Peter Taylor has warned City can’t afford any more slip-ups if they are to mount a serious promotion push.

The Bantams are still playing catch-up after their slow start to the season and Taylor is determined not to let last week’s setback at Wycombe disrupt recent momentum.

Prior to the 1-0 defeat, his side had won four of their previous five League Two games, propelling them into play-off contention.

Despite sitting 13th, City enter tomorrow’s clash with Macclesfield trailing seventh-placed Torquay by just four points.

Taylor said: “We have to keep the momentum going because of the start we’ve had. We can’t afford to relax and we can’t have another poor run.

“You’ve got to bounce back and the players have got to understand that. As much as I have been happy with performances, I’m still not 100 per cent pleased with the way they work and handle themselves in games.

“They need to be a bit more streetwise and I’ve told them that. We need to be a bit more aggressive and cleverer on Saturday. We have to bounce back, simple as that.”

By encouraging his players to be more ‘streetwise’, Taylor is hoping to avoid a repeat of Tommy Doherty’s costly sending-off at Adams Park, when the midfielder saw red after responding to provocation from Gareth Ainsworth.

Otherwise, the Bantams boss has been pleased with the standards set by his players over the past month and believes they are well on their way to proving the doubters wrong.

“When we started the season as we did, which was poorly, there will be stick around and people will say things that are not true,” said Taylor.

“They will look for reasons why you don’t win matches and often people think the players don’t care or are not good enough.

“But those reasons are false and the players have shown that recently. They’ve shown they do care and they’ve shown they are good enough.

“Hopefully everyone is seeing the improvement in us and that’s credit to the players. They’ve dug deep and they’ve put in the work to turn things round.”

City will face a buoyant Macclesfield, who climbed above them in the League Two standings thanks to a 2-0 victory over Aldershot last week.

The Silkmen further boosted confidence by successfully negotiating their passage into the FA Cup second round at Southend on Tuesday night, although they needed extra-time and penalties.

At first glance, an exhausting 120 minutes of football would appear to hamper Macc’s chances at Valley Parade, but Taylor is taking nothing for granted with memories of September’s 2-0 defeat at Northampton still fresh in the mind.

That reversal came just days after the Cobblers had negotiated their own gruelling League Cup tie at Anfield, beating Liverpool on penalties.

Taylor said: “You never know how a midweek cup tie will affect a team, to be fair. We played Northampton days after they had gone to extra-time against Liverpool in the League Cup and we were hopeless.

“But we’re a different kettle of fish at the moment and if we play as well as we are capable of doing, we will beat Macclesfield, it’s as simple as that.

“I think we’ve shown in our last six or seven games that we are getting to the standard we expect and I’m hopeful we will get there.”