FOR Gary Bowyer, 70 proved enough on the way to earning instant promotion with Blackpool.

Two years ago, Lincoln needed 75 to qualify.

Last season, Michael Flynn and Newport reached 71 points to make it to the play-offs – and ultimately extra-time heartbreak against Tranmere at Wembley.

Their tally has proved the average for the side finishing in seventh spot in League Two over the past decade.

When Phil Parkinson’s Bantams came with a late run to secure a play-off finish with a game to spare in 2013, they did so with an “under-par” 69 points. Only Torquay the year before also qualified sub-70.

So, crunching the numbers for the last 10 seasons, City require another 20 points from their final 11 games to achieve the 71-point bar.

A big ask from a team who have only averaged a point a game from the last 11 since New Year’s Day – with just the one win in that time.

Factor in that City’s run-in includes five of the top eight to play - starting with Plymouth's visit to Valley Parade this weekend - and it becomes an even mightier task or, if your glass is of the half-full variety, still in their own hands.

There are surely few optimists who truly believe that scenario.

History, of course, will point to that surge under Parkinson seven years ago.

Beaten 4-1 at Exeter in mid-March, City found themselves down in 12th – 10 points adrift of Rotherham in the final play-off place with only nine games left.

They picked themselves up to win four of the next five and even had a game to spare when they scrambled over the line.

Exeter, meanwhile, plummeted from a dozen points ahead of the Bantams after that win in Devon to limp in five points behind – an astonishing collapse.

Momentum can work both ways.

Former Bantams boss Bowyer was languishing in the bottom half of the 2017 table at the end of February.

Kyle Vassell’s 90th-minute equaliser at home to Barnet at least salvaged a third 2-2 draw on the bounce for Bowyer’s Blackpool from two down. But it hardly suggested what was to follow.

Yet from eight points and eight positions back, they built up enough of a head of steam to claim seventh with victory over Leyton Orient on the final day – going on to finish the job against Exeter at Wembley.

Bowyer frequently brought up that season when talking about City’s promotion prospects before a ball had been kicked. His previous experience underlined the sheer marathon that the club were about to undertake.

Bowyer’s race was run just over three weeks ago; it’s now down to Stuart McCall to find some way of reviving a team that appear to be approaching the wall.

Dredging up the necessary energy spurt to race down the home straight would take some managerial masterstroke on current evidence.

Back-to-back away defeats – and blown leads – have left City in their own ninth-placed no man’s land; four points off six, seven and eight and five ahead of Forest Green in 10th.

Port Vale, an opponent in just over a fortnight’s time, have surged past them to threaten the play-off positions for the first time.

John Askey’s side have picked up 14 points in their last six games – eight more than the Bantams, who languish in the bottom five of the division’s current form table.

Only Forest Green, with only two points since January 11, have tailed off at a more alarming rate.

McCall is not being judged on what transpires between now and when the curtain comes down against Walsall at Valley Parade.

The length of his latest deal was deliberately set for the end of next season to give him a proper chance to mould another team how he wants.

With a fair chunk of the squad he has taken over coming out of contract, we can guarantee another summer of upheaval to follow all the others.

Once more, that may not be a bad thing.

The auditions to persuade the manager that the current cast are worth persisting with have hardly been convincing.

Who has really stood up in the first few games of McCall’s latest reign and made a proper case that they are worth another chance?

Jake Reeves, maybe? Richard O’Donnell? Shay McCartan against Stevenage?

McCall has persistently repeated that there is still all to play for, regardless of league position. He has already begun to plan for next season.

Play-off talk has been banned in the dressing room on his insistence. He has made his point with the players – it’s down to them now to see if they can accumulate enough of their own in the remaining two months.