Phil Parkinson and Steven Pressley have cleared the air after their televised fall-out.

The City chief insists there are no hard feelings following a phone call to his Coventry counterpart.

Pressley angered the home side by criticising their style of play in Sunday’s pulsating 3-3 draw. But the Sky Blues boss was also upset at comments made by Parkinson after the final whistle.

So Parkinson got in touch with Pressley yesterday to allow the pair to patch up their differences.

He said: “It was good to have a chat with Steven. Things were said that shouldn’t have been and we don’t want that to detract from what was a great game of football.

“He was being disrespectful towards our team and he apologised for his comments. But I was also out of order and I apologised for confronting him afterwards on the touchline.

"Steven said he totally respected Bradford and you only have to look at his interview before the game to see what he really thinks. He was just frustrated at conceding so late.

“It was in the heat of the moment and it was important that we talked and cleared things up.

“I’m sure plenty of people have commented on a tremendous game and that’s what you should be talking about. There was something like 39 attempts on goal which says it all.

“The more I think about it and the more I watch the game back, I’m immensely proud of the players to come back the way we did.”

Parkinson said City’s more direct approach – which was labelled “stone age” by Pressley – was a deliberate tactic against a defence that looked vulnerable in the air.

He added: “We’d watched the way Coventry played and the goals they have conceded. We felt they were poor with crosses and not the greatest at the back in the air, so we tried to maximise that situation. To me, that’s good football.

“We looked to balance things by switching the play quickly and getting the wide players on the ball. We got that right in the game.”

Parkinson also brought on Alan Connell for the striker’s first involvement since being told he could go out on loan. The experienced frontman, who played the closing stages, last week rejected an offer from Plymouth for geographical reasons.

Parkinson added: “I just felt that with him (on the bench) there’s that option to go three at the back.

“While Alan is here and we are paying his wages, we’ve got to keep him involved when I think the time is right. He is part of the squad.

“He’s great in that position just behind the two strikers and has done really well for us. He played a part for us last year with his goals and the way he was around the building.

“But he’s got to play first team football somewhere and he knows that. That’s still the case.”

City have slipped out of the top six after a run of seven games without a win. But Parkinson was encouraged by the fighting spirit on display to peg back the Sky Blues.

“We can only keep playing like that. We had a poor game against Rotherham last week but performances up to then have been good – we played tremendously well at Preston.

“Through the course of the season you are going to get setbacks but if we keep responding like we did, then we’ll be fine.”

* Walsall climbed above City into seventh place with a 2-0 win at home to Peterborough last night, while Peter Taylor's Gillingham crashed out of the FA Cup with a 1-0 defeat at non-league Brackley in their first-round replay.