No prizes for guessing the unluckiest Bradford City player last season.

In a previous life, Michael Symes must have run over a posse of black cats, smashed mirrors for fun or walked under a hundred ladders.

How else do you explain the rotten fortune that the lanky Scouser has suffered in the past year or so?

But, whisper it quietly, Symes believes his luck is about to turn. He is certainly due a change for the better.

Being offered another contract at Valley Parade was a welcome boost for the striker, who must have felt he was heading out the door.

The new deal is stacked in the club's favour on a month-by-month basis for three months before another decision will be made. But it will give Symes enough time to justify the promise that has been seen so fleetingly during the last two years.

The 22-year-old insists he is a lot better player than the City fans have witnessed so far. He is just desperate for the chance to show it.

"People have seen nowhere near my best," he said. "But the most I've played is two in a row. I need a run of games like six or seven and then you can judge me.

"As long as I stay fit then I'll have no worries about getting in the team. The big thing is just not getting injured again."

A shattering ankle injury last summer was the beginning of a season of total frustration.

Symes was loaned out to Macclesfield for six months to gain some first-team experience but never kicked a ball. In fact, he was unable to attend a single training session at Moss Rose.

He admitted: "I felt a bit bad for them because Macclesfield were paying my wages. But I was injured all the time and couldn't do a thing."

Instead Symes embarked on the long and painful road to recovery which finally led to a playing comeback in the reserves in January. That prompted a call from Stockport to borrow him for a month and offer a lifeline back into league football.

But again the Symes jinx struck. Having come off the bench for 14 minutes against Torquay the day after signing, he found himself out in the cold for the remaining five games of his stay.

At least Symes was training regularly without a problem and returned to City hungrier than ever for some game-time.

A couple of goals for the reserves proved he was soon ready to step up for his first League One action in 15 months.

Colin Todd gave him the chance away to Brentford with the promise of more to come in the run-in to the campaign.

It was the opportunity Symes had been begging for and he looked like a man on a mission at Griffin Park.

A Dean Windass flick-on set him up for a cracking opening goal and, just minutes later, a 25-yarder was frantically tipped on to the post by home keeper Stuart Nelson. But in unleashing the shot, Symes had pulled his hamstring. "That was such a killer blow," he said. "I was back in the first team and everything was going so well until I tore the hamstring.

"The game had felt quite easy for me. I thought I was going to struggle first game back, especially going to Brentford, who were flying at the time.

"Then it all went wrong again. So to say it's been an up-and-down time for me is a massive understatement."

But the contract news certainly softened the blow and Symes will be one of the keener players reporting for duty for the dreaded first day of pre-season on June 29.

"I'm aiming to stay fit over the summer and then put in some really hard training. Hopefully I can come back like I did when I first signed.

"I think I've matured over the last year because of all the injuries and I will be a better player and a better person for it. I'd like to think that hopefully that's the end of my problems and now I'll be able to carry on properly."