Kyel Reid believes he can be the talisman to break City’s Southend hoodoo.

The Bantams make their 15th appearance at Roots Hall tonight and have never won there.

But Reid relishes the trip to the Essex seaside, having won all three of his previous senior games there and scoring in two of them.

The winger helped Phil Parkinson’s Charlton to two victories there and netted the last-gasp winner in the league encounter.

And Reid was also on the scoresheet when Barnsley beat Southend 3-1 on their own patch in 2007.

So he hopes his lucky touch can rub off on the Bantams and give their survival fight a pick-me-up to take into Christmas.

Reid said: “Players like going to certain grounds where they’ve had good games before. You have a positive feeling about the place and it puts you in a confident mood to do well again.

“It’s a ground I know very well and I enjoy playing there. The surface is good and you’re very close to the fans so they can get involved.

“I’m looking forward to going back again and hopefully it will be a good night for us. It would be a nice time for the club to win there for the first time.”

Second-placed Southend have gone five games without a win but the 3-0 loss at Cheltenham last week was their first in the league since September.

Having missed out on a money-spinning FA Cup clash with Liverpool by losing Tuesday’s replay at Oldham, Reid expects the home side will have a point to prove.

He added: “Their manager will want a reaction and Southend will probably come out all guns blazing.

“But it’s all down to us and how we get on. We will just focus on doing our own jobs right.

“I still think we’ve got one of the better teams in the division. We’ve got to prove to everyone that we are a decent side and that we will come good.

“I still believe in my ability, the manager and the rest of the team. Everybody is hungry to progress up that table.”

Reid will play a crucial role if City can revive their fortunes. With his pace and ability to unlock defences, he can bank on plenty of close attention again tonight.

“It’s always difficult when you’ve got two or even three men on me. I always want the ball but sometimes you have to focus on your movement and helping others to get into the game.

“I thought Jack (Compton) did well in the first half last week. He had a lot of possession because my distraction gave him more opportunity.

“It opened up for me more in the second half and I was able to cause some damage and put in some crosses. That’s what I love to do.

“We’ve got the defensive side of our game right and now we need to improve going forwards, whether that’s down to me creating more or the strikers scoring more goals.”

Parkinson has been impressed at the way Paul Sturrock has revived Southend’s fortunes after a troubled spell when the club were threatened with a winding-up order.

Despite their slight wobble, he expects the Shrimpers to remain in the promotion hunt.

Parkinson said: “They’ve done well to be up there and you’d fancy them to stay the course.

“I saw Southend at the start of last season playing a friendly against Dartford and Paul basically didn’t have any players. He could just about get 11 out on the pitch.

“It’s taken that club a while to get going but they are certainly doing that now.”

City are still to win away but goalless draws at Swindon and Gillingham have given Parkinson confidence of getting some reward from the latest trip.

He added: “We’ve shown the requirements needed to get those two clean sheets on our travels.

“We have to be strong and resilient and stand up to them. But equally we must carry a threat going forward.

“We certainly won’t be going there to defend for 90 minutes.”