Peter Taylor fears the state of the Valley Parade pitch may be sapping City’s confidence.

Taylor suffered his first home loss yesterday in a dismal defeat to Macclesfield.

And the Bantams boss admitted afterwards he cannot wait to rip up the surface – to stop giving the players an excuse for poor performances.

He said: “I don’t blame the crowd being quiet because we didn’t give them anything to get excited about.

“I don’t know whether the players have lost that much confidence to play on the pitch but if you walk on it, you wouldn’t fancy playing on it either.

“It’s easy for me to say go get the ball in tight areas but it’s difficult when you’re playing on that.

“I’ve said to the club that I personally don’t want excuses. Give me a great pitch and then you’ve got no excuses.

“We’ve had a really bad winter and there are loads of pitches out there that aren’t as good as they should be. It’s something I know we’re going to address.”

With James Hanson added to the growing injury list, Luke Oliver was used as a makeshift centre forward in the second half and came up with City’s goal.

Taylor added: “Because of the pitch again, I felt we needed a big player up there as an easier target to hit.

“We got the goal back and I was hopeful we’d go on to win the game. Unfortunately, both goals we gave away were terrible and you get punished.”

Macclesfield’s opener came from former City apprentice Emile Sinclair after he charged down Zesh Rehman’s clearance – a blunder from the skipper which saw him booed by sections of the crowd.

Taylor said: “I was disappointed with that (reaction) but I thought they then realised and the majority of fans started clapping.

“Zesh didn’t mean to make that mistake that’s cost us a goal and I thought he showed some good character in the second half.”

Youth-team winger Ryan Harrison was handed a surprise debut as a substitute and Taylor revealed there may be more fresh faces to come.

But he does not expect any of the current casualties to be fit to return at Burton next weekend.