STUART McCall reckons City are starting to show they can be the real deal after extending their impressive run.

The third-placed Bantams made it three wins in four with Saturday’s Valley Parade victory over Rotherham.

Having impressed at Peterborough and Oxford, McCall’s men stood up to an aerial barrage from the Millers to claim only their second clean sheet.

McCall said: “On the back of two really tough away games, to come through that showed real guts and determination from the lads. We’re looking a real team now.

“If someone said we’re going to get seven points from the last three games, we’d have snapped their hand off.

“We were up against three really strong sides and matched them.

“At this stage, for me it’s not about where you are in the table but that we keep amassing points. To get three on Saturday was huge.

“You look at the scoring record Rotherham have been on and the players in their side. We had to be at our best defensively and thankfully we were.

“They put us under a lot of pressure but we really stood up to that. It’s not often that we’ll play at home and be under the cosh like that.”

Goalkeeper Colin Doyle has been the target for some stick on social media in the opening weeks.

But he answered his online critics in a solid defensive effort, which also saw outstanding performances from centre halves Nat Knight-Percival and Matt Kilgallon.

“I thought he was terrific in everything he did,” added McCall. “People remember Killa kicking the ball off the line but first and foremost Doyley made a great save before that.”

Knight-Percival, who continues to keep Adam Thompson out of the starting line-up, said: “He came out for a lot of crosses which takes a lot of pressure off us as a back four.

“It was a tough game and there were a lot of long balls put in on all of us.

“But it’s a derby game and when you’ve got a big lad up front, it’s what you expect.

“With the score at 1-0, they were always going to go route one but we dealt with it well.”

Knight-Percival shut down Rotherham’s six-goal targetman Kieffer Moore and admits he is enjoying the challenge of playing as a left-footed centre half on the right alongside Matt Kilgallon.

“You are going to grow into it as you play. It’s obviously going to be tough adjusting at first but that’s part of being a professional player.

“You have to do these things sometimes.

“We’ve got a really good understanding with the way we play. Killa is a very experienced player so he talks me through it and helps me out a lot.

“It’s good to have him one side of me and Macca (Tony McMahon) the other.

“It’s been disappointing when you don’t pick up clean sheets and are losing the odd goal here or there.

“But we’re improving every week. We’re training hard and just trying to find ways to stop goals coming in.”