STUART McCall is preaching patience as City look to unlock Plymouth tomorrow.

Argyle are still bottom of League One as they make the long trek to Valley Parade. But they have let in only three goals in a five-match unbeaten run and McCall expects a tough nut to crack.

"Plymouth have been defending really well recently and teams have been finding it hard to get opportunities to score goals against them," said the Bantams manager.

"They don't concede many away from home. They got done 1-0 at Wigan to a late penalty, drew 1-1 at Blackburn and then won 1-0 against Wimbledon.

"I would imagine they will come with the same mindset and we've been doing some work in training against a really solid block of defence with that in mind.

"It might be case of having to be patient. Wigan had to wait until the 84th minute and then got a penalty which they scored.

"There was the game here against Swindon last year when we scored two in the last few minutes against another struggling side.

"We've got to be prepared for that and be bright and inventive. When you're playing against a side who are strong defensively, you have to be creative and think outside the box.

"I'd like to think we will have the majority of the attacking play but we've just got to keep the tempo high and keep at it."

McCall will make a late call on who plays in goal. He would not be drawn on his thinking, which suggests City may have tried to get Colin Doyle back again from international duty with Republic of Ireland.

If not, it will be a toss-up between German duo Rouven Sattelmaier and Lukas Raeder for the starting role.

After an attendance of just 931 in the Checkatrade Trophy on Tuesday set a new club low, McCall is looking forward to seeing Valley Parade full again.

He said: "We've had two home games but there's been no atmosphere and no crowd. Tuesday was a bit strange but we expected the gate to be low.

"We had the FA Youth Cup here the week before as well, so the last three times I've been in the stadium it's been empty.

"It will be nice to be playing at home with a good atmosphere again and hopefully an excited crowd behind us."

McCall knows Plymouth counterpart Derek Adams well from their days as rival managers in Scotland. The Bantams boss won five of the seven encounters between their Motherwell and Ross County sides.

But Adams goes into their latest meeting without Plymouth talisman Graham Carey, who is suspended.

McCall said: "Carey has been terrific for them this season. I obviously knew him from his Scotland days when he was up at Ross County and St Mirren.

"It will be a blow for them but Lionel Ainsworth, who we had at Motherwell, might come in for that role. I know all about the goals he can score.

"It will be good to catch up with Derek. I'm sure he has enjoyed his time down here and he's got a promotion on his CV in his second season.

"They'd probably like to be doing a little bit better this year. But they haven't lost a game since the big boy Toumani Diagouraga came in and they've got a way of playing that's difficult to break down.

"We always respect every opponent. You saw Chesterfield last week, who are bottom of their league, and they put in a performance which showed a bit of confidence."