STUART McCall admits there is still plenty of work to do for City to nail down a play-off place.

His side suffered only their sixth League One loss yesterday in a televised thriller at Scunthorpe despite dominating in terms of scoring chances.

The 3-2 defeat meant the Iron leapfrogged City into fourth spot – and McCall stressed that a top-six finish is not yet guaranteed.

The Bantams still have a six-point cushion on seventh-placed Millwall, who face Scunthorpe next, but have played two games more.

McCall said: "Play-offs have always been the aim for us and there's a lot of work still to be done. We've got six games and there are some good sides trying to get in there.

"But as disappointed as we are with the result, we weren't with the performance. We'll look forward to playing again next Saturday."

McCall was unhappy to see City concede twice from set-pieces. They had lost Nathaniel Knight-Percival at the end of training on Friday after he got an accidental kick in the face, which required seven stitches in a deep wound.

Kevin Toner was handed his debut and marked it with a first senior goal. Alex Jones then scored two minutes later to fire City in front at half-time.

But Scunthorpe scored twice after the break and then weathered a Bantams storm in the closing stages.

McCall said: "I'm disappointed not to win the game, let alone not take a point. We lost a really poor goal but then we attacked and attacked and played a lot better.

"When you see some of the chances we've had, it's incredible how we've not scored. At one stage, their boy is getting up off the floor and the ball's hit him on his knee and gone over the bar.

"We've hit the bar, then Tim Dieng's header has hit the goalkeeper on his shoulder and almost landed in his hands from point-blank range. It's wave after wave."

Nicky Law again missed out and McCall is hoping that he will finally be able to call on the midfielder for Walsall's visit to Valley Parade.

The Bantams boss said: "I thought Nicky was going to be ready but he wasn't 100 per cent confident. We took the decision not to use him and he probably just needs three or four more days to get over it."

City were also without Josh Cullen, who watched the game, and went with a midfield diamond as James Meredith and Tony McMahon both pushed further forward, Billy Clarke playing behind a front three.

McCall said: "We have a way we wanted to play and if they were going to set up a different way, we'd change it and we did.

"How we've not won the game is hard to take – but we've got experienced players who can fit into a lot of formations. We work on it during the week and how we might get on top of their system and be ready.

"In the modern-day game, you've got to be adaptable and flexible, not only as a coach and a manager but as players as well. With any little bit of luck at all, we'd have been going away with three points."