewsbury shirt to beat Swindon.

Phil Parkinson revealed he was straight on the case for a replacement once he suspected the severity of Reid’s season-ending knee injury.

“I put a call in to the chief scout at Middlesbrough straight away when I knew it was going to be quite a bad one,” he said.

“Adam knows this league and has done well at Shrewsbury. They were keen to keep him but he went back to Middlesbrough and played last week against Arsenal (under-21s).

“I feel he will be good for us and we can get him involved in things straight away.”

Parkinson also revealed there was “nothing concrete” in his continued search for a left back.