IT MAY be City’s longest trip of the season but don’t expect to hear Adam Henley complaining.

The Bantams make the trek to Plymouth tomorrow as their League Two campaign cranks back into action after a three-week wait.

For Henley, though, journeying from one end of the country to the other will feel like a drive to the shops compared with what he has been used to.

The American-born defender was reunited with his former Blackburn boss Gary Bowyer at Valley Parade in the summer after 18 months back in the States with MLS side Real Salt Lake.

Henley featured only five times for the Utah club but was often an unused substitute in the squad last season.

That meant regularly clocking up more than 2,000 miles simply to get to venues such as Montreal, New York, Philadelphia and Washington. Closest opponents Portland were still 750 miles away – well over the return trip to Plymouth.

Henley said: “There was nowhere you could go on the coach to, so I got used to flying to every single game.

“You had to deal with different time zones, different weather, everything. But you have to cope with it.

“The gaffer said to us in training the other day that we are going to be hit with these little challenges in the next couple of months with a lot of travelling.

“It’s just how we deal with them as a team. We’ve got a great group of lads who will stick together through thick and thin and I’m confident we can get through this period.”

Henley did not play as often as he would have liked after leaving Blackburn. But he admits the American move got him out of a rut.

“It was a fresh start for me,” he added. “I had real trouble with injuries in my last year at Blackburn.

“Those things happen in football but I just felt it was the best thing for me to do at the time.

“With the time of the year it was and my own personal fitness, it was something different.

“I enjoyed being away from English football for a little bit and having that chance to clear my head.

“You can get stuck in a cycle and it’s good to step out from that.

“It made coming home feel better and I appreciate it a lot more now.

“They say everything happens for a reason and it felt like it was meant to be. It was good to have that experience under my belt.”

Returning to England, where he has grown up since the age of two, brought an even more familiar feel when he teamed back up with Bowyer.

At 25, Henley has known the City chief for more than half his life since being taken on by the Blackburn academy as a schoolboy.

Henley said: “I would have been 11 the first time he saw me at Blackburn.

“Then I worked up through the age groups to the youth team and had the pleasure of getting a scholarship and working with him again as an under-18.

“Obviously with the issues at Blackburn, he found himself getting promoted to manager. So it was good to have that relationship with someone who knows what you’ve been through.”

Henley believes Bowyer’s character has never changed down the years and man-management skills have always been his strength.

“He’s always loved coaching and get the best out of his players," added the full back, who played 94 games in total during his long spell at Ewood Park.

“He did that so many times with Blackburn’s academy and you can see that with the number of players who came through from there.

“A lot more comes with it when you become a manager. There is a lot more responsibility but he deals with that really well.

“Everyone here appreciates the job that he is doing.

“The way he treats people is one of his great qualities.

“He’ll always pull players in for a chat if he feels like it’s needed.

“That sounds like a small thing but you’d be surprised at how many managers out there just refuse to do it. “It’s important for team morale and a good trait to have.”