Hendrie: Bantams players should feel at home at Valley Parade

7:00am Thursday 2nd September 2010

By Simon Parker

Club legend John Hendrie cannot understand why anyone should be worried about home games.

City host Port Vale on Saturday with Hendrie urging them to “relish” the opportunity of performing on the biggest stage in the division.

Hendrie said: “Players have got to be brave and not have that fear factor. They should relish playing at home.

“I’m a bit surprised with the start. I thought that after finishing last year in a very positive manner, they would take that into this season.

“But nobody has a divine right to be winning games and sometimes it can take a few weeks to get going because of the system, injuries or players catching up fitness.

“I wouldn’t set any alarm bells ringing just yet. You look at the likes of Southampton, who are very much the same as City in their division, already getting rid of their manager, which is absolutely outrageous.

“It is such a long, long season and other teams will still see Bradford as a team capable of doing something.

City managed only two shots on target in the games with Stevenage and Southend. T&A columnist Hendrie is as mystified as the fans at how the team could suddenly go missing after playing so well in the Carling Cup ties against Nottingham Forest and Preston.

He added: “They gave a really good account of themselves against two Championship sides in the cup but couldn’t take that into the next games. If you can’t take any confidence or belief from that, what will give you confidence?

“The two worst performances have been on the back of their cup exploits. We were awful against Stevenage too.”

As a former manager himself, Hendrie can fully understand Peter Taylor’s frustration over his side’s inconsistency. He believes it is time they put it right this weekend.

“It’s up to the players themselves. The manager can’t do it for them. They’ve got to go out, roll their sleeves up and work damn hard to make things happen.

“They will have had eight days to prepare for this one. Hopefully they can get a good performance under their belt and move on from there.”