BRADFORD City take on FA Women's Premier League Northern leaders Middlesbrough tomorrow with an injury list still holding them back.

Midfielder Hannah Smith returned in last week's defeat to Fylde after three weeks on the sidelines, but the Bantams remain without defender Katy Woodcock and the attacking threat of Ellie White.

Injuries in the reserves have stretched the squad even further, but manager Charlotte Stuart admits she is optimistic about the weeks to come as players continue to recover.

She said: "We still have a couple of players out but I had a very positive report from the physio at training on Thursday night, so hopefully they will be back in the next couple of weeks.

"We played well against Fylde. We just didn't get the result, and unfortunately that's football.

"We will take what we have done in training this week into tomorrow and hope to get a more positive result."

Fylde kept their unbeaten record in tact with a comeback victory last weekend, and City's fixture list acts no kinder this time out as they face a trip to table-topping Boro.

The hosts have won their last three on the bounce, scoring ten and conceding only one.

But with both of their league defeats this season coming on Teesside, Bradford are ready to cause an upset and send a statement to the division.

"Middlesbrough are a good attacking team who score a lot of goals," Stuart said, with their attack scoring a league-high 25 goals in their opening ten games.

But Boro have conceded just as many goals as City this season, so the visitors will not be afraid of going forward as Stuart added: "We need to be ready to take the game to them."

Kick-off tomorrow afternoon is 2pm at Thornaby FC's Teesdale Park.