Bradford City will brace themselves for another fight to hold onto their star player, Nahki Wells, during the January transfer window after Sunday’s hat-trick against Coventry City was seen live on television in the UK on a quiet day for live football coverage.

The Bermudian ended a scoring slump following an ankle injury by hitting his 10th, 11th and 12th goals of the season in all competitions. Scoring his goals, including an injury time penalty, on live television is bound the catch the attention of clubs in the higher divisions.

Bradford turned down an early offer from Peterborough in the summer and have already made it quite clear that their top scorer is not for sale.

An approach or two could be made when the transfer window opens in January.

His strike partner James Hanson, whose own contract expires at the end of the current season, says it is vital that Bradford hold onto Wells, whose own contract still has another 20 months to run.

“He’s played 12 games and scored 12 goals — that’s an incredible record for anyone. Hopefully we will keep hold of him,” Hanson told the Bradford Telegraph and Argus yesterday.

“It probably doesn’t help scoring a hat-trick on telly but the club have to try and keep him, especially if we can stay in a good position.

“If we’re still up there by then, we’ve got to fancy our chances to get in the play-offs at least. We’ve got to hang on to our best players to do that.

“It’s great to see Nahki back to his best form. He was just so alive with the first two goals and then showed great composure to put the penalty away at the end.”

Hanson, who had a hand in the first two Bradford goals on Saturday and then worried Jordan Clarke enough to force the hand ball that set up the last-gasp penalty.

He could have had at least one himself, when a first-half header was brilliantly kept out by Joe Murphy and another in the second flew over the bar when Hanson looked certain to score.

But any disappointment at missing out on the scoresheet himself was tempered by the deadly efforts of his strike mate, who ended a two-month wait for a goal in the most emphatic fashion to take his overall Bradford tally to 50.

“Since Nahki’s come back from his injury everybody’s saying he may not be as sharp as he was before,” said Hanson.

“I think that’s because he didn’t really train properly, having a couple of sessions here and there. It takes a while to get back to your best. But Nahki and I have had a full week’s training and you could see the difference. “The gaffer brought us in the office the other day and said how important it was for us to train together constantly because that really helps on a match day. You could see with the first goal that Nahki read that I was going to win it against the keeper and he knew exactly where to be.

“And I don’t know how he got on the end of the second and stayed onside as well. Then we got the penalty and I just knew Nahki was going to put it away.”

City have now gone seven games without a win and have dropped to eighth in the table.