NOTTS County are refusing to budge over City’s plea to earn more breathing space before the FA Cup quarter-final replay at Reading.

The Bantams must face the Championship club again next Monday – just 48 hours after both sides are in league action.

City asked Notts County if they would move the weekend’s Meadow Lane clash forward to Friday night but the request was rejected.

They will try again but joint-chairman Mark Lawn expects the same answer.

He said: “I don’t think they are going to move it. Obviously Notts County don’t want to because they think we’ll play a weakened side.

“I can tell you now, we don’t do that in league games. But you can understand where Man United come from when they complain about the backlog of fixtures.

“We’ll ask Notts County again but I wouldn’t hold my breath. To be quite honest, I’d probably do the same myself.”

City, who will receive a further £123,750 if the replay is televised live, have to play next Monday to avoid a clash with the Champions’ League the following two nights. UEFA rules prevent FA Cup games from being played at the same time.

Phil Parkinson said: “I think that’s a little bit disrespectful to the FA Cup and the magnitude of this game coming up.

“For both of us it’s a huge prize and a history-making game and to have to play it so quickly is frustrating. But we’re going to have to deal with it.

“I would like to think that commonsense will prevail somewhere along the line because anyone who watched Saturday’s game will have seen what it meant to both sets of fans and both sets of players.

“Our players have got a chance to go down in the history books of Bradford City – and so have Reading.”

City, who go to Coventry tomorrow, made seven changes for last Tuesday’s win over Crawley and Parkinson is likely to turn to his squad players again.

“That was a huge boost for us because a lot who hadn’t played, like Chris Routis, Francois Zoko and Matty Dolan, came in and did well.

“We said at the time we are going to have to utilise everybody anyway with the incredible run of the games we’ve got coming up. The squad is really strong in terms of the togetherness.”

Reading boss Steve Clarke, whose team are away to Watford on Saturday, accused the FA of “devaluing their own competition” by not standing up to UEFA.

Clarke said: “Bradford have had a fairytale run to be here, us a little bit more under the radar. But you’ve got a League One and a Championship team in the quarter-final – that’s the romance of the FA Cup. “ After Saturday’s cagey goalless draw, Parkinson expects the replay to be more open.

He added: “I’ve got to give credit to Steve for setting them up to make it as difficult as possible for us. Jose Mourinho set Chelsea up in the Capital One Cup Final like that.

“But it will be different down there. They will have to open up more and hopefully that will suit us.”

Lawn said: “I told my wife Yvonne, we’ve never ever gone to Wembley and done it at home. It’s always been away - Blackpool, Burton, Aston Villa and now Reading.”