STUART McCall will demand to see what City are made of as they pick up the pieces from the Carabao Cup capitulation.

The Bantams are back in training today to prepare for Saturday’s trip to Forest Green – and to get the embarrassing Lincoln loss straight out of the system.

McCall was fuming with his side’s defensive deficiencies in that 5-0 defeat which has left worried fans questioning the depth of the squad.

He said: “There’s only one group who can make sure it doesn’t linger and that’s us as a staff and team.

“It’s a sore one because nobody likes getting beaten like that at home.

“But just like we didn’t get carried away when we won at Bolton, we can’t do anything about it now.

“It’s given us food for thought about a few things as a staff, there’s no doubt about that.

“But we’ve got to look to Saturday now. The only way we can get this performance out the system is going and putting in a really strong one down at Forest Green.”

McCall appreciates the concerns of supporters after the way City folded against their League One opponents. It was also the third game on the trot when his side have failed to score.

“Of course it does (scare people with a result like that), it’s not one that you want,” he added.

“But it’s about how you react. We’ve got 45 league games so without stating the obvious there’s a lot of football to be played.

“We’ll be out on that training park and we’ll make sure we are ready for Saturday. I need to see a reaction from the group.”

After a solid opening week, McCall had gone into the Lincoln game talking confidently about his current strikers to be among the goals.

While he intends to add another younger frontman to his squad, there are other areas where he is looking to bring in recruits before next month’s transfer deadline.

But he insists his plans will not be radically altered on the back of one terrible result.

The City boss said: “We knew we needed to strengthen when we won at Bolton.

“We knew we needed to strengthen when we drew against Doncaster and Colchester.

“Because we got beaten like that doesn’t make us think we need to strengthen any more. We know we need to anyway.

“But I don’t want to just bring players in to add numbers. They’ve got to hopefully be better than what we’ve got to improve the squad.

“Not just to throw numbers at it and have extra bodies here.

“It’s also my job as a manager and the staff to get the best out of what we’ve got. Up to Tuesday night, we’ve been doing that.

“It sounds simplistic but it was down to not defending set-plays and that breaks out into other things. That makes everything look worse than it is.

“There are highs and lows and it’s how you react to them. If anyone thinks we’re just going to say, ‘that’s it, the season’s over’, then obviously they don’t know me.”