Zesh Rehman says his first-day howler will not scare him off another trip to Nottingham tonight.

City head to Forest in the Carling Cup first round – just across the Trent from the scene of the crime of Saturday’s 5-0 hammering at Notts County.

It is a daunting stage for the Bantams to rebuild their battered confidence but Rehman, whose blunder for County’s second goal opened the floodgates, will not be hiding away.

He said: “The worst thing you can do is sweep it under the carpet. I’m not like that as a person and it’s the same with Stuart McCall and the coaching staff.

“Nobody likes to make mistakes, especially as a defender, but it’s part of the game and you can’t go a whole season without making a mistake.

“I’ve been there before – all the back four have – and it’s a case of being big enough to go back out there and try to put things right. There’s no better chance to do that than at Forest and then in the next home game.

“There is no point going into your shell after one bad game. If that’s the case, you shouldn’t be playing.

“It might hurt but it’s best to get everything out in the open. You need to if you want to improve as a player and as a team.

“It sounds like a cliche but we’ve got some experienced players in the squad, like Peter Thorne and Lee Bullock, and everyone’s picking each other up.”

McCall will shuffle his side and may opt for a more defensive outlook to prevent being carved open as they were by Lee Hughes and Co. He could opt to play an extra man in midfield or at the back.

Rehman said: “We’ll see what the manager does with the shape and personnel. He might make a few changes.

“But we need to go there and be more solid. We’ve got to see tonight’s game as an opportunity.

“You can look at it as a mountain to climb or you can think that there’s no real pressure on us to get a result but let’s go out and improve on Saturday.

“All the players will be trying to put it right for our own professional pride but, more importantly, for the fans that travelled to Nottingham that we let down.

“Hopefully we can get things moving in a more positive way so that in our next league game we’ll have something to build on.”

McCall is confident the first-day hammering will leave no long-term psychological scars. Rehman, who could skipper the side if Thorne is rested, also believes it was just a one-off freak result.

He said: “Some things just come out the blue. Look at last season when Gillingham got beaten by seven at Shrewsbury and then they went up.

“We had a good pre-season and had prepared right but just ran into a circus. The adrenaline was flowing for them and we weren’t at the races.

“But I don’t think you should over-analyse it because you will end up tearing your hair out.

“As the manager said, the positive thing is that it was the first game not the last, so the quicker we can put that behind us the better.

“It was a bad day at the office and we’ve got to move on quickly.”

Meanwhile, City are giving a trial to Cambridge City midfielder Scott Neilson but Malvin Kamara has ended his spell.