KENNY Black played down the significance after City were knocked out of the Checkatrade Trophy.

The Bantams were sunk by Oldham winger Tope Obadeyi's third-minute strike in front of another pitiful Valley Parade crowd of just 1,036.

Yet after booking their place in the FA Cup third round at the weekend, the assistant boss admitted defeat last night was not a huge blow.

Black said: "We've just had two cup ties in the space of a few days. If there was one we were not to succeed in, the Checkatrade would have been it.

"But we're disappointed to lose, particularly with the manner of the first half when we didn't do ourselves justice at all.

"We move on now and dust ourselves down. We've got the FA Cup and we're very much in the league campaign."

City made nine changes from the Plymouth game but only rookie Jordan Gibson and Adam Thompson of the current fringe players put a real case to be involved in Stuart McCall's League One plans.

Black said: "We would have loved some of the lads to have done a bit better. But you've got to give credit to the way Oldham set out.

"I thought Oldham got the foothold with the early goal. They caused us so many problems with their movement and ability to look after the ball better than we did.

"That was a concern because I thought we gave the ball away cheaply and used a lot of energy to win it back. Then within five or ten seconds, we'd give it away again.

"We did slightly better second half and showed a little bit more in the last 15 minutes when Jordan Gibson got on the ball in the wide area.

"But I don't think we can have any complaints about the result."

Dominic Poleon came on at half-time after missing some training through illness. Jake Reeves will also rejoin training later this week and City remain optimistic he will be fit to face Rochdale on Saturday.

Black said: "Dom rang up the physio yesterday and said he was willing to have a go.

"We would have started him under normal circumstances because he needs game time but it was too much of a gamble.

"I don't anticipate any problems injury-wise and we'll look after Jake. Hopefully he'll be okay."