JAMES Meredith will always be grateful for Phil Parkinson gate-crashing his party days.

City's left back is enjoying a rich vein of form during their unbeaten start under Stuart McCall.

But as he gears up to tackle Parkinson's new Bolton side this afternoon, Meredith has thanked his former boss for instilling professional traits into his game.

Meredith said: "For me personally, he turned me from a non-League to a League player.

"At that point, although I always worked hard and had a good attitude, my diet wasn't very good and I wasn't as professional as I am now.

"I was a bit of a party boy when I was young and he turned me into the player I am now.

"When you were doing something wrong, he would tell you and let you know and punish you for it.

"You had to do things right. He didn't really care how much ability you had or how pretty a footballer you were.

"If you didn't do the things in the way he wanted, then you were not going to get very far."

Meredith heads for the Macron on the back of scoring against Bristol Rovers last week – his first goal in almost exactly a year.

But he hopes the more fluid style of play that McCall wants will mean the wait for his next one will not be as long.

"I have set my aim at a bit more than one – I am going for three this year!" said the Bantams defender.

"We play a little bit differently now and I am able to take more risks in getting myself in the box or going up front and pushing on a bit further – whether to get a cross in or just some interlocking play or a chance at goal.

"I really like how things are going and I love the way we play and the atmosphere of the club.

"We have a mentality now where we are after top two and we don't want to be looking for third as the team think that they are good enough to be right up there. So let's go for it."

With Parkinson's entire back-room team following him to Bolton, Meredith is pretty sure what to expect from the home side.

He said: "I think that they will be very fit. Nick Allamby will have got them that way and they have inherited a good set of players; good technical players.

"They will work hard, press high and be a bit direct and play in the channels. Then when they are up in our half, they will try and knock it around and get it down and play.

"Phil was a fantastic manager. When he took over Bradford, they weren't in a good position and were struggling for a long time and he kind of woke the sleeping dragon and put fire in their belly.

"He did a great job for everyone involved and we got that promotion and went on some great cup runs and pushed ourselves to the higher end of League One.

"It will be strange for a few of us playing against him after we served him for so many years – but we will have to go there and do the job.

"These are my favourite games and I like the big stadiums, the nice pitches and the fans filling them out.

"Our fans are obviously really excited about it as it has sold out so quickly.

"That gives us a lot of confidence and shows how much it means to them and we don't want to disappoint them. We never want to disappoint them, especially in a big game like this."