Stuart McCall explained the importance of giving a number of his players 90 minutes of match action - following a pre-season trip to Huddersfield Town.
The Bantams were narrowly beaten 2-1 by their West Yorkshire neighbours, in an entertaining friendly at the John Smith’s Stadium.
But, with eight members of McCall’s starting 11 completing the full game, the City manager was pleased with the outcome.
He said: “Eight of the lads played their first 90 minutes in five months, and there were a lot of encouraging individual performances.
“You have to take into account the fact Huddersfield changed a lot of bodies at half-time. They had fresh legs on in both halves.
“A lot of our boys were hanging on, at the end. It was their first 90 minutes in a long time.
“Naturally, we are going to get fitter and then, once that comes, we will not make any tired decisions in the final 15 to 20 minutes of the match.
“Overall, looking back on the game, the lads worked really hard. The physios and coaching staff have done well with them.
“We have another game on Saturday and, hopefully, we will be able to give the lads who did not play today 90 minutes as well.”
McCall was also satisfied with elements of his side’s performance and feels they did not deserve to lose the contest.
Having taken the lead early on before conceding two, the Bantams boss is looking to cut the errors out, ahead of the start of the 2020/21 campaign.
The former Scotland international added: “There were a lot of pleasing aspects to our performance.
“We started really well, but needed to be much more clinical. We scored very early on and then enjoyed two or three good opportunities to go a couple of goals ahead.
“We gave the ball away and let them score with what I am pretty sure was their first attempt.
“Sloppiness came into play in the second half but, if we can create as many opportunities at our level as we did today - against a Championship side - I will be more than pleased.
“Overall, I am disappointed to lose. I do not think we deserved to lose the game, if you look at the opportunities both sides had.
“There is lots of stuff to work on but, other than that, it was a really good exercise for us."