PAUDIE O’Connor insists the League Two promotion picture will not really become clear before the new year.

City’s 1-0 win over Newport at Valley Parade – their first victory for five weeks – kept them five points off leaders Swindon in sixth spot.

James Vaughan’s second-half penalty eventually broke through the Welsh side’s resistance to spoil Michael Flynn’s return to his old club.

O’Connor, who came in for the injured Ben Richards-Everton, was delighted to see the Bantams bounce back after indifferent games at Plymouth and Macclesfield.

But he refuses to look too far ahead in a congested top seven.

The defender said: “We’ve got to concentrate on ourselves. Once we get Christmas out the way, we’ll have a look at it then.

“Until then, it’s about trying to rack up as many points as we can over this busy period.

“It’s starting to take shape now, hopefully if we get those wins over Christmas we’ll be up there in January and try to kick on to get one of the automatic positions.”

O’Connor thought he had scored his fourth City goal but was denied by a fantastic close-range block from Newport keeper Nick Townsend.

“I think it was right on the nose,” admitted the defender. “He came out quick and just as I got my head up, he was there.

“My eyes lit up when the ball came to me and I tried to lift it over him. But it just came off his face, it was a good save to be fair to him.

“We’ve obviously had two disappointing results in our eyes and haven’t performed to right levels work-rate wise.

“We put that right for the home crowd as well. We kicked on second half created those chances and were dangerous from set-pieces.

“I think it was unlucky not to be two or three. But our game management was a lot better than it has been in previous weeks."

Richards-Everton, Harry Pritchard and Hope Akpan will have a full week to recover for City’s trip to Leyton Orient.

Bowyer did not take any chances at the weekend after they all reported niggles – even if it did mean a late change of team shape.

The City boss said: “There was no need to risk one or two of them. It shows you the value of the squad and we were delighted to get Matty Palmer and Shay McCartan back in.

“You want as many bodies as you possibly can over that brilliant Christmas period.

“You need to pause and take a little bit of perspective at times. But we’ve only got 27 games left now and we’re going to have a lot of players in the squad playing a massive part.”