Graham Alexander feels Bradford were good value for his first league win

Posted Sunday, November 26, 2023 by PA

Graham Alexander thought Bradford were good value for his first league win in charge after they beat Accrington 1-0.

Tyler Smith’s well-taken goal in the second half – the striker’s third in four games under the new manager – proved enough to end the Yorkshire side’s four-match losing streak.

Alexander, who had lost both of his previous league outings, said: “We’re really pleased. The players have worked exceptionally hard since last week to find a winning formula.

“We did great on Tuesday in the EFL Trophy and we wanted to try and build momentum in the league.

“This was a really good place to start because Accrington are a good team who will be in the play-off picture.

“It was a really hard game, really tight and we’re delighted that we’ve won it.

“We would like to have created more chances and that was our intent. But Accrington are where they are for a reason and defended well.

“They made it difficult for us at times but we did with them as well. I said to the players at half-time that this could be a 50-minute grind but it’s a grind we managed to win.”

Accrington had the best chance of a cagey first half when Harry Lewis tipped away Korede Adedoyin’s snap-shot.

Ash Taylor headed wide early in the second half before Smith struck the decisive blow, lifting his shot over Jon McCracken from Ciaran Kelly’s long pass.

Alexander added: “It was a brilliant finish. I thought Cooky (Andy Cook) was a real handful for them to handle and Tyler picked up the spaces.”

Stanley manager John Coleman was frustrated that his side failed to follow up their previous win over Wrexham.

He said: “We didn’t perform to the heights we did last week. We didn’t show the same spirit and you can’t put your finger on that.

“We defended very well first half and looked comfortable. We got to half-time 0-0 in front of a big crowd and half the job was done.

“But we didn’t come out second half. We gave up possession to them for 20 minutes and a lot of free-kicks came into our box.

“Then the goal we’ve conceded – we’ve conceded ones like that four or five times this season.

“A ball up to the edge of our box, their player jumps into ours, we’re going backwards, they get onto the second ball and lob the keeper. That’s happened a few times this season.

“It’s disappointing because we haven’t learned our lesson.

“We didn’t work their keeper. One header that was comfortable for him to save but we huffed and puffed.

“Bradford have leaked a lot of goals of late and they’ve got a comfortable clean sheet today that they shouldn’t have.”