JACK Payne has told Bantams boss David Hopkin: “I want to stay at Valley Parade.”

The midfield maestro continues to have a major impact in City’s push to get out of the League One drop zone.

Payne did not score in the 4-0 triumph at Rochdale at the weekend, the third win in four games, but set up the second for skipper Anthony O’Connor in another superb display.

There are growing rumours that Huddersfield are considering taking him back – as they did last season when he was performing so well for Oxford and then loaned him back out to Blackburn.

Hopkin is hoping that Payne will stick around – but admits the decision is out of City’s hands when the transfer window re-opens tomorrow.

He said: “I’ve not heard anything about Jack yet.

“I spoke to Jack and I spoke to his representatives. As far as I’m aware Jack wants to stay here and he is loving playing football here.

“The difficulty we do have is that he’s not our player.

“He’s intimated to me that he wants to stay, we want him to stay but obviously he’s a Huddersfield player.

“These things will sort themselves out. It’s something we’ll have to deal with and over the next few weeks we’ll see what happens.”

City will finish the year still in the bottom four but only two points behind the clubs immediately above them, Oxford and Bristol Rovers. Rochdale are just six above in 16th.

Hopkin believes his side are starting to do themselves justice after reaching his target of hitting the mid-season transfer window still in contention.

“When I took the job, it was well documented about everything that was going on at the club,” he added.

“We hadn’t done anything with fitness levels and we’ve had to work extremely hard to try and change the mindset of the players with the professionalism at the club.

“I think you’re starting to see now the players who we all thought weren’t fantastic, Bradford fans and myself included, are getting fitter and starting to show what they can do.

“They are looking like the players we thought they would be in the summer.

“But it’s just taken us a bit longer to get them up to speed. I’ll keep pushing them the whole time until May.”

Centre half Knight-Percival, who scored his second goal of the season, can feel the difference within the squad.

“We’re doing well and happy to pick up another three points and a clean sheet,” he said. “It’s going well so far.

“The hard work we’ve been putting in on the training ground is coming out on the pitch now. We’re all coming together and getting a bit of consistency.

“Training is always going to be hard but you can see it’s only benefitting us. I don’t think anyone’s complaining when we’re picking up three points at the weekend.”

With a free weekend to come, Hopkin will give the players a few days off after tomorrow’s Valley Parade clash with Accrington.

Hopkin added: “It’s important we make sure everybody pushes and they are all in the best condition they can be, whether it’s recovering now or at training sessions.

“We need to make sure that nobody slacks and I won’t let that happen.”