PAUL Taylor will push his claims for a bigger City role by trying to impress Stuart McCall in a private game today.

McCall takes a side to League One rivals Wigan for a match behind closed doors.

All six outfield substitutes from the Gillingham win will be involved, as well as development players such as Ellis Hudson and Lachlan Barr.

It will be a useful opportunity for McCall to get more minutes into Taylor, Alex Gilliead and Shay McCartan.

Taylor was City's second signing of the summer but had a disrupted pre-season. He has played less than a half so far in two appearances from the bench.

Yet the former Peterborough attacker showed some promise on the ball in a 25-minute outing at the weekend.

McCall is confident Taylor will turn out to be a real asset but is another who needs to build up their match sharpness.

The City boss said: "You can see Tayls is desperate to get going. He is a lad with know-how and pace.

"Again he just needs to get up to speed. The likes of Tayls, Shay and Gilly need some 90-minute football.

"He isn't sharp yet but you don't get that straight away. You need to get a good month into the season for people to be at their sharpest. Premier League managers will tell you the same.

"You need to get four or five 90 minutes under your belt. There is a difference between fitness and sharpness.

"There's the fitness of your box-to-box midfielders and full backs, who get up and down the pitch.

"For strikers, it's about being sharp in and around the box. Mentally you've got to have that sharpness in your head to react to things."

Meanwhile, Charlie Wyke has stepped up his ball work with the physios and McCall hopes he will be able to join in fully with the squad on Thursday.

Saturday's home clash with Blackburn will come too soon for the centre forward, who has not kicked a ball competitively since the opening friendly at Bradford Park Avenue over five weeks ago.

Colin Doyle is set to miss the televised game against Bristol Rovers on September 2 after being called up again by Republic of Ireland.

The Bantams goalkeeper has been named in Martin O'Neill's provisional squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Georgia and Serbia.