PHIL Parkinson is still after one more centre half after welcoming Nathan Clarke into the City back four.

The former Huddersfield defender signed on an initial one-year deal yesterday – and then played the first half of a 1-0 friendly defeat at Whitby.

Parkinson said: "It's handy to get another centre half in the building and we're trying to get one more.

"Nathan's a player who has captained teams at this level before and I feel he will be a good acquisition for us. He's a good talker and a character and you can't beat experience.

"He's had a couple of 45-minute games at Orient, so he is not far behind fitness-wise. He came through unscathed last night and I thought he did well."

Clarke, who left Leyton Orient with a year left on his contract to return north, said: "It's nice to play 45 minutes with the lads and get to know them. You need to get a decent rapport with everyone and that's what I'm looking to do.

"I've only been in a day but they look a good group. I've played against many of them before and know one or two, so that helps already."

City fielded a strong first-half line-up but still fell behind to the Evo-Stik League side when James Meredith conceded an early penalty. Parkinson changed the entire side at the interval.

The Bantams boss said: "We decided to keep all the squad together and have a fitness hit. I thought we worked hard in the first half but we were almost concentrating too much on that rather than the quality of our football.

"We gave a silly penalty away and became a bit frantic in our play instead of staying calm.

"The second half was always going to be a big ask because it was a totally disjointed team.

"You never want to lose but generally we've done well in pre-season in terms of results. But I thought we got the fitness benefit out of the game.

"The first-half lads had to chase the game and that probably did them some good. There was nothing wrong with the attitude of the team."