Chairman Geoffrey Richmond today urged Bradford City to turn up the heat on Ipswich despite failing to get the home match with Oxford switched to Sunday.

It means City will have to wait 24 hours to find out whether they are promoted this weekend - if they beat Oxford and rivals Ipswich lose at Birmingham the following day.

Richmond expressed his disappointment at the Football League's decision not to allow the switch to Sunday. He had argued with league officials that Ipswich have an unfair advantage by playing a day later.

Birmingham have a slender chance of gaining automatic promotion, but need to win both their remaining matches while City and Ipswich lose theirs.

He said: "I am disappointed with the league's decision because I feel that not only should justice be done but be seen to be done. I think the decision is wrong, but we accept it because we must.

"It will not deflect us from the job in hand which is to beat Oxford on Saturday and then watch with more than average interest events at Birmingham.

"I would like to express our gratitude to the West Yorkshire police who at very short notice agreed to the fixture change and were prepared to re-schedule a considerable amount of police for out of ground duties. They could have easily said no."

Chris Hull from the PR department said: "The league's board of directors have taken into consideration all the information in front of them and have decided that the match will remain on Saturday."

All 15,000-plus tickets have been sold for the match which remains with a 3pm kick off.

City have sold 8,400 season tickets for next season. That was the figure recorded when the second and final concessionary deadline expired at the weekend.

It puts them on course for 10,000 for the start of next season if they remain a First Division club, but if they win promotion they seem certain to fill the home sections of the ground with season ticket holders.

Left back Wayne Jacobs who jarred his knee in the first half of Saturday's match at QPR is hoping to be fit for the Oxford match. Physiotherapist Steve Redmond said: "The knee is feeling a lot better. We are hoping it will not be too serious."

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