CITY'S performance might have been better but last night's latest loss at Leyton Orient dumped them deeper in the mire.

It was a long and depressing journey back from east London to mull over another game when the Bantams ultimately came up short.

Here's a few things we noticed from the fourth successive away defeat.

IT HAS BEEN WORSE

The League Two table makes very concerning reading today with City perilously close to the relegation zone.

It has been a long time since City were in such depths of the fourth tier – but it has looked worse.

It’s exactly nine years to the day that the Bantams were teetering in 22nd spot with just three wins after 18 games in Phil Parkinson’s tough first year in charge.

They were still in 20th just six games from the end of the season. Survival was the name of the game before Parkinson could begin that history-making rebuild in the summer of 2012.

FREE-AGENT FIX?

Stuart McCall had made it clear that he did not want to go down the free-agent route when the transfer window closed in October.

But having put the feelers out with agents, he insists there is nobody suitable who could come in at the drop of a hat to bolster the squad.

Anyone who hasn’t played for so long will need a while to get up to speed – but is it a risk to hang on until January without bringing in any back-up for a squad clearly lacking the depth to cope with injuries.

SOFT SET-PIECES

How many times do City seem to concede from a corner or a free-kick?

Once again, all the hard work against Orient was undone by a failure to deal with a delivery into the six-yard box.

It was a good delivery from Jordan Maguire-Drew but Dan Happe was still able to climb between two defenders and beat Richard O’Donnell from close range.

When the team is finding it tough enough to score, they cannot afford to keep being punished so easily as that.

CLARKE SPARK

Billy Clarke has become an integral part of the team because he is the only one right now who makes them tick.

Clarke’s influence was evident last night both when he was on the pitch and when he wasn’t.

Stuart McCall planned to restrict the Irishman to an hour because he didn’t want to risk his hamstring after the long bus journey earlier in the day.

In that time, Clarke was instrumental in City keeping the ball so much better than they had done at Salford and moving it more purposefully.

As soon as he went off, they once again struggled to hang on to possession and posed no attacking threat to Orient’s lead.

HOME COMFORTS?

It is shaping up to be a pivotal week with Saturday’s FA Cup clash against Oldham the first of three games on the bounce at Valley Parade.

After City’s latest misery on the road – where they have lost four in a row without scoring – the pressure is building on the team and manager to steady things on home territory.

A cup exit at the weekend would increase the heat on the team and manager going into games with Cheltenham and Carlisle, two teams going well in the top six.