GARY Liddle denies that City are developing a phobia about playing at Valley Parade.

But he hopes the three-game road trip coming up can get results back on the rails before they return to home soil a week on Saturday.

Part one of the double header against MK Dons takes place tonight, with a trek to Colchester sandwiched in the middle before next Tuesday’s rematch in the Capital One Cup.

After losing three in a row at home in the league for the first time in Phil Parkinson’s reign, the pressure will be off on their travels.

But Liddle sees no reason for anybody to start fretting about games on their own patch.

The midfielder said: “We shouldn’t be afraid to play at home. We’ve had three difficult results but it’s a great arena to perform.

“We beat Leeds and Coventry there and those bred massive confidence. But the Yeovil game was very difficult to take – not just for the fans but the players and staff as well.

“Saturday was tough because we’d built up all last week towards that game. To see all that hard work not come to fruition was very frustrating.

“You get teams like Swindon who can get the ball down and play football and then they do you from two set-plays when it’s just man versus man.

“Any successful campaign is built on solid home form, in the league especially. We haven’t had that yet this season but there are plenty more games to come.

“Speaking to the other lads, I know they are desperate to go back in front of those fans and really perform.

“There are 12,000-13,000 who splash their hard-earned money every week to come and support them.

“They deserve to see Bradford City winning football matches and we haven’t done that recently.”

MK Dons present a fierce obstacle but City’s best recent showings have come on the road against Crawley and Rochdale. Liddle sees an opportunity to claw back some of those lost points.

“There’s no tougher place to start – or a better one. It’s a good stadium with a massive pitch and we’re up against a team always up and around the play-off area.

“They’ve never changed their style of play from the day they were formed.

“It will give us time to play our stuff which I think we’ve come away from a little bit in the last few games. We build our team play on movement and high pressure play.

“We are underdogs with the form they’re in and the results we’ve had, so there’s nothing to lose.”