DAVID Hopkin is happy to face down any doubters after coming through a “testing” start as City boss.

The Bantams build towards the weekend’s Valley Parade showdown with Stuart McCall’s Scunthorpe finally off League One’s basement spot.

The crushing 4-0 win over Walsall made it eight points from the last five games as the tide begins to turn in the relegation battle.

Having lost nine of his first 11 after taking charge in September, Hopkin sees City’s improving fortunes as proof that he is the right man to repair the club after the damage of the last year.

He said: “You’ve got to believe in your own ability as a coach and a manager.

“I’ve been through it before. It’s frustrating and it’s hard work and you have a lot of people doubting whether you can do a job or not.

“You always get the same comments that ‘he’s come from Scotland and won’t be able to do it at a big club like Bradford’.

“But football doesn’t change. Players don’t change.

“I’ve always been a great believer that people who want to play for you will follow you.

“It has been a testing time. It’s not been great after the couple of years I had at Livingston.

“But people didn’t see the six months I had previous to that, which was very similar to what the job was at Bradford.”

Hopkin feels the team has toughened up mentally since he came in and confidence has soared from blasting 13 goals in the four December games so far.

“What we’ve put in over the last few months is starting to bear fruit now,” he added.

“The players have started to believe in themselves. The mentality is changing – that’s the biggest thing I can see.

“My mentality has always been the same that the team work hard and show strength and character.

“Every football club I’ve worked at, you’ll get players who are mentally strong and will come with you and buy into everything you’re doing.

“You’ll have others who may not have the same mentality and may not want to work as hard.

“These things sort themselves out over a period of a few months. The players who are in the squad and playing at this moment in time are the ones with the mentality that they want to be at Bradford.”

A win over Scunthorpe could lift City out of the bottom four. But Hopkin insists there will be no letting up after the weekend victory – the club’s biggest for two years.

He said: “We need to make sure the players now don’t slack. They will have another tough week’s training.

“We’ll just keep going. Nothing is going to change because we’ve won one game.

“I keep saying to the players that football is a lifestyle. It’s not a job or a hobby.

“You have to be professional. It’s not the glamorous life that everybody thinks it is.

“You can enjoy your life when you are finished. But if you want to reach the top, you’ve got to make a lot of sacrifices.

“The ones that have that strong mentality will do it.”

City are waiting on yesterday’s scan results for Luca Colville. The midfielder, who only recently returned from a three-month absence, missed the Walsall win with a thigh strain.

Hopkin said: “It may be the intensity of training and different things when he came back and he’s pulled something.

“Hopefully he won’t be too long. We need everybody fit through this busy period.”