GARY Bowyer is waiting to find out what his City players learned from their Liverpool lesson.

The Bantams boss has given the squad a day off to recover from the Valley Parade encounter with the European champions.

A record crowd of 24,343, the biggest at the ground since it was rebuilt after the fire, saw Liverpool win 3-1 in a friendly to raise money for the Darby Rimmer Foundation.

The afternoon paid tribute to Stephen Darby and pal Chris Rimmer and to raise awareness for their battle with motor neurone disease.

But Bowyer was also keen to see how his team dealt with coping against Premier League opposition on the big stage.

And he intends to hear today what they made of it.

Bowyer said: “The game was an interesting one for ourselves.

“Liverpool had a hell of a lot of the ball. That made it a great game for our defensive organisation.

“I was shattered after watching that. I thought Liverpool must have put both teams on in the first half and they had not told us.

“No, seriously the amount of learning these lads will have taken out of the day is huge.

“In fact, I have set them a challenge. I have given them today off and over the next 24 hours they have to text me with what they have learnt.

“I will be really interested about what they have to say.”

Eoin Doyle pulled one back for City with a late penalty after Liverpool had led 3-0 at half-time through a James Vaughan own goal, James Milner and Rhian Brewster.

But the priority was generating funds for charity and Darby was given a noisy ovation before addressing the crowd before the game.

Bowyer added: “The football bits I learned were who could handle playing in this environment. That is certainly something for me to take home.

“It has been a fabulous turnout. To be a record crowd shows the measure of supporter there is for Stephen, Chris and the foundation.

“This puts football into perspective. The day was all about raising awareness.”

Bowyer switched the team round at half-time. Keeper Sam Hornby, who replaced Richard O’Donnell for the second half, said: “If you don’t enjoy playing in front of 24,000 and a packed stadium against the European champions then you shouldn’t be playing football.

“It was very impressive. Everyone said the fans come in numbers and when you walk out and see barely a spare seat in the house, you think ‘wow’.”