JULIAN Rhodes today declared it a “great” transfer window for City despite missing out on one of their deadline-day targets.

Leeds midfielder Michael Tonge went off to Millwall instead after the Championship strugglers offered to pay a much larger chunk of his wages than the Bantams could afford.

But Phil Parkinson made a very late swoop for Blackpool centre half Gary MacKenzie, who has joined for the rest of the season. The towering 29-year-old Scot has just come back from a long-term Achilles injury.

Joint-chairman Rhodes felt the club had already done their best business earlier in the month by securing all the players in Parkinson’s squad who were out of contract.

He said: “I met with Phil between Christmas and New Year and we prioritised what we needed to do. First we needed to get Ben Williams signed up for the FA Cup game (at Millwall) and then it was all the lads whose loans or deals were expiring. We needed to get them sorted for the rest of the season.

“We’ve done all that and given ourselves the best possible chance to continue the cup run and do well in the league.

“We’ve also got Filipe Morais tied down on a long-term deal and Williams done for the next 18 months.

“We had to do all of them in early January and you could see how close we came with getting Andy Halliday registered in time for the Chelsea game.”

City had been hopeful of taking Tonge, who played against them for Leeds in their Capital One Cup loss at Valley Parade, until Millwall gazumped them yesterday morning.

Tonge was initially linked with the Lions as part of a proposed swap deal for Martyn Woolford. But when Leeds’ interest in the winger cooled, the London club came back with a considerably bigger financial offer that ruled out City.

Rhodes said: “We thought the deal was going to go through over the weekend but unfortunately Millwall came in offering to pay a lot more money and blew us out the water.

“But I think it’s been a great January (window) coupled with the fact we beat Millwall and Chelsea in the FA Cup.

“We’ve slipped up a bit in the league but these things do tend to happen when you have a cup run. Phil is addressing that and making sure the players will be focused.”

The emergency loan window re-opens for Football League clubs from next Tuesday. They can be for up to a maximum 93 days so any deal from February 21 onwards would potentially cover the play-offs as well.