BRADFORD Town boss Danny Greaves concedes any hopes his side have of finishing in the top two in the Toolstation Premier Division this season may hinge on Saturday’s crucial home clash against Willand Rovers.

The Devon outfit, who sit second behind leaders Street, already boast a six-point advantage over fourth-placed Bradford, so defeat for Greaves’ side at Trowbridge Road would leave them with a sizeable deficit to claw back over the final two-and-a-half months of the campaign.

Greaves is counting the cost of a 5-2 victory at home to Bridport last weekend, with top scorer Sam Jordan out injured and captain Ricky Scott a major doubt.

Martin Lenihan is also unavailable on Saturday so Greaves knows Bradford will have to pull out all the stops to keep any top-two ambitions they may have alive.

“It’s one we really need to win. If we lose, we will be nine points behind and although that is not insurmountable, it makes it much more difficult,” said Greaves.

“Willand are a good side so it will be a tough game and we are carrying a few knocks from Saturday and are down to the bare bones almost.

“They have the luxury of being able to call on a few Southern League players who are dual-registered, whereas we will be a bit of a threadbare squad.

“We know it is going to be a difficult game but we’re looking forward it.”

The win over Bridport was the perfect response for Bradford following the ending of the FA Vase adventure in the last 16 away at Yorkshire outfit Marske United the previous weekend.

The Bobcats only led 2-1 at half-time courtesy of Jordan’s penalty just before the break after Karim Rendall saw his opener for the home side cancelled out by Leighton Thomas.

A second for Rendall and one from James Moon pushed Bradford clear in the second half and although Kameron Andrews’ strike gave them food for thought late on, Will Hailston sealed the win in stoppage time.

Greaves said: “It would have been nice to push on in the Vase and try to get to the latter stages but we were back to our bread and butter, which is the league.

“It is always hard to say how the players will react after a disappointment as there was a bit of a buzz created by the Vase, so you can get a low afterwards. If I am honest, we saw that on Saturday.

“We were a bit sluggish and took a while to get going and were maybe a bit lucky to be in front at the break.

“We had a chat with the boys at half-time and we really stepped it up in the second half and I am delighted that we ended up scoring five goals to come away with a really good win.”