DAVID Hopkin will continue to scour the free-agent market for another hit like Jim O’Brien.

With City’s resources heavily affected by injuries, the head coach remains on the hunt for potential recruits without clubs.

Hopkin snapped up O’Brien last week after the 30-year-old impressed in training – and the midfielder delivered an accomplished debut against Charlton.

The Bantams boss is hoping he can find similar success with a couple more additions in the coming weeks.

Hopkin said: “There are a few positions I feel where we’re a wee bit light and I’ve been working hard since I came in.

“It’s difficult to get the right people in. Most free agents haven’t played a game of football since May.

“I’ll be trying to get one or two in over the next couple of weeks just to have a look at.

“I’ll always take players in before I sign them to make sure they add to the group.

“They have to come in and mix. It’s important that everybody gets on well.

“I need to make sure that when you build something at the club, everyone is in it together.

“Free agents are always prepared to come in first. You can’t do that with anyone else because they are at a club.

“You can get them in, have a look, run tests on them to make sure that they are ready to play games.

“That’s where we are but hopefully over the next few weeks I’ll get a couple of people in and we’ll take it from there.”

The experienced O’Brien had been available since leaving Ross County at the end of last season.

His initial short-term deal only runs to the end of the year but that is likely to be extended.

With so many absentees in central midfield, O’Brien was thrown straight in – and Hopkin was not surprised to see him make such an immediate impact.

He added: “I’ve seen Jim play throughout his career from when he was a young player.

“I knew he’d played at Barnsley and been a Championship player. I watched him play last year and thought he was good at Ross County.

“He’s a very good professional. He came in for a couple of days last week and you could see that in training.

Even though he hadn’t played, we took all his stats, his weight, his body fat, everything was what you wanted. It’s credit to Jim for how he looks after himself.

"I keep saying that when you bring somebody to the club, they’ve got to add something.

“He’s not played since May but the way he has trained and went about his business on Saturday shows his professionalism.

“Any young player watching him can learn from that. Vocally he is very good as well and I think that helped young Lewis (O’Brien) alongside him.”

O’Brien was a winger earlier in his career but is now more comfortable in the middle – an area where City are currently missing injured trio Josh Wright, Hope Akpan and Jake Reeves.

Hopkin said: “When you’re younger and have the legs, managers tend to put you in the wide areas.

“As you get older and maybe a bit slower, you get wiser and are more likely to play inside.

“It shows what an intelligent player he is that Jim can go from a wide area and play central midfield.

“He’s very good on the ball and can tackle. But a big thing about playing in there is talking and organising and I thought he was exceptional at it.”

Wright and Kelvin Mellor are expected to return to training next week having both suffered hamstring injuries.

But young midfielder Luca Colville has been ruled out for up to three months with a knee ligament problem.

Hope Akpan (shoulder) and Adam Chicksen (leg) will return to training next month, while goalkeeper Ben Wilson continues to recover from a knee injury.

Ellis Hudson and Cameron Hawkes have returned to full training, though Danny Devine (foot) and Curtis Peters (ankle) remain sidelined.

Jake Reeves and Alex Jones are close to completing their rehabilitation programmes, while Joe Riley is being assessed ahead of his return.