BRAD Halliday joked that he was a “triple-figure” bet to score for City after they sealed a play-off spot.

The right back scored the equaliser in the 1-1 draw with Leyton Orient which clinched sixth place - and an approaching double-header against Carlisle.

Halliday’s goal in front of a sold-out 22,576 Valley Parade audience was his first since December 2020.

He said: “I'm not sure what the odds on me scoring first were but it might have been triple figures I'd think. They don't come around very often but it was big."

Halliday’s deflected effort flew past keeper Lawrence Vigouroux just two minutes after Jordan Brown had put the League Two champions head.

"It came out to the edge of the box and I just tried to put it on target and make the keeper work,” added Halliday, “but it took a little deflection and went in so I'm buzzing.

"When they scored getting a quick goal back always helps because it gives us a bit of momentum going in at half-time and coming out still in the game, not chasing.

"It was in our hands going into the game and we checked results at the end of the game. Mansfield scored their second late on so it could have been a different day but we've got the job done and that's all that matters."

Mansfield’s 2-0 win at Colchester did not matter as the Bantams made sure of their top-seven finish - and moved up a place after Salford lost to Gillingham.

Mark Hughes was delighted to get the job done.

“We’re obviously pleased because it was a difficult fixture for us. We were up against the champions and everybody saw today they are champions for a reason.

“They are an outstanding team as this level so going up against them in a game we still needed to get something out of looked a difficult task prior to kick-off.

“It wasn’t one that was beyond us but we obviously had to do the right things.

“We had the setback of the initial goal going against us but came back really quickly, which was important.

“I felt then it was a game between two evenly-matched teams who didn’t give any quarter to each other.

“We’re in a play-off situation. We still have an opportunity to get out of this league and that was the goal before the season started.

“We’re still on track for that. We’ll have a couple of days downtime and then look ahead to Sunday and another huge game.”