JOSH Wright has bitten his lip for too long on what went wrong for him at Valley Parade.

The bottled-up frustration of last season finally comes pouring out as he prepares to face City this weekend with Leyton Orient.

Wright has no issues with the club itself after a year spent mostly in isolation. He is grateful to Gary Bowyer for giving him another chance following four months in the training-ground wilderness.

It’s what went on before Bowyer’s arrival in March; the way City were being governed – and the way David Hopkin jettisoned him from the first-team picture.

“Bradford City is a big club, a proper club and I never got to see that,” he said. “That was the frustrating thing.

“The way it was run and some of the stuff going on was something most footballers won’t see in their career.

“If things aren’t done right off the pitch, it’s always going to affect you and the fans didn’t see the real me.

“Anyone who knows me in the game knows the character that I am and the professional.

“Some of the stuff being bandied about frustrates me. I’ll live with that but I feel I was a scapegoat.”

Wearing the captain’s armband, something he was given six weeks after being promised it on signing, Wright bore the brunt of public frustration as City quickly plummeted.

He was portrayed as the poster boy of the flawed regime which saw Michael Collins sacked by Edin Rahic just six games in.

It got even worse for him under Hopkin, who Wright claims was so keen to move him out that he forced him to train alone or with only fellow exiles Joe Riley and Alex Jones for company. It wasn’t so much out being in the cold as the deep freeze.

Wright admitted: “Nobody should have to go through what we were dealing with, in any aspect of life not just football.

“It’s not for me to say the word bullying because I’m a grown man. But the way he treated me was an absolute disgrace.

“I wasn’t allowed to train, I wasn’t allowed to kick a football. I was basically running every day and segregated from the others.

“It shouldn’t happen but I got my head down and pulled others along with me.

“I had my down days but it taught me a lot. It made me stronger.

“As bad as it could be at times, you had to push your shoulders back and get on with it. But I could see with him where it was going. I knew that I’d outstay him.

“It was just wrong and I was angry and upset. It didn’t help that I didn’t have many people around me, only my wife and the occasional family when they came up.

“You’re on your own brooding and the fans never knew what I was going through.

“That wasn’t the club, it was what he was doing to me. It was absolutely wrong.”

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Twitter became another battleground with Wright the target of social-media abuse as City’s fortunes continued to slide.

“Nobody knew that I was spending every day on a running track,” he added. “The only time I was allowed to kick a ball was with the 16 or 17-year-olds the odd day a week.

“All this stuff was coming out about me getting this or that wages. It was nowhere near true.

“I’m being as professional as I am and not being able to respond. It was a very frustrating time.

“It wasn’t like the team were pulling any trees up. We had one good month in December but results weren’t great.

“I had other senior players asking, ‘What on earth is going on?’ It was embarrassing."

Bowyer promised a clean slate when he took over and was true to his word with Wright earning a recall from the bench against Blackpool. His reappearance at Valley Parade was greeted with boos.

“I had to be strong with what the fans were giving me that day.

“It doesn’t matter who you are. If you’re getting that, it hurts.

“I knew the reception wouldn’t be fantastic because they never really knew what was going on. Hearing that made me feel tiny.

"Getting on the ball, I had to be strong with that going on.

“But that was the only time. Gary Bowyer continued to give me my chance and, bearing in mind I hadn’t kicked a ball in four months, I felt I did well in a team that was pretty much dead and buried.

"I have the utmost respect for the gaffer for bringing me back. I'll always be grateful for that.

"I was just so gutted to have missed so much of the season and not being able to go out there and show what I know I'm capable of.

"I can’t speak highly enough of people within the club. It was just certain individuals ruining it."