Chris Lucketti: Jake Young brings pace to Bantams attack

Young last night started his first game at Valley Parade in nearly 16 months as the Bantams reached the Bristol Street Motors Trophy semi-finals with a 1-0 win over Doncaster.

With his immediate future at the club settled, the striker looked sharp again and was given a standing ovation when he was subbed midway through the second half.

Assistant boss Lucketti said: “When we arrived at the club, we knew Jake was scoring goals.

"We were always looking forward to the moment when his loan was up and we could bring him back.

READ MORE: Happy Chappy keeps City on the Wembley way

“Anyone who scored that amount of goals (while at Swindon), you want in your team.

“You can see, certainly last night and when he came on at half-time on Saturday, he’s creating chances, he’s running in behind and working his socks off for the team.

“He is going to give us a different dimension to what we’ve had recently because he’s got real genuine pace.

“He gets on the half turn, he gets you up the pitch and as soon he gets that facing a defender, they want to retreat to the goal.

“That’s a player we want in the team and I think the supporters thrive off that. They see someone with genuine quality and pace that is going to hurt defenders and he has got goals in him.”

Harry Chapman scored his first goal of an injury-hit season with a superb free-kick to seal the last-eight encounter – only City’s second win in nine games.

“It was a fantastic strike,” added Lucketti.

“He’s still getting up to speed. He knows he’s some way off where he needs to be physically.

“But the quality he does possess is of the highest order.

“You could see with his free-kick, there aren’t many players at this level who could finish as well as that.

“There’s a balance with him. We’ve got to make sure that he’s right and it’s quite a long process because he’s had a bad injury.

“But you can see glimpses now the fitter he gets.”

City assistant boss Chris Lucketti in the dug-out last night (Image: Thomas Gadd)

Reaching the semi-finals for the first time has kept alive a season which many fans fear has been drifting away. City have dropped to 18th in League Two with an eight-point gap to the play-offs.

But Lucketti insisted nobody is throwing in the towel.

“While it’s still possible, we know we’ve got to pick up more results in the league. We’re not crazy.

“We’ve had some good performances barring Saturday. It is the final moment in front of goal when you look at the chances we’ve not been able to put in the back of the net.

“With the additions of Jake Young, Chappy getting up to speed and Tyreik (Wright) coming back, those are going to add to the quality we need in front of goal.

“This is a big football club and there’s an expectancy. We’re expectant people.

“We know the fans are and we all want to be successful together.”