DAVID Hopkin is urging the City faithful to forget about their grievances with chairman Edin Rahic and focus on the football.

The struggling Bantams face a huge week against three sides just above them at the bottom end of League One.

Rochdale’s visit to Valley Parade is the first of back-to-back home games before City face Coventry on Tuesday and then make the long trip to Gillingham.

Rahic is back in Germany for a family holiday over half-term and Hopkin is hoping the home fans will concentrate their efforts on backing his side through a crucial spell.

He said: “It’s their club. I don’t see why we keep going on about Edin and different other things.

“The team needs the fans. The fans need the team.

“We need to turn into a positive again. We concentrate too much on all these things that might happen.

“I want fans to back the players and the players need to put in a performance so that they get that.

“These are times now where we need to get together and stick together.”

City currently sit three points off bottom club Plymouth in 22nd spot – but would leapfrog Rochdale with a victory.

Hopkin feels the Valley Parade crowd can help maintain a united front if they replicate the noise from the last home game against Sunderland.

“They were magnificent that day,” he added. “We need to make sure the fans stay with us because we have to get through this difficult time and I’m sure we will.

“We’ll do it together. We’re all in it together so if we start fragmenting now, then it’s going to be very difficult.

“We need to make sure the positivity from the fans helps the team. The players deserve it because they are working hard.

“It goes hand in hand if the players do that for the fans to get behind you.

“If it goes bad, it’s bad for everybody – if it’s good, it’s good for everyone.

“We have to make sure we stay positive and get away from the negativity that the club seems to be getting all the time.”

Rahic and co-owner Stefan Rupp are coming in for increasing flak after the disjointed summer recruitment campaign and the poor start to the season.

Hopkin has made it clear that he expects backing in the January transfer window for the changes he feels are needed.

But he wants to turn the spotlight away from the club’s under-fire hierarchy.

He said: “Results will change everything, that’s the only thing you can do.

“We spend more time speaking about Edin at press conferences, on the radio, everything about the club.

“Can we focus on the positivity at the club? That’s the only way we’re going to get back on track.

“We keep deflecting this thing away from where we want to get to as a club.

“That’s where I am. Everybody speaks about Edin but everything that’s happened in the past has gone.

“I can only talk about what I’ve done in the six weeks I’ve been here and everything’s been positive.

“I find it hard to keep regurgitating stuff that maybe happened with previous managers or coaches.

“I can only say that from my perspective he’s been fine with me and everything I’ve asked for I’ve got.”