City 2, Fleetwood 1

THEY hugged like a successful election team toasting a narrow majority.

As he made his way between post-match radio interviews, Phil Parkinson stopped to embrace City's chief operating officer James Mason.

However slender the margin, this had been a victory for the Parky political broadcast.

Just 24 hours earlier the pair had sat in Valley Parade's 2013 suite for Parkinson's address to the Bantams nation.

The broadcast, believed to have been instigated by the manager, was designed to remind everyone connected with Valley Parade that they were all in it together – players, staff and supporters with the same goal.

That message was repeated before kick-off with the pitch-side calls for each stand to make some noise; it felt part election campaign, part X-Factor.

It has been a strange few weeks around the place. This run of four home games in a fortnight, coming after such a long spell without one, has created an at times uneasy atmosphere between the team and the fans.

The ground had rocked more like old times against Barnsley, even if the result went awry.

But Parkinson clearly felt the second-largest audience in League One needed another jolt, another reminder of their importance – almost their duty – to his players.

Hence his "Bradford City need you" moment with Mason in front of the in-house cameras.

Parkinson is not usually one for hyperbole leading up to games. He bridles at any mention of a "must-win" occasion.

But having built up the significance of beating Fleetwood in terms of relaunching City's season, he even allowed the dreaded phrase to escape from his lips.

He admitted afterwards: "We had to get the win. I never like to say that it's a 'must-win' game but, after losing on Tuesday, it was so important to get the result coming into another home game.

"We've managed to do that. We had to have that grinding mentality in our performance but it will give everybody in and around the club a huge lift."

Suddenly the picture looks a bit brighter as City narrowed the gap to sixth place to three points – or one win.

The fact that the next three games are against teams above them, and they have yet to beat anyone in the top ten, just reiterated how vital Saturday's victory was.

It could not have been tighter or more squeaky. In election terms, the win was achieved on a recount by the smallest possible margin.

And few would have backed Steve Davies, a striker without a goal in his injury-ravaged six months at the club, to cast the deciding vote.

But Davies, who still maintains City have a squad to match the Sheffield United one he was part of in reaching last season's play-offs, was the right man in the right spot when it so mattered.

When the shot from new boy Wes Thomas clipped off Fleetwood keeper Chris Maxwell and ballooned up against the bar, it looked like another gilt-edged chance had gone begging.

Substitute Davies, though, was alive to the rebound and tucked it away to spark a euphoria around Valley Parade that has been missing for too long.

Belief surged through the stadium once more as fans and players celebrated as one.

The unconvincing manner of what had gone on before was temporarily forgotten; all that counted – as James Hanson pointed out – was getting those three points.

Fleetwood felt hard done by, although it is hard to elicit much sympathy for Steven Pressley, him of the "dark age" jibe from his Coventry days.

And let's not forget that the Cod Army had produced a similar "smash and grab" in the corresponding fixture last year to nick a point from nothing with two very late goals.

Nor that Davies had been denied what looked a perfectly good winner at Highbury Stadium in September. Karma hung heavily in the wintry air.

Just like at Port Vale the previous weekend, City had come from a goal down to salvage a result. But this was the first time they had managed to win from behind this season.

The last occasion was virtually a year ago against MK Dons – that long off that England's latest darling Dele Alli had scored for the visitors.

Given City's brittleness in front of goal and the difficult nature of the previous couple of weeks on home soil, it was a welcome demonstration of the fighting quality needed if they are to force their way into the top-six reckoning.

The fantastic finale was in stark contrast to an awful first half, when City spent most of it giving the ball away.

Fleetwood used the extra man in midfield to boss possession but the hosts were their own worst enemies at times. The midfield axis of Chris Routis and Tony McMahon clearly wasn't working – the Frenchman, especially, had a 45 minutes to forget.

Billy Knott was employed in the "number ten" role behind Hanson and tried enthusiastically but with limited success. He did fashion the best chance of the half, though, with a rising shot just before the break that Maxwell turned over the bar one-handed.

Parkinson, often accused by fans of taking too long with his substitutions, reacted quickly and made changes which worked.

Wes Thomas was thrown on for Routis at half-time, despite concerns in the dugout about his lack of recent match minutes.

Kyel Reid soon replaced the ineffective Josh Morris. City for once had Reid and Mark Marshall working in tandem on the two flanks and the replacement looked more like his old self as he went at Northern Ireland international Conor McLaughlin.

But then Fleetwood struck as City were caught out by a free-kick on halfway they felt was taken too quickly.

Knott did not have time to close down Jimmy Ryan's cross and Jamille Matt jumped highest in the pack to squeeze a header beneath Ben Williams.

City seethed at referee Kevin Wright, not for the only time in the game, but the response was impressive.

Marshall beavered to the byline, creating space for Knott to clip in a cross and Hanson timed his run to arrive alone and guide the header inside the post.

Knott should have had a second when Maxwell fumbled McMahon's free-kick but somehow cleared the bar from five yards out – another one of those "if only" moments.

But then, well into added time, Hanson nodded on from a Williams clearance and Thomas galloped away. Maxwell took the sting off the Birmingham man's effort but Davies ensured a glorious send-off.

Parkinson said: "We knew we had to stay strong and I felt everyone in the club did that – including the supporters, who were fantastic for us."

Attendance: 17,554