Stuart McCall admits City’s Friday kick-off will take some of the shine off the FA Cup.

The first-round clash with Notts County has been brought forward from a traditional Saturday start because Trent neighbours Nottingham Forest are already at home to Bristol City.

And with the Bantams facing Port Vale in the John-stone’s Paint Trophy next Tuesday, they asked for the tie to be played earlier rather than put back 24 hours.

McCall admitted: “Ideally you want to play the FA Cup on a Saturday afternoon. It possibly won’t be the same but we had no choice about it because of the circumstances.

“It’s a bit harsh for the fans who want to travel down, with getting away from work on time. Obviously it’s more difficult for them than going there on Saturday.

“The positive for us from a football point of view is that it gives me a chance to watch Bournemouth at Chesterfield the next day while Jakes (Wayne Jacobs) will have a look at Port Vale.

“I think Notts County would have liked to play on Sunday but that wouldn’t have given us enough time to prepare for the Johnstone’s Paint with another big game coming up on Tuesday.”

City may be within three rounds of the final of the JPT but McCall insists all the focus will be on tomorrow’s FA Cup test – and the chance to avenge that 5-0 thrashing on the first day of the season.

He said: “As any manager will tell you, the next game is always the most important. But obviously it goes without saying that there could be more chance of us getting to Wembley in the Johnstone’s Paint than FA Cup.

“But Notts County is a big game for us because that ground holds a lot of bad memories for a lot of players. We made too many individual errors that day and gave them goals. So we’ve got to put in a decent performance regardless of the result.

“We’re playing against one of the most potent attacking sides in the division at home.

“First and foremost we’ve got to defend much better than we did last time.

“It’s a tricky one but we will go there and do our best. And a good performance will give us confidence to carry forward to Tuesday.”

Chris Brandon has been troubled by a tight hamstring but was expected to be back in training today.

Tomorrow’s winners will receive £18,000 in prize money – a ten per cent drop from last year.