a month later, McCall offered to resign if they did not reach the play-offs after his side lost 4–1 to AFC Bournemouth – their fifth consecutive away defeat. "Nobody is hurting more than me but it's as simple as that, if we miss out I don't deserve to be here," he said. City eventually missed out on promotion, but McCall decided to stay on as manager and took a voluntary pay cut in the process because of the club's budget being reduced. As a result of the cuts, McCall made a number of changes to his squad during the summer of 2009. His team started the 2009–10 season by going four games without scoring, until they recorded a 5–4 victory against Cheltenham Town. After the game, McCall said: "That was the youngest, and certainly cheapest, team Bradford have put out for a long time and I'm really proud of them." City continued by going ten games unbeaten and reached the area semi-finals of the Football League Trophy where they lost to Carlisle United, managed by McCall's friend Greg Abbott, but at the start of 2010 found themselves 16th in League Two and eight points off the play-offs after a run of five defeats in seven games. McCall laid down a challenge to his team to win three of their next four games, saying: "The bottom line is that the players and me personally will get judged on results. And the results aren't good enough." Despite the club's slide down the table, he denied he would resign, but it was reported that two late goals from summer signing Gareth Evans to give City a late 2–1 away at Torquay United saved McCall from being sacked. However, defeat to Bury in the club's following fixture was McCall's last game as manager, with McCall saying after the game: "It's time for somebody else to come in and take up the reins and hopefully do well." He won a little more than one-third of his 133 games in charge of City. McCall left by mutual consent. Motherwell After leaving Bradford, McCall spent some time out of the game before being recruited to work as a scout for Norwich City by Rangers former chief scout Ewan Chester. At the end of 2010, he was among a number of men interviewed for the managerial vacancy at Scottish Premier League club Motherwell to succeed Craig Brown, before