Why Pointon had to wait for his chance in Bantams friendly

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BOBBY Pointon's delayed entrance to City's first pre-season outing was planned.

Graham Alexander used 24 players against FC United of Manchester yesterday with nobody featuring for more than 45 minutes.

Alexander switched the team around at half-time but Pointon did not appear until the 64th minute when he replaced Clarke Oduor, who had come on at the break.

Brad Halliday, Josh Neufville and trialist Jack Hunt all played for half an hour sharing the right wing-back role while the rest got a whole half.

Alexander said: "All the changes we made were planned before the game.

"Clarke's fine. Obviously, he finished the end of last season not being fit and that went into the summer.

"He's trained every day but it's similar to Brad (Halliday), who's missed a couple of days in pre-season.

"Josh Neufville's played all the way to the play-off final, so he only had three weeks off. Bobby has missed three or four days.

"It was just about trying to identify players who were a bit behind the rest of the group.

"We want them all to get the game exposure. They'd be gutted if they trained for a few days and didn't get this game.

"They all want to play the football. But we've managed the load with the players to make sure we all have a complete week and we get as many to this point as possible.

"We had 24 and a few more on the bench."

The City boss confirmed Lewis Richards is continuing his recovery work from the serious hamstring injury that ended his season prematurely. He is expected to sign a new deal.

Aden Baldwin was also missing along with long-time absentee Andy Cook.

Alexander added: "Lewis is still injured, that's why Cooky (Andy Cook) was not here, that's why Aden Baldwin was not here. They are still in their recovery period so all three were not here.

"Aden picked up a calf niggle before pre-season in the last week of his off-season. He's not trained with us at all but he's expected to be on the grass next week.

"Obviously everyone knows about Cooky and Lewis from last season. All three have got their own programme and worked with someone at the training ground instead.