IT’S time City stepped up to the challenge, Jack Payne today insisted.

David Hopkin let loose on his under-par players after last week’s loss at Accrington Stanley.

Tomorrow’s home clash with Rochdale offers the first chance for his team to bounce back for their head coach.

And top scorer Payne stressed they must grab it and answer the doubters.

He said: “You come to a club like Bradford and have to expect that. This is our time to step up and I believe we will.

“You expect criticism because we haven’t been winning enough games.

“If we were and we were still getting criticised, then you’d wonder ‘what’s all that about?’

“But we agree with the criticism. We understand it.

“It’s an incentive because we’ve seen how good the fans can be when we’re winning games and playing well.

“That’s what we want. Everything in life is better when you’re winning.

“We’ve got to do everything we can to try and get those results.”

Payne admits it is uncharted territory for him having won promotion in three of the last four seasons.

But the attacking midfielder feels City can overcome any edginess and drag themselves away from the relegation places.

He added: “It’s always going to be a different pressure but we’ve got to stay positive and block out the negative thoughts you have when you’re losing games.

“It’s about reacting so that if we go a goal behind, we’ve got to be thinking about how we can respond to that.

“You’ve got to find a way to keep together as a team. The more we do that, in the end we’ll come out stronger and be fine.”

Payne can understand why Hopkin blasted them at Accrington – and says the players feel his frustration at their lowly league position.

“We’re working every day in training and he’s giving us everything he can,” he said.

“For it to not be working on the pitch is obviously frustrating for him.

“You can understand that but we’re just as frustrated as players. We’re agreeing with everything he’s said.

“It’s up to us to put it right and hopefully we can do that over the next few days.

“We’ve had a lot of Saturday and Tuesday games lately, so this week has given us time to give our legs a bit of a rest.

“More importantly, it’s given the manager some time on the training ground to work with us and show what he wants us to do.

“It’s given us chance to press the reset button before the next three games.”