Mark Hughes pleased Matty Platt’s red card did not come back to haunt Bradford

Posted Wednesday, November 09, 2022 by PA

Mark Hughes was delighted Matty Platt’s confusing sending off did not come back to haunt Bradford in their 2-1 win at Mansfield.

Skipper Richie Smallwood and goal machine Andy Cook put the high-flying Bantams two goals to the good as they struck either side of half-time.

Platt was sent off just after the hour and Will Swan gave the visitors a scare when he struck.

But the battling Bantams held on for a hard-fought win as they closed the gap on the automatic promotion places to two points.

“Unfortunately the referee played a hand,” said Hughes.

“I’m not sure if anybody could understand why he deemed to give Matty Platt two yellow cards and a sending off.

“It completely changed the game at that point. We were in total control and the ascendency.

“That just put us on the back foot. We didn’t see it coming and didn’t understand why it happened.

“We conceded almost immediately after that and I think we were still a little bit in shock at the decision from the referee.

“From that point onwards we understood what was needed and what we had to do to protect the result we deserved.

“We dug in, everybody played a part. In all honestly, even though we were down to 10 men they didn’t have a great deal because of our shape and our desire.

“Credit to the players, I was really proud of them and proud of the response of the fans as well, they were magnificent tonight.”

Nigel Clough’s side missed the chance to fire themselves back into the play-off spots and sit a point off the pace.

The Stags boss said: “I don’t think we did enough in the first half.

“We gave a ridiculous goal away to go 2-0 down and ultimately that’s what cost us the game.

“We were trying to build up a head of steam and that second goal absolutely kills us.

“I didn’t think we made good enough decisions when they had 10 men. I think we should have got the ball wider quicker, especially in the last 15 minutes.

“I don’t think we created clear-cut stuff. We need to go back to what we were doing in getting people into the box.

“We encourage them all the time to get the ball in the box, but we were too patient at times and turning those opportunities down.

“We’re not getting lucky with injuries at the moment, we lost three on Saturday and another tonight.

“I think it’ll be our hardest game of the season against Rochdale on Saturday.”