GARY Bowyer reckons Kelvin Mellor can be a goalscoring asset in his City plans.

The defender returned from a six-week injury lay-off to net in the 1-1 draw with Gillingham.

It stopped the rot after seven straight defeats in City’s first game since being relegated on Good Friday.

Mellor converted from Billy Clarke’s free-kick and Bowyer believes he can be a set-piece threat in his team rebuild.

The Bantams boss said: “It was huge having Kelvin back. It just shows you the advantage of your defenders contributing goals.

“When I was at Blackpool with him, he got seven in our first season and that helped us get promoted.

“It shows you what can happen when you get your defenders in the box and they can get on the end of things. There’s not that responsibility on just your strikers to score the goals.

“I’m pleased with him to get through a full 90 minutes. That was terrific and hopefully now he comes through unscathed.

“It’s something that we’ve identified in every conversation. The physicality is so important in League One and League Two – and that’s size, pace and power.

“You saw the advantage from Kelvin’s point of view.”

But City were denied a first win since March 9 after keeper Ben Wilson spilled a cross, allowing Brandon Hanlan to scramble Gillingham’s equaliser.

“I thought we deserved more if I’m being brutally honest,” added Bowyer. “That was their one attempt on goal and it’s just a routine cross that we should deal with.

“There were a lot of positives in the game in certain individual performances, although we’ve probably played better in the last couple of weeks and not got anything.

“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to see it out but we didn’t lose. I’m pleased from that point of view.

“The whole mood is one of acceptance now. There are no grey areas anymore.

“We’ve got to try and finish as strongly as we can. Hopefully we can pick up two wins and then go into the big rebuilding job that is required in the summer.”

Calum Woods also came back from injury alongside Mellor and made a 76th-minute appearance off the bench.

Bowyer said: “It was a tough call not to start both of them but I was probably a little bit scarred from when I did that against Peterborough.

“They both worked very hard with the medical team to get back fit and hopefully now Calum can build on that and get some more minutes in the two remaining games.”