Saunders awaits spark

The Bradford City striker Dean Saunders believes his side's below-par performance in the first leg of their Intertoto Cup tie against Zenit St Petersburg will spark them into positive action as they attempt to overturn a 1-0 deficit at Valley Parade tonight.

The Bradford City striker Dean Saunders believes his side's below-par performance in the first leg of their Intertoto Cup tie against Zenit St Petersburg will spark them into positive action as they attempt to overturn a 1-0 deficit at Valley Parade tonight.

Bradford had earlier recorded four successive wins in the competition, over Atlantas Klaipeda of Lithuania and the Dutch side RKC Waalwijk, but Zenit easily outplayed Chris Hutchings' side in Russia two weeks ago. "I knew it would be like that," Saunders said. "When you are away from home all of a sudden these teams turn on the style, and it's as if you're playing Real Madrid. In the first half we were peppered. We couldn't get near them, and I was out there just chasing shadows. Lee Mills and I just didn't enjoy that game."

Saunders says the first leg was made more difficult for several reasons, not least having to get up at 4am to fly out to St Petersburg and the fact Zenit are already halfway through their season, but he feels the defeat will do Bradford good in the long run. "Hopefully we've learned from it," he said.

With a place in the final round against either Aston Villa or Spain's Celta Vigo up for grabs, Bradford are again without Wayne Jacobs and David Wetherall because of ankle injuries, while Andy Myers is out with a thigh strain.