Mark Hughes delighted with Bradford reaction to early setback in comeback win

Posted Sunday, August 13, 2023 by PA

Bradford boss Mark Hughes was delighted to see his side fight back from a goal down to claim all three points – something he admits might not have been the case last season.

Goals from Clarke Oduor and Alex Pattison sealed a 2-1 victory at Valley Parade after a mistake by keeper Harry Lewis had gifted Colchester a ninth-minute lead through Joe Taylor.

Lewis was caught dawdling on the ball from a back pass as the Colchester striker cashed in for his second goal in successive games.

But the Bantams battled back to level before half-time as Oduor converted the rebound after Owen Goodman palmed away Tyler Smith’s shot.

Oduor then turned provider in the second half with the through ball for former Harrogate midfielder Pattison to score the winner.

Bradford boss Mark Hughes said: “I think we certainly deserved the victory.

“We started really strongly and then had the setback with the mistake at the back and got caught out.

“But the most pleasing thing for me was the reaction. Possibly in the past it’s affected us more adversely when we’ve had similar situations.

“We didn’t have the ability to come back when we had setbacks. I don’t think there were too many occasions last year where we had the capacity to get back into games, certainly at home.

“That wasn’t the case today. We dusted ourselves down and kept doing what we knew was going to get us back in the game.

“That’s a good trait that we are displaying to be able to come back when we’ve conceded first.

“We scored two great goals and had any number of chances as well.

“There were big performances from almost everybody. Overall, it was a pleasing day in the office.”

It was Colchester’s first League Two action of the season after their opening game against Swindon was called off half an hour before kick-off due to a waterlogged pitch.

Manager Ben Garner, who admitted it had been a “surreal” first week, said: “We had a good energy considering we played Wednesday night and had 20 hours on the coach this week.

“It’s crazy really. We’re playing two games of football in the space of three days and both went well over 100 minutes.

“We’ve got to adapt to that unless it changes.

“We weren’t far off today against a strong Bradford team that finished in the play-offs last season.

“We made too many errors and I thought they were better on second balls than us. That gave them a lot of impetus in the game and a lot of counter-attack opportunities.

“We’re a young side and we need to learn very quickly.

“There were a lot of positives. We scored a good goal and created a lot of other good opportunities – but there’s a lot we need to improve.”