CITY can use next opponents Oxford as proof that their season can be turned around, says Richard O'Donnell.

Saturday's home clash with the side currently just above the drop zone is viewed as a critical one for League One's basement side.

Currently seven points adrift of the visitors, the Bantams cannot afford to let that gap grow any wider.

But O'Donnell believes they can take heart from the way Karl Robinson's side have clawed themselves out of trouble.

Oxford bring a nine-game unbeaten record to Valley Parade and the keeper said: " They were bottom of the league and rooted there for a while and have gone on a decent run.

“We know we’re very capable of doing that ourselves. We’re confident in the ability we’ve got in the dressing room.

“With the right performances, work-rate and effort, we can turn this around. That started at Peterborough and it almost felt like a win.

“The fans could see what we were doing and responded fantastically. The performance was spot-on and that’s the standard we’ve set now.”

Including season-ticket holders, City have sold around 17,500 tickets for the game on the back of their £1 entrance offer and O’Donnell is determined not to disappoint.

“It’s a massive game and obviously backed with more fans than usual because of the ticket sales,” he added.

“That’s going to give the lads a boost as well. We need to put in an effort like we did against Peterborough and we know there’s enough quality to win games.

“We want to get the fans right behind us from the start and hopefully that will drive us forward as well.”

O’Donnell was City’s FA Cup hero with two penalty saves in the shoot-out to finally overcome stubborn Aldershot and book a second-round return to the Posh.

The keeper kept out Aldershot’s first two efforts from Matt McClure and Gabriel Osho to lay the foundations for a 4-1 spot-kick success after the game finished 1-1.

O’Donnell admitted it was instinct rather than homework behind the saves.

He said: “Their striker (Scott) Rendell is the main penalty taker and obviously he didn’t play.

“I didn’t really have a clue about the rest of them, so it was a bit of guesswork. But I’d like to say, it was an educated guess as to where they were going to go.

“Luckily I went the right way for two and saved them and the boys put away some really good penalties for us.

“It’s always nice to save a penalty regardless of the situation, whether it’s in the game or a shoot-out. When it contributes to us going through to the next round, it’s obviously very pleasing.

“Aldershot made it very difficult for us and deserve a massive amount of credit from the night. But we knew the main thing was going through.

“It’s another confidence boost for us to be in the next round. I thought we played pretty well without creating a massive amount of chances.

“I was confident going into the penalties – I always am. Saturday’s performance had been good and we wanted to back that up.”