CITY will drip-feed Shay McCartan back into the fray as they chase back-to-back wins at Stevenage.

McCartan made his first appearance for the club in 15 months when he came off the bench against Oldham.

The Irishman, back from a season-long loan stint at Lincoln, played the last 16 minutes and had two scoring chances.

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Gary Bowyer is a big fan and admitted he was out-bid by City as Blackpool manager when McCartan left Accrington for Valley Parade in 2017.

But he intends to take it slowly with a forward he rates highly after McCartan did not feature at all in pre-season through injury.

The City boss said: “The situation is funny in a sense. Because we’re in the season now and he’s played those couple of minutes, you think, ‘right, that’s him back’.

“Whereas, we wouldn’t be doing that if it was pre-season. We’ve got to be mindful of that because we want him available for the remaining games and we’ve got to be sensible.

“They are his first minutes and we’re not going to get carried away with him.”

Boosted by their first League Two win, City head to a Stevenage side who have yet to score a goal.

Saturday’s clean sheet was the second in three games for the Bantams but Bowyer insists there can be no letting-up at the Lamex Stadium tonight.

“I want better and I told them that after the (Oldham) game,” he added. “I’m going to keep demanding more from them.

“They are not going to rest on their laurels with me. I’m not telling them they’ve cracked it because we’ve got two clean sheets out of three.

“There are certain areas still that we can improve on. But we defended set-plays well and limited their shots to distance.

“It’s about us building on Saturday’s performance and the other two as well.

“We’ve got to produce the battling qualities that we showed away at Grimsby. Every time you go away, it’s going to be like that.

“One thing that League Two guarantees is that no game is easy. You have to be right at it.”

Bowyer has thrown down the gauntlet to Sean Scannell to continue scoring and creating goals after hitting the net for the first time in almost four years.

The winger has never got more than four in a season during his career – something his manager wants to be rectified.

He said: “We’re challenging Sean more this season than ever to break his record with assists and goals.

“That was a good start and now we’re looking for him to produce that on a more consistent basis.”

City are hoping to add a new signing by the weekend.