STUART McCall believes the return to training this week will help provide a cure for City’s play-off hangover.

The City boss accepts it is only natural that the disappointment of getting so close to reaching the Championship last season only to fall at the final hurdle won’t disappear automatically.

But he doesn’t expect that to last once pre-season kicks off on Thursday and the new campaign opens up with a home visit of Blackpool on August 5.

He said: “I remember speaking to the lads last year when we first went in.

“There was still a little hangover from getting beaten in the play-offs the season before but we can’t look back.

“Once we get into pre-season and get on the training pitch we’ll get the buzz going again. We’ll take the positives from last season and look to improve on certain things.”

McCall wants more goals and less draws this season but takes heart from a strong end to the season which saw the Bantams finish as one of the League One form teams.

He said: “We know we need to score more but, having said that, we finished off really strongly.

“Since losing at Fleetwood (in February) we won eight, drew four and lost two and those two defeats were at Scunthorpe and Sheffield United. Draws hampered us but we had a real strong run at back end.

“We want to continue our home form but we were a few goals short. We ended up having the second best defensive record without being a defensive team.”

Front pair Charlie Wyke and Alex Jones will be aiming to boost the goal tally and McCall added: “Having come in during January, they are settled in now and will have benefited from a break. They will be raring to go as will everybody.

“Disappointment naturally affects everyone but we can’t let it linger and soon as we are back on the training ground, it will be a case of looking forward and trying to improve on what we’ve done.”