PHIL Parkinson is calling for calm heads as City search for a solution to their chronic goal shortage.

The Bantams are the lowest scorers in League One and have netted only three times in the last nine and a half hours of action.

They fired another blank in 120 minutes in Tuesday’s FA Cup exit to Bury, despite playing with an extra man for the majority of the game.

Parkinson admitted that his team are getting edgy when they get into shooting positions. But he is determined to rebuild confidence ahead of Saturday’s trip to Port Vale.

He said: “It goes back quite a long way. You could see on Saturday and again on Tuesday that there is a frustration in the ground and I totally understand that.

“You could feel the edginess and when the players had chances there wasn’t that calmness we’ve had in the past.

“That just stems from a period where, despite the results not being too bad, we have had a lot of gilt-edged chances and not taken them.

“Sometimes the more you make of it, the worse it gets.

“We’ve just got to keep positive with the players. We’ve got players who can score goals.

“We’ve got to stay with them and obviously working on the training ground isn’t a bad thing to do. We’ll continue to do that.

“But we’ve got to stick right behind the players and hopefully we’ll take a bigger percentage of the chances we’re creating.”

City twice hit the woodwork against the Shakers but too often snatched at the opportunity when they pressured the opposition goal. Parkinson conceded it has been a growing trend in their recent performances.

“If you look at it, we had 15 attempts on Saturday and 19 the other night,” he added. “But not a big enough percentage of those have hit the target and made the keeper work.

“That percentage level has got to go up for us to start winning games comfortably.

“There were two or three times (on Tuesday) when people got in on goal and had to take a strike early but took that extra touch.

“That’s what happens when people aren’t full of confidence.

“We’ve got to get more out of the lads we’ve got because we’ve got some really good players. We’ve got a big game at the weekend and we have to move on.”

James Hanson’s absence with a calf injury was felt and City will be hoping to get him fit for a Vale Park return.

Parkinson said: “He wasn’t miles off but unfortunately wasn’t quite right. We’ll see about the weekend.”

Meanwhile, the T&A understands that Carlisle have not been back in with a new offer for Gary Liddle since City turned down their initial bid.