Sky TV pundit Rodney Marsh admitted last night that Bradford City were better than he thought but still confidently tipped them for the dreaded Premiership drop.

Marsh, who had angered manager Paul Jewell with his claims that the Bantams were the worst side ever to play in the Premiership, was in the city last night to go head-to-head with chairman Geoffrey Richmond on an hour-long Classic Gold radio phone-in.

Marsh, who came under fire from a host of callers, was forced to concede: "All my comments were made before the Leicester game. I did not believe they could play as well as they did on Saturday. They played superbly, it was a great victory and I hold my hands up.

"A lot of people, including myself, stood up and took notice after that result, but I don't believe they can do it enough times to stay up with the squad they have got.

"I will look at it at the end of the season in a very honest and objective way and if they avoid relegation I will not only apologise but shave my head!"

Richmond retorted: "If you had just said Bradford were going down you would not be sat here now.

"You wrote us off without a prayer at the start of the season in quite a hurtful way and not recognising the tremendous achievement of reaching the Premiership or subsequently the hurt your comments caused.

"You never said anything remotely like that about Watford and they finished ten points behind us in the table last year.

"It seems you think we are all cloth caps and whippets and you don't want to upset your southern cousins.

"Like most pundits you move the goalposts when it suits you. But we will look forward to seeing your shiny bald head on the last day of the season."

Marsh declined Richmond's invitation to visit Valley Parade for the final game of the season against Liverpool on May 14 due to work commitments but stressed: "I am not picking on the club and it is certainly not personal to the city of Bradford because I don't know the place. It is just a footballing judgement and I stand by it."

And in a light-hearted finale Marsh joked: "I have enjoyed it very much and am glad so many Bradford supporters have come round to my way of thinking!"

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