Stuart McCall leads Bradford City into battle tomorrow feeling like a man who has won the pools.

McCall takes temporary charge for the Valley Parade showdown with Everton, knowing that victory could lift City within a point of escaping the Premiership dropzone.

The caretaker-manager is banking on ending another frantic week on a high and said: "Doing the job on my own has been a nightmare for three days. For the first 48 hours I was probably on the phone for 38 of them because there was so much to sort out. I've been sat bolt upright at 5am thinking about millions of things you can't even imagine.

"When the chairman asked me to take over he said there had been lots of cases where the caretaker has gone on to get the job and I can remember Terry Dolan doing that in my early days here.

"But once I'd been in the job for a couple of days and sleepless nights, I knew I couldn't do it justice. I like challenges but it wouldn't have been fair on the club or myself if I had taken the task on while still playing.

"As soon as I spoke to the chairman and told him that, I felt a massive burden had been lifted off my shoulders and I could smile again. When I got out of that meeting I felt like I'd won the pools - it was incredible."

McCall is more than willing to hold the fort while City find a permanent successor to Chris Hutchings - and knows it is vital they win tomorrow for the first time since August.

He said: "We are where we are because performances haven't been good enough. The players know that.

"We don't want to be languishing at the bottom. The players know the position and know a new manager will be coming in with new ideas.

"What they are doing tomorrow is not for me or the chairman. It will be for themselves, their team-mates and the club as a whole.

"If we go down, they are no longer Premiership players and nobody wants that. We are in the same boat and we've got to row in the same direction.

"All I can ask is for the same effort as in the Leeds game. If we can ally that to some more controlled play we've got a much better chance of winning."