PHIL Parkinson reckons City have had a season to savour despite falling short of the play-offs.

Yesterday’s 1-0 win at Crewe earned them seventh spot – their best finish since their relegation from the Championship in 2004 – four points behind the top six.

Billy Clarke’s 14th goal of the campaign sealed a ninth away win and left the home side clinging to League One survival thanks to other results.

Parkinson said: “You always want more but that’s the same with every manager in the country.

“Jose Mourinho has won the (Premier) league with Chelsea but I’m sure he’ll look back and think ‘could we have won the Champions’ League and the FA Cup?’

“But you’ve also got to be realistic when you reflect on things and this group of lads have given us everything.

“There is a core of players in the club who are Bradford through and through and give it all for the shirt every time they pull it on.

“Since getting beaten by Bristol City, which was obviously a blow and we lost the play-off dream, we set the mini-target of beating the points tally from last season and finishing as high as we could.

“Now we look back and we’ve got the club’s highest league position for 11 years and were FA Cup quarter-finalists. If you take everything into consideration, that’s a great achievement.”

Crewe twice dropped into the relegation zone during the second half because of scores elsewhere before eventually staying up at Notts County’s expense.

Parkinson was pleased that City were not distracted by the occasion and stayed switch on to end with back-to-back clean sheets.

“Everything we’re all about was on show – the resilience, the strength of character and the quality as well when we had the ball.

“We’ve added those technical players to our game this year like Billy Clarke, who gives us that little bit of extra X factor.

“He’s had a good season and there are not many better strikers at this level. He’s not just someone who can score, it’s his all-round play.

“He gives the opposition problems. We set up for him to dictate play and the more Billy got on the ball, the more concerned Crewe got.

“They threw caution to the wind but we stood strong. We played some good football at times and had other chances to extend the lead but it was a professional, resolute performance.

“I thought the discipline of the team was great.

“We came here with our own motivation. We knew that Crewe would be pumped up for the game and it would be one of the biggest crowds they’ve had all season.

“There were a lot of elements that maybe could have made the day difficult but we rose above them all.

“Eight points from the last four games takes us into the summer in a positive fashion.”

Parkinson is now waiting to hear what will happen with Gianni Paladini’s proposed takeover.

“It’s out of my hands,” added the City boss. “But obviously I think we’ve got a decent core of players.

“We want to improve, like everybody wants to get better. We’ll endeavour to do that but we can only do that when we know who’s going to be in charge of the club.

“When that decision is finally made, we can move forward.”