JACOB Butterfield admits he will go “full circle” when he steps out at Valley Parade this weekend.

The on-loan Derby midfielder, who hails from near Thornton, is preparing for his home debut at his home-town club.

It has been a long wait for a player who was briefly on the club’s books as a schoolboy.

Two decades on, Butterfield’s memories of starting off with City are understandably hazy. But the amount of tickets he is trying to sort out for the Fleetwood game indicates his local roots remain strong.

He said: “I was here ever so briefly when I was seven or eight.

“Then I went over to Man United’s academy and went through the system there.

“I used to go down to Bradford for a few months and did some sessions. It’s hard to remember but I think it might have been somewhere up Clayton way.

“It’s over 20 years ago now when I was a little ‘diddler’. But it’s gone full circle, if you like.

“Here I am again all these years later playing in the first team and hopefully I can contribute.”

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Butterfield admitted the lure of returning back home gave City the edge on rival offers as he looked around for a first-team opportunity away from Derby.

“I just thought ‘why not’? I always thought to go back to Bradford would be nice at some point.

“So, when this opportunity came up to do it now, I was happy to take it.

“I could have gone to a number of other clubs but there wouldn’t have been that same sort of excitement there for me. That was part of the challenge.”

Butterfield’s brief cameo at Adams Park was his first senior game for nine months since the last of his 27 appearances on loan at Sheffield Wednesday. His only involvement under Rams boss Frank Lampard this season has been in the under-23s.

The midfielder is therefore keen to make the most of every minute at Valley Parade but admits his first taste of League One was an eye-opener.

“I didn’t really know what to expect,” he added. It’s a little bit different.

“It’s more direct and a bit end-to-end and I’ll have to adjust.

“But here I am and I need to contribute. I know I can show some quality on the ball and hopefully score some goals.

“I’ll have to get used to the style of play but that’s not a problem.

“Coming from the Championship, I guess there will be that added expectation. But I always put that pressure on myself anyway – I think most players do.

“You want to go out and play your best football every time. It’s not always that easy of course.

“But I want to get up to speed as quickly as possible and hopefully I can do that.”

With nearly a week’s training now under his belt, the deadline-day recruit can sense morale within the squad is good. Despite the current position, Butterfield has joined a club he believes are on the up.

He said: “They’ve obviously not had the best season so far. It was quite a difficult start but they have definitely picked up lately and you can see the quality is there.

“It added to the interest for me to come here and hopefully help my home-town club stay up. That was a real pull.”