BILLY Clarke reckons rival teams will want to steer clear of City during their purple patch.

Clarke’s spectacular goal at Chesterfield made it five wins in six unbeaten games for the buoyant Bantams.

Saturday’s victory – their fifth away from Valley Parade in the league – narrowed the gap to the top six to one point heading into the festive fixtures.

Clarke said: “It’s good to come into this period on a roll and in the habit of winning. Hopefully we can keep the run going.

“I’ve been on the other side of the coin at Crawley when we were losing a lot and it’s tough to get out of it. I’m more than happy to be in our position now.

“We’ve got to take a lot of confidence into the next game knowing we’re going to create chances and more often than not score.

“When we’ve also got lads defending like they did against Chesterfield then it’s a pretty good mix.”

Phil Parkinson described Clarke’s third goal in straight games as a “moment of pure quality” but the striker had a confession to make. Chesterfield claimed that he handled when first controlling the ball and Clarke admitted they had a point.

He added: “I got a bit lucky because it might have come off my hand to bring the ball down. But I think I’ve deserved a bit of luck over the last few games.

“It was such a clean strike and I probably won’t hit many better than that. I thought it was going over but then it dipped and went in the top corner.

“That goal will be up there with any I’ve scored. It’s three in three for me and long may that continue.

“I’ve always had confidence in myself to score and I know I’m capable, whether they are tap-ins like last week or goals like this one.”

Chesterfield had to play most of the second half with ten men after skipper Sam Morsy was dismissed for elbowing Andy Halliday in the face.

But City, who should have killed the game off through Jon Stead and Filipe Morais, were grateful to a late save from Jordan Pickford to stop Jay O’Shea from snatching a point.

Clarke said: “Jordan didn’t have much to do throughout the game so it was good for such a young lad to keep concentrating like that.

“I don’t think there are many collectively better in this league than our back five.

“They won nearly every header and, when they didn’t, were always there for the second ball.

“They put their bodies on the line and you’ve got to do that away from home.”

City’s fortunes have transformed since their last loss against Doncaster on November 1. At that stage, they had won only twice in 13 games.

Parkinson said: “We had a bit of a funny period but we’ve got ourselves going again. That’s a season in football – it happens and everybody goes through that.

“When you’re not winning, you have to stay cool and keep doing the right things and hopefully the wins will come.

“Now we’ve had a few, we’ve got to get our feet firmly back on the ground for next week and keep playing well. We’ll keep reminding the players what we need to do to get results.”