STUART McCall insists City won’t “park the bus” at Leyton Orient tonight.

The Bantams boss is determined not to come away from London empty-handed as his injury-hit squad make the long midweek journey.

They could still be missing all six casualties from the weekend and McCall admits another starter from the Salford game has been added to that list and will not travel.

Midfielder Harry Pritchard is thought to be a serious doubt after being replaced at half-time with a lower-back problem.

But McCall will not send out his 19th-placed side with the instructions to try and nick a point.

He said: “I always look at how we can hurt the opposition and we’ve got to be able to carry a threat.

“I have managed and coached sides before like with Scotland when we’ve had to go places and set up to really defend, sit in and try and hit them on the counter.

“I don’t think we’ve really got a side that can do that at this moment and it’s not something I’m comfortable doing.

“We want a better performance than we got on Saturday. I don’t want to go down there backs-to-the-wall, nick a 0-0 and be dreadful.

“First and foremost, we want to put in a performance that gives us an opportunity to get a victory.

“After the game, if we’ve played like that and we take a point it won’t be a disaster with some of the results they’ve had at home.

“But we never look at it like that. It’s just important we improve our level of performance.”

City are expected to be without Billy Clarke, Callum Cooke, Reece Staunton and Bryce Hosannah again. Strikers Lee Novak and Kurtis Guthrie are also still out.

“We’ve just been a little bit unfortunate to lose a few of our key players,” added McCall.

“When I look back on the team who won at Bolton and Mansfield, four or five of the lads who played in those good performances were missing Saturday.

“We do certainly need our more influential players back on the park and I’ve no doubt we’ll be stronger when we do.

“But it’s an opportunity for others to come in and we’ve got to defend better and not give the ball away in dangerous areas to let teams counter-attack on us.

“We certainly did that at Salford and against Exeter as well.

“We’ve got to limit the opportunities the opposition have against us. We’ve been okay with set-plays but (Ian) Henderson had two free headers – Richard (O’Donnell) made a fantastic save and then he has another one second half.

“We’ve got to restrict the amount of saves that Richard is making at the moment and be better defensively. But that comes from all over the pitch.”

City have slipped to just five points above the bottom two after winning just three of their 13 games. But McCall is hoping that fortunes can turn with one result.

“That’s certainly what I and the staff believe in and we need the players to believe that as well.

“I look at so many teams this season who are going through highs and lows.

“One minute they’ve got beaten here and there, the next they go and get a result. That’s football.

“We may not be the highest ones on people’s coupons to get an away victory but when the chips are down, it’s up to us as characters to stand up and put in a performance that will hopefully get us the three points.”