Gary Bowyer hoping Bradford’s winning culture continues

Posted Sunday, October 13, 2019 by PA

Bradford boss Gary Bowyer hopes the winning culture continues after seeing his side move up to third in Sky Bet League Two following a 2-1 victory over struggling Morecambe.

Two second-half goals from Hope Akpan and Aramide Oteh saw the Bantams overcome a battling home side who dropped to the bottom of the league despite a late consolation goal from Tom Brewitt.

Bowyer said: “It’s five wins from seven now but we will continue to go game by game.

“The players are beginning to get a winning culture and I think you saw that today.

“We are going into a busy period of games now and we need people in the squad to grab their opportunity when they get it and that is what we saw today.

“We have had to make a few changes in the past couple of weeks but we can see now there is competition for places and it is up to the players to fight for those places and they did that today.

“It was a bit of a cagey game like I knew it would be. People wrote the headlines in midweek about this being a banana skin but I knew it would be tough.

“But we got our goals and got two goals ahead and should really have killed the game off with a couple of extra chances that we didn’t take.

“To their credit Morecambe never gave up and they had some great chances and we were concerned at the end as they keep fighting and wouldn’t die.”

After Bradford’s second goal, the home side dominated play with Kevin Ellison heading against the crossbar and the visitors clearing an effort off the line before Richard O’Donnell made a stunning save to deny Cole Stockton before their late consolation.

Morecambe boss Jim Bentley said he felt his side deserved more from the game as they slumped to the bottom of the table.

He said: “It is only the second time we have been bottom since I have been here and it is hard to take.

“It’s not nice but we will stick together and do all we can to fight our way back up the table.

“Today summed our season up really. We made a couple of mistakes and were punished for them while we created a host of chances and only took one of them and that is killing us.

“The first half was pretty even and their best chances came when our attacks broke down and that is what happened early in the second half when we got caught out on the break.

“That lifted the away following and gave them a shot in the arm and – although we responded well – we let them in again by giving away a really poor second goal that could have been avoided.

“From there we had one off the line, hit the post and hit the bar and we couldn’t have done much more than we did to get back into the game.”