DYLAN Connolly believes that adaptability is key to developing his game after celebrating his anniversary in England.

It is a year now since Connolly came back from his native Ireland to the domestic game.

Wimbledon snapped him up from Dundalk at the start of last season’s January window before loaning him out to City just before the August deadline.

The League One club are happy for the winger to continue his education with the Bantams for the full term.

And Connolly feels he will only improve from the challenge of City’s promotion push.

“I feel my game has progressed quite a bit and I’m really enjoying it,” he said.

“It’s a different type of play to what I was used to. You’ve got to mix your game up because you’re coming up against different types of football.

“I played for the best team in Ireland and you knew how each opponent was going to play.

“But in this league, there a lot more styles of football and different pitches so you’ve got to adjust.

“It’s good though and I think it makes you a better player. It helps your game.

“I quite enjoy the pressure because you know you’ve got to perform week in, week out to your maximum. You can’t really afford to dip or you’ll be found out.”

It is not his first experience of English football.

As a raw teenager, Mick McCarthy took him to Ipswich from Shelbourne in February 2015.

Connolly was named on the bench four times in the Championship but only played for the under-21s before returning to Ireland with Bray Wanderers 10 months later.

Irish league champions Dundalk signed him in July 2017 and he was part of their double-winning side before Wimbledon brought him back across the pond.

Having been used mainly from the bench by the Dons, this is his first proper season of regular action with the inevitable highs and lows.

Eoin Doyle’s return to add to Gary Bowyer’s Irish contingent saw Connolly revert back to the wing at Crawley after a recent stint playing down the middle as the foil for James Vaughan.

But it did not go well as City turned in a wretched display at the Broadfield to suffer their first loss in nine games.

It ups the ante for the clash with Scunthorpe when the strong home form will again be put to the test.

Connolly has quickly learned that wearing a City shirt brings added pressure in the bottom tier.

“You come to Valley Parade and see 15,000 fans. If you’re the away side and used to only getting 2,000-3,000 crowds, then your game’s automatically going to rise.

“Everyone wants to beat Bradford because it is the biggest club in this division.

“We have the same mentality every game. We believe we can beat anyone if we play to what we are capable of.

“But you have to work hard and earn the right to get results. It isn’t easy in this league because every team are good.

“Even the ones in the middle or down the bottom raise their game against us. But we’re still in the promotion places and hopefully we will be there or thereabouts at the end of the season.”

Connolly’s end product needs to improve but he has the blistering pace to put defenders on the back foot. The state of the Valley Parade pitch won’t help in that department but the 24-year-old is not complaining.

He added: “I don’t really think about these things. You’ve got to make the best of the situation even in difficult conditions."