Lewis: Bradford City must make home advantage count

Mark Hughes is poised to bring in a third new face in his on-going rebuild after last week's captures of Southampton keeper Lewis and Forest Green frontman Jake Young.

Sorting out the record on their own ground will be a priority for his new-look squad next season.

The Bantams won only six home games last term – and two of those were the final two outings against already-doomed Scunthorpe and 20th-placed Carlisle.

The tally of 28 points in front of their own fans beat only five other teams in League Two.

Hughes is determined to remove any “scar tissue” lingering from City’s home form with his busy recruitment schedule.

And first capture Lewis is determined they can make the numbers count from playing in front of the division’s biggest audiences.

He said: “When I sat down with the gaffer about signing here we spoke about the home record last year, which I understand wasn’t so great.

“Valley Parade is a fantastic stadium and it should be one that other teams fear coming to.

“It works both ways. The fans need the players to perform well to build up their expectations and the noise around the stadium.

“The only way we can get the place rocking is by playing good football. Hopefully that’s what we are going to do this year.”

Hughes, who is close to unveiling another new recruit, has made it clear that being able to handle the spotlight of City’s stadium will be a key requirement with every signing.

“There’s an acknowledgement that you’ve got to have a little bit about you to play at Valley Parade,” said the Bantams chief.

“It’s the biggest stage in League Two in terms of the crowd and the stadium itself. You’ve got to be able to deal with expectation as well.

“Maybe a lot of that ‘scarring’ will be diluted to a certain extent because we’ll have fresh bodies in the building.

“We’ll have guys that will be desperate to play in front of big crowds. Those will be the type of players we hopefully will be able to bring to the club next year.”