CITY 2 BLACKBURN 0

LESS than a fortnight to go and it’s already locked away in Derek Adams’ mind.

Late mishaps notwithstanding, he knows the line-up that will kick off City’s League Two campaign at Exeter on August 7.

Not that you would expect any clues, of course.

The squad will not be given any hints as they wrap up the pre-season programme this week against Chesterfield and Accrington.

Nobody will therefore be tempted to ease off from maintaining the momentum that has so far swept all before them in the friendlies.

The fun is to try and second-guess what Adams is thinking for the west country.

It appears that seven of the places are locked in – the back four, who impressively snuffed out the threat of Blackburn’s Adam Amstrong, big Cook and little Cooke, who combined for the well-crafted second goal and Yann Songo’o, who never got off the bench at the weekend.

That leaves a battle in goal, another central midfielder to supplement Songo’o and Callum Cooke, and the two wide players to fit in the 4-2-3-1 mould that the manager prefers.

The keeper shoot-out may be slightly inching in Sam Hornby’s favour. Richard O’Donnell started against Rovers and kept his half of the clean sheet but there were a couple of handling wobbles that did not inspire confidence.

The midfield conundrum has another name added to the fray now after Elliot Watt successfully eased through his 70-minute comeback from a nagging injury.

The cross-field passes are still in his repertoire and he was a vocal influence throughout. But the lack of game time that Adams spoke about afterwards could delay his entry.

Levi Sutton would therefore seem the obvious foil for Songo’o and he delivered another energetic, driven performance that will have encouraged his manager just as much as the fans lapping up City’s Championship scalp.

The real team-sheet tussle is for the two jerseys out wide – and with five realistic contenders that one is tight to call.

Lee Angol has muscled his way very much into the mix with his last two outings, bringing three goals and a whole lot of go-forward.

Ollie Crankshaw has discovered an end-product that was lacking last season. There is a cutting edge to his running now.

Abo Eisa stole the show against Doncaster but was held back until late at Guiseley and on Saturday. It’s similar with Charles Vernam, who again was on bench duty until the midway point of the second half.

Alex Gilliead, meanwhile, pressed his claim by earning Angol’s penalty with the latest example of City’s eagerness to hunt down mistakes.

Gilliead spotted Daniel Ayala getting himself in a bit of a pickle as he skirted the edge of his own box. His pace took him between man and ball – and earned a trip from the panicking Spaniard.

Angol stepped up to send Thomas Kaminski the wrong way with another successful spot-kick conversion. That’s four pre-season penalties already for City – what happened to those days when Phil Parkinson’s team could not buy one for love or money?

Blackburn, one Armstrong volley on the turn aside, got little from their attacking opportunities. City stayed strong and solid in the middle while full backs Liam Ridehalgh and, in particular, Oscar Threlkeld looked the part at both ends.

The pair combined for a Threlkeld header that missed the near post by a lick of paint.

The crowd were in the mood to cheer everything – and there was a lot to get excited about from those in the new claret-and-amber halved shirts. Winning the ball back, something City did a lot, was received as enthusiastically as any promising pass.

Andy Cook should have had a goal with his header from Cooke’s free-kick.

But he got a second half assist instead with a one-two to set up the midfielder’s confident finish. Again, that was a move sparked by Threlkeld wrestling to regain possession.

Crankshaw, Vernam and Eisa picked up the pace as City finished in control and looking for more.

Blackburn have yet to make a summer signing after just coming out of a transfer embargo. Their subs, who appeared en masse, mustered just six senior games between them.

No such issues for the Bantams at this stage and Adams is spoiled for options.

“We’ve got competition for places and game on game we are going to have to change things,” he said.

“But we’ve got the opportunity to take different types of players to different games.

“We can play with width, we can play narrow, we can play 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 as we did, we can play three at the back or 4-4-2.

“With this squad we’ve got many formations we can play.”

The first one has already been decided - but nobody is any the wiser for now.

CITY: O’Donnell (Hornby 46), Threlkeld, O’Connor, Canavan (Kelleher 79), Ridehalgh, Sutton, Watt (Crankshaw 71), Gilliead (Eisa 79), Cooke, Angol, Cook (Vernam 67).

BLACKBURN: Kaminski (Stergiakis 75), Nyambe (Magloire 75), Lenihan (Carter 46), Ayala (Annesley 75), Pickering (Cirino 75), Davenport (Garrett 61), Buckley (Nolan 75), Rothwell (Weston 75), Chapman (Gilsenan 75), Butterworth (McBride 61), Armstrong (Vale 61).