TYRELL Robinson has warned that City must not become too predictable at Valley Parade.

Saturday's 1-0 loss to lowly Plymouth was their fourth in nine League One home games – and cost them the chance to gain ground on top two Shrewsbury and Wigan, who did not play.

The Bantams dominated but could not find a way through the visitors, who climbed off the bottom of the table with their victory. Tony McMahon had a second-half penalty saved and the hosts twice hit the bar.

Robinson, who came on at left back for the second half, admitted City need to find a solution to open up teams who pack their defence.

He said: "It's something we have to work on. One thing we don't want to happen is become predictable when teams come here and sit back. That's not good for us.

"It's a learning curve for everyone and now we have to work on things in training to be better and win games like that. It can't keep on happening.

"It was a frustrating one because I felt we did all we could. They put all their players behind the ball, counter-attacked us on one occasion and it's paid off.

"All the boys are annoyed that we haven't come away with anything. We've literally had all the ball, they've had one chance and gone away all smiles."

Paul Taylor and Jake Reeves both fired against the woodwork and Plymouth keeper Remi Matthews denied McMahon's spot-kick after Romain Vincelot was brought down.

It is the first time since April 2015 that City have suffered successive home defeats in the league – but Stuart McCall insists that Valley Parade is not losing its edge.

The Bantams chief said: "I'm not thinking about that. Last year it was too many draws, so if we're going to lose one and win two, we'll take that rather than three draws.

"Naturally you want to win at home but last season we went undefeated and over half were draws.

"I'm sure everyone at the game will know we didn't get what we deserved – but that's football.

"We told the players before the game that we'd probably have a lot of possession but there might not be a lot of chances. We've got to be clinical when they come up and we weren't."

Colin Doyle has flown back to Ireland to rejoin the Republic squad for the second leg of their World Cup play-off against Denmark in Dublin.

Martin O'Neill once again allowed City to recall him to play at the weekend after a request from goalkeeping coach Steve Banks.

McCall said: "Banksy spoke to someone at their place and one of the goalkeepers had an injury doubt at first. He needed an injection but apparently come Thursday he got the thumbs up and trained.

"If there had been any reaction, Colin wouldn't have come back. But everything was fine and he was allowed to join us."

Robinson has now appeared in five of City's last six games as McCall looks to mould the winger into an attacking full back.

The youngster said: "I was very grateful to the gaffer to put me on at half-time. Going out there in front of 20,000 is a great experience and this is a dream come true.

"If we had got the equaliser, the whole game would have changed. They would have tried to attack us and the way we play, we want to get at people and put the ball in the box to score goals."