DAVID Hopkin has vowed that City will take Plymouth all the way in tomorrow’s relegation ding-dong in Devon.

His side showed their staying power to stage a late two-goal FA Cup fightback at Peterborough last week.

And Hopkin insists the Bantams are ready to go the distance once more against the team currently two points and two places above them in the League One drop zone.

He said: “The mindset of the players is changing and I think you’re seeing the professionalism starting to take over in their game.

“The players are giving me everything they’ve got. Fitness levels are getting better and we’re going for 90 minutes - maybe earlier in my tenure they’d not have been able to do it.

“A lot of people said we were lucky against Peterborough but it’s not that. It’s fitness and mentality.

“That’s great credit to the players and I’m making sure they are fully focused on everything we do now.”

Hopkin, whose job title has been changed to manager since Edin Rahic’s departure, has Hope Akpan back available from injury.

But he may opt to hold the midfielder back for the FA Cup replay on Tuesday as the Bantams head into a hectic – and potentially season-defining – spell up to the new year.

He added: “We’ve got five massive games coming up and need to make sure we are still in contention.

“To try and get away from the bottom four would be a great achievement. But if we’re still in and around it, hopefully then we can go on and strengthen the squad in January.

“Plymouth were bottom last year and finished in seventh, not far away from the play-offs. We’ve got to take heart from that.

“We just need to make sure we try to get a positive result. We’ve then got three home games in a row so hopefully the fans can turn up in numbers and help us to push on.

“The players are in good spirits and that belief is growing we can get away from where we are in the league.”

City succeeded Plymouth at the bottom of the table on October 23 when Derek Adams’ side won back-to-back games.

But they have lost three of the last four and were dumped out of the FA Cup at home by Oxford.

Hopkin said: “Derek has been there before with Plymouth. He did very well in Scotland with Ross County and has done another good job.

“He’s an experienced manager and we know it’s going to be a tough game.

“But I think it’s one that the players are now looking forward to. They got a lot of heart from last week and we’ve got these big games coming up in the next few weeks.

“There was a lot of pressure on the Oxford game and they handled that well.

“Oxford went into that on a great run and we beat them so they’ve got to take great belief. They played against a very good Peterborough side last week and came back.

“They played against a very good Luton side and it was only three mistakes in the first half that put us on the back foot.

“That was only time we’ve suffered a setback in the last five or six but we bounced back well last week.”