STEPHEN Darby admits City must make visiting Valley Parade a “horrible” experience again.

The Bantams blew a half-time lead for the third game running to draw 1-1 with Shrewsbury in their home opener.

A bumper crowd of 18,032 saw Billy Clarke’s goal cancelled out within seconds of the restart.

Gillingham head to West Yorkshire tomorrow and skipper Darby is calling on City to make home advantage count.

City won only eight league games at Valley Parade last season –the worst home record in the top half of the division.

Darby reckons opposing teams relish the big-match atmosphere at the stadium and that has got to change.

He said: “We’ve got to try to make it a horrible place to come to this season. We’ve got to make it a fortress.

“With the crowd, the size of the stadium and the history, teams do enjoy playing here.

“They often do raise their games. We know they will do that so we have to make sure we are on it every week.

“We didn’t win enough games here last season. The away form was really good on the whole so it’s up to us now to add that ruthless streak at home.”

Phil Parkinson is waiting to find out more today about Clarke’s knee injury, which forced the Irishman to limp out of Saturday’s game in the second half. But the initial diagnosis was not positive.

It added to the frustration for City, who had the better of the cagey contest. Alan Sheehan hit the post and Darby was denied a first ever league goal by Connor Goldson’s goalline block.

Darby added: “I thought I’d scored. I don’t know where he came from to clear it off the line.

“We had a few chances and there were spells when we produced some good play. We never really looked troubled.

“They just had a couple of long-range shots and it was a scruffy goal to concede.

“But it’s nice to get a point on the board and hopefully we can follow it up tomorrow.

“It can take a few games to get up to speed and build that sharpness. It’s like that at the start of the season.

“We’ve made a few changes in the summer and you can see the quality and ability in the squad. There’s no doubt about that.

“What we’ve got to do now is gel and pull together as a team.”

Sheehan slotted in at centre half as Parkinson left out Nathan Clarke and responded with a man-of-the-match display.

Darby said: “Alan gives you that versatility because he can play left back or centre half. He came in and did really well but that shows his character.

“I played with him at Swindon as well and know what he’s like. He’s hungry and wants to do well.

“We’re going to need that throughout the course of the season, not just from Alan but from everyone.

“There’s competition all over the pitch and that drives you on every day in training. It’s healthy to have that.”