PAUL Caddis reckons there’s no place like home right now for City.

The Bantams look to put last week’s jarring 3-0 loss at promotion-chasing Barnsley behind them when Southend visit Valley Parade.

Defeat dropped them a place to third-from-bottom but Caddis believes that League One survival is all about ensuring your own house is in order.

City are eyeing a fifth successive victory on home soil this weekend – something last achieved under Stuart McCall in 2017. And the previous four wins have all been accompanied by clean sheets.

So, Caddis sees no reason why that run cannot continue against the Shrimpers.

He said: “You start to enjoy playing at home, the supporters enjoy coming to watch you and there’s a buzz about it. That makes a difference on the pitch.

“We do look forward to playing home games because there is a confidence.

“You look after your home games and then take what you can get when you play away.

“If we beat Southend we can drag them into it as well. We will only be five points behind them and they are sitting in 12th right now.

“It’s good in a way how well we’ve done in the last six or seven games. We’ve given ourselves a chance and dragged more people into it.

“The more teams in there fighting the better it is for us.”

Caddis was switched from right back to a central midfield role at Oakwell where the Bantams finished well beaten – failing to come up with a single shot on target.

The experienced defender viewed that loss as a reality check after the recent run of four wins in five games - a burst that took City to the top of the division’s form table - had raised expectations.

“Maybe as players, as fans, everybody in the club got that little bit excited,” he added. “But we’re still in the bottom four and in that danger zone.

“We’ve got to get back to doing the simple things, working hard, put the Barnsley result behind us and look forward to Southend.”

Confirmation that City can still call on Jack Payne’s services for the rest of the campaign has come at a timely boost as David Hopkin looks to reinforce his options during the mid-season transfer window.

January can be an unnerving period for players as much as managers and fans with the constant rumour mills of possible ins and outs at every club.

Caddis insists the speculation swirling about should not be a distraction from the task of negotiating the relegation dogfight.

He said: “You’ve just got to take things as normal, keep your standards high and try to stay in the team.

“You want to give the manager a headache so that you keep the shirt and he doesn’t bring other players in for your position.

“He’s made it clear to us that anyone he does bring in will be to make the club better. It’s not just about numbers but trying to enhance what we’ve got.

“I think the manager will probably want to bring a couple more in. If you look at the bench at the moment, there are a couple of young lads on there and we could probably do with a bit more.

“But he’s stressed that any new signings are not coming in to replace us but to help us.

“If we can get that help from other players for the battle ahead, then we’ll gladly take it.”