LIAM Agnew will use City's week in Scotland to try to convince Stuart McCall he is worth a shot.

The former Sunderland midfielder played the last half hour of Saturday's friendly at Gateshead before heading north of the border with the rest of the squad.

Agnew spent two week-long trials at the club towards the end of last season under Phil Parkinson and there was a suggestion he might get offered a deal in the summer.

The change of management ended that prospect but McCall is now willing to run the rule over him during City's training camp in St Andrews.

City remain short of numbers in central midfield despite the arrival of Nicky Law and Timothee Dieng.

McCall said: "Greg (Abbott) spoke to Bally (Sunderland senior development coach Kevin Ball) the other day and he said the boy was available to have a look at.

"Obviously it's in an area of the park where we still need to strengthen. We need at least one, if not two, in there, so this gives us a good opportunity to have a look at him.

"Kenny (Black) knows Bally as well, so we had a chat and we knew that Liam had been here before."

The 21-year-old made only one Sunderland appearance as a substitute in the FA Cup in 2015 and was released by Sam Allardyce at the end of the season.

McCall has no immediate plans to bring anyone else to Scotland after securing Jordy Hiwula's signature on Friday night but Abbott will continue to scour the market.

The Bantams boss said: "I wanted Jordy with us and he came in but I don't think there'll be anything happening. At this moment nobody else will come up."

Law was one of the brightest performers in a 2-1 win over Gateshead and his partnership with Dieng dominated the play in the first half.

McCall was pleased to see Law getting into the penalty area – something he wants to encourage as City look to improve on last season's goal-shy record.

He said: "That's what we're after. I brought Lawsy to the club because I know he's got goals in his game.

"It's hard work for him to play central if we've got two wide men but I thought Timothee was excellent in the middle with him as well.

"Lawsy can also play in off the left or the right and he can finish. He had some good moments and he'll get fit and stronger.

"We know we need to add goals to the team from last season. That's why we want him to get forward, link and join in, and it's good to see."

Billy Clarke and Paul Anderson scored the City goals before half-time. Gateshead responded with a stoppage-time penalty after a tired challenge from youngster Kwame Boateng.

McCall was generally encouraged by his side's second work-out of pre-season. They face St Johnstone next tomorrow night.

He said: "The two goals were good quality with decent movement. The second half got a bit ragged with all the substitutions but the bottom line is that a lot of the boys got 60 minutes.

"We looked sharper after another week's work and we came up against a different system. The players had to come up with a way of getting through that and at times I think we did.

"There were some encouraging individual performances and all-round it was encouraging.

"It's nice to win but the result is secondary. We want to come away with the lads feeling good about themselves and I'm sure a lot of them did after that."