WAYNE Thorne will assess his players’ application and preparation levels in Bradford Town’s concluding five Toolstation League Premier Division fixtures, with a view to building his 2019-20 squad early.

Both relegation and promotion are off the cards for the Bobcats this season as they sit eighth in the table on 51 points from 33 games.

Conscious of this, Thorne has set his team goals to meet before the season’s conclusion – and finishing in the division’s top six is top of his list concerning the club’s short-term goals.

Buckland Athletic and Clevedon Town – both a point ahead of Bradford – will have to be overhauled for Thorne to achieve his goal.

And he believes his targets are more than realistic, especially after Town downed Hengrove Athletic 4-0 away from home at the weekend.

He said: “I spoke to the players individually about next season.

“They’re playing for their careers, if they want to play for Bradford next season then they need to show the right application and preparation for the rest of the season to make sure they’re in the team come June.

“We want to finish sixth in the league, that’s the highest we can finish.

“Myself and the management team will try and get the maximum out of everyone.”

Matt Morris bagged a brace while Dan Cottle and Lee Davidson also chipped in as the Bobcats struck all four of their goals against Hengrove in the second half of Saturday’s contest.

A winnable tie against Chipping Sodbury Town presents itself to Thorne’s troops this weekend.

And the Bradford boss doesn’t expect any of his players to be ‘on the beach’ until the final whistle is sounded.

He added: “I’ve set the players a target and if they don’t reach that target then they will let themselves down.

“We’ll be doing everything properly until the end of the season, we’ve got everything to play for – people might look at us and see where we are in the league and presume we might slow down a bit.

“That’s not going to happen at this football club while I’m the manager. We’ll do everything properly.”

Elsewhere in the Premier Division, Westbury United were restricted to a 1-1 draw at home to Bridport.

Daniel Price opened to scoring for Neil Kirkpatrick’s United with 15 minutes played at Meadow Lane, but an injury time strike for Luke King denied the hosts all three points.