RORY McArdle is not one for messing about.

The phrase “no-nonsense” was surely coined for the centre half who has been a rock-like presence in the Bantams ranks for the past five years.

McArdle has always been one for getting the job done simply and effectively with the minimum of fuss.

And he shares a similar outlook when it comes to securing City’s status within the play-offs.

With a six-point advantage to seventh spot, Stuart McCall’s side are close to making sure – and McArdle aims to rubberstamp it over the Easter weekend.

He said: “Hopefully with two games coming up in quick succession, we can get the results we need and pretty much put it to bed.

“You don’t want to drag it out towards the last couple of games of the season. Go into the last two still needing a result and all of a sudden there’s a lot of hype behind it.

“At the moment, it’s not really been spoken about and that’s the way you want it to be.

“The ideal scenario is that we can sort it out as soon as possible and then we can enjoy the last few games of the season and look forward to going into the play-offs.”

City’s current form – five wins from the last seven games – suggests it is very much a case of “when not if” they make the cut.

But McArdle is wisely taking nothing for granted ahead of the first half of the weekend double-header against Oxford.

“People will probably think we’re in the play-offs already,” he added. “But then you look at the table and see that’s not the case.

“Look at the teams around us like Scunny (Scunthorpe), who had a bad spell but have picked up again recently, and it shows we’ve got to keep going about our business.

“We’re on a good run, performances have been decent and the lads are playing well. But the minute we take our foot off the pedal, then the likes of Southend and Millwall will be there to take advantage.”

On current form, tenth-placed Oxford should not represent the stiffest of challenges to City’s proud unbeaten tag at Valley Parade.

They have won only one of the five games since beating Scunthorpe a month ago and were beaten by doomed Coventry in the Checkatrade Trophy final at Wembley.

Oxford had looked strong for a dart at the top six but now sit seven points adrift with only 12 to play for.

But while their chances of bridging that gap appear remote, City will be spurred on by the memories of those two losses at the hands of Michael Appleton’s side earlier in the season.

McArdle added: “Oxford will be coming up here confident after beating us twice and I’m sure they will have spoken about those results this week.

“But there wasn’t really much in either game, especially the one in the league.

“I thought we had some good chances and then they scored very late on.

“In the Checkatrade Trophy, their lad scored a ‘worldy’ goal and I think we were a bit unlucky there as well.

“There was also the postponement ten minutes before kick-off, although we’ll blame the referee for that one. But we probably have seen too much of Oxford!

“We do owe them one and I think we have more than enough quality to get the win we need.”