DEREK Adams will maintain his hard-line approach with City to keep driving standards.

The injury-hit Bantams are looking for their first league win in a month at Crawley tomorrow.

Adams believes he has 16 “top-notch” players in the current ranks for the promotion objective – although Charles Vernam has joined the casualty list.

The City boss laid it on the line with the much-changed side beaten by Manchester United under-21s in the Papa John’s Trophy in midweek.

And he is unrepentant about his strong stance.

Adams said: “That’s the nature of the business we’re in. Who comes and cuddles me when we draw a game at home? No-one.

“It’s the nature of football, it’s the nature of sport. That’s why we are in this occupation.

“It’s a hard school and you need to get on with it. If you don’t do your job properly then you get criticised, that’s the nature of the world.

“I’ve spoken to the players and we all know where we are with individual meetings, collective meetings and as a football club.

“We know where we’re going and, as I’ve said, we can’t be distracted from the endpoint.”

Adams insists he has “clarity” on what needs to be added and there will be ins and outs in the mid-season transfer window. But he is confident City will get there in a good position.

“We will change the squad around in January but we have got the nucleus of a very good squad here.

“We have got probably 16 players who are top-notch. If we can get them going and put them in a good position, it will enable us to go forward.

“We’ve got younger players, got ones that haven’t had a lot of experience of league football that are with us. They eventually will become good players for this football club.

“There have only been 16 players that have started in the league. That tells you where I am with this team.”

With only two goals from the last six games, Adams has put on extra crossing and shooting sessions in training this week.

“You can never do too much work,” he said. “It’s the same as a golfer or a snooker player – it’s about repetition.

“Keep on repeating then eventually it becomes the normal.

“We’ve had a good start to the season and you can see that with the players’ confidence and how they’ve gone about training and in games.

“They’ve enjoyed Valley Parade and the supporters really getting behind us. The atmosphere’s been fantastic and the players can’t believe the difference from last season.

“Just to get that backing has been really good. The supporters have seen a lot of good performances but unfortunately, they haven’t seen the goals that the players can score.

“Everyone just wants that ball to go in the back of the net and the players are trying ever so hard to do that.

They are creating the chances and eventually they will get there.”

City head south with Andy Cook as their only available striker.

Theo Robinson and Caolan Lavery have joined Lee Angol on the sidelines, along with skipper Niall Canavan and Abo Eisa.

Vernam has also been ruled out after feeling a tightness towards the end on Tuesday.

“We’re not in too bad a state,” said Adams. “They’ve just come in a cluster and will be out for this game.”

Adams has good memories from Crawley and is looking forward to the trip.

“We cemented promotion there with Plymouth Argyle so I’ve got a good experience of going to Crawley.

“I like the ground – it’s a good footballing ground to go and play at. It’s tight but the surface is fantastic.”