Gary Bowyer was pleased with City's battling qualities in their goalless draw at Colchester tonight.

Chris Taylor hit the bar as the Bantams came close to grabbing a first away win since October.

But Bowyer felt his team stood strong against a team unbeaten in 14 games.

He said: “It was a hard-fought, really competitive game between two very good teams, who were well-organised and looked to break each other down.

“We’ve come here and had a go at them. We’ve hit the bar with a wonderful effort from Chris Taylor and Harry Pritchard should have shot or put Dylan (Connolly) in with a better pass.

“But they’ve not lost in 14 and we’ve lost one in 11. That tells you the match-up of the two teams."

It was City's fifth draw in the last six away games but they stayed fifth with the point.

“It needed a little bit of magic or luck to influence the game," added Bowyer. "We thought we had it when we smacked the bar but overall we’ve come away to a good team and kept a clean sheet.

“That’s 11 clean sheets for the season now and I’m delighted for Luke (McGee) because that’s his first since he came to us. Again, I didn’t think he had many saves to make.”

“We keep picking up points and I can feel it coming. Another day Tayls’ shot hits the bar and bounces in.”