CITY will draw on their cup-fighting qualities tonight and treat promotion-bound Bristol City as Championship opponents.

Phil Parkinson wants the Bantams to play the underdog card at Valley Parade against the leaders, who will clinch a return to the second tier with victory.

“It’s a good game for us,” said Parkinson, whose side trail the play-offs by seven points. “Bristol are champions-elect and deservedly so.

“They’ll be looking at themselves as a Championship team – and we’ve done well against Championship sides.

“We’ve had to raise our game to do that against Leeds, Millwall twice and Reading. In the main, we’ve done well against that standard of opposition which Bristol will be classing themselves in.

“Look at the points difference between the two sides and there is that underdog mindset, like we had in the cups.”

Parkinson will run a late check on several players ahead of kick-off, most notably Mark Yeates with his on-going shoulder problem. But Gary MacKenzie came through the Gillingham defeat unscathed after his ankle injury.

The City boss added: “We’ve got various bumps and bruises but it’s that stage of the season. A lot of teams are carrying them.

“It’s a case of taking calculated gambles and people rolling up their sleeves and getting on with it. Our lads do that and everyone’s up for playing but we’ve got to get the balance right.”

MacKenzie had five stitches taken out of his swollen ankle yesterday after playing through the pain barrier on Saturday.

The big Scot said: “It was more the reaction afterwards I was worried about but it wasn’t too bad. I’ll grin and bear it for now and hopefully use the days after the game to settle it down.

“Gillingham was a tough one to take because we were so dominant. But you’ve got to score when you’re on top like that.

“It’s up to us now to get a result tonight and keep the season alive as long as possible. There are no gimmes yet.”

City held Bristol City to a 2-2 draw in October and Parkinson believes they are capable of delaying the promotion party that will follow if Steve Cotterill’s men claim a 12th away win.

“We went down there and had a real go,” said Parkinson. “They push their wingbacks on and leave you space to exploit and I felt we did that.

“It was an end-to-end game with chances for both sides and we intend to do that again.

“It’s another great test for us and for the individuals in our team and we’ve had plenty of them this season already.

“They’ll be looking to have a celebration party but we want to make sure they put it on hold for at least another week.

“It’s inevitable it’s going to happen and Bristol will win promotion and credit to them for that. But we don’t want it to happen on our patch.”

With a full set of League One fixtures, City could be virtually out of top-six contention if they lose a third home game on the bounce.

But Parkinson is adamant the season will not be allowed to peter out.

“There is that danger and we’re doing everything we can to make sure that doesn’t happen.

“I just felt the way we approached the Gillingham game you could tell we were determined to keep it going right to the wire.

“Unfortunately on the day, a combination of maybe not being clinical enough, some tremendous last-ditch defending and some bad luck as well contributed to us not getting the points we deserved.

“In terms of the way we played, I don’t think we could have done much more.

“I’m more annoyed if we don’t win games when we haven’t done what we’ve set out to do but on Saturday we set out exactly as we wanted but didn’t get our rewards.

“That does happen sometimes but it’s good that we’ve got a great game coming up.”