Portsmouth goalkeeper Alex Bass pays tribute to Bradford boss Mark Hughes as the ex-Manchester City manager turns to old club Southampton for replacement

After finding opportunities limited during the first half of the season, the 24-year-old was sent to League Two to gain valuable minutes.

Just a month into his temporary Yorkshire stint, though, the man who opted to sign him - Derek Adams - was replaced by the former Manchester City boss.

However, the dugout change didn’t impact his minutes on the field, as Bass started all of the 58-year-old’s 13 games in charge at Valley Parade.

This has led to the Blues academy graduate singing his praises, despite the short time under his stewardship.

Bass told The News: ‘It was a real honour (to play under Hughes).

‘If you look at his career, he’s never managed outside of the Premier League. For him to come down and manage Bradford, it was a shock for a lot of people, including myself, and I didn’t expect it at all.

‘He was a great guy and manager, who had his philosophy on the game and he tried to implement that at Bradford.

‘I thoroughly enjoyed my time working under him and I can’t say a bad thing about him. I thoroughly enjoyed working under him.’

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With Bass returning to Fratton Park this summer, the Yorkshire side have wasted little time in finding his replacement.

As he begins his Bradford rebuild, Hughes has raided former club – and Blues’ arch-rivals – Southampton, for 24-year-old stopper Harry Lewis.

As a result, the ex-Southend loanee has set his sights on succeeding Gavin Bazunu as Pompey’s number one.

That’s something Bass says wouldn’t have been possible without the trust he was given during his loan tenure.

He added: ‘The loan will be absolutely massive for me, I think and it came at the perfect time,

‘Last season was going to be a big season for me and I needed to show everyone what I could do, and that I was fully over my injury and I could play over 20 games towards the end of the season.

‘It was massive for my career and when I look back on my career when I’m older, I’ll definitely think back to my Bradford spell and how massive it was for me.’