GRAHAM Alexander says City must ditch their “yo-yo” habits if they want to become proper League Two challengers again.

Saturday’s comeback win at Salford was their third in four games to continue the mini-revival in the closing weeks.

The Bantams cut the gap to the play-offs to five points with the 2-1 victory at the Peninsula Stadium. But with only three to play and five teams between them and seventh place, it remains highly unlikely they could sneak in.

Alexander has been pleased with the response to the March meltdown that killed their hopes of mounting a late challenge.

But he admits City must learn to cut out the huge peaks and troughs that have marked his time in charge so far.

“That’s where our improvement must be in our consistency,” said the Bantams chief.

“We’ve done it before. We’ve won six on the bounce - but then not won for eight.

“We’ve won four out of five and then not won for four. Now we’ve won three out of four.

“If we want to be in that top level, we have to have longer periods (of consistency) and not have such a yo-yo experience.

“It’s okay winning six on the bounce and then you don’t win for two before you start winning again.

“Not winning for eight, though, is not good enough.

“I said it two or three weeks ago but there are a lot of inexperienced players in our team right now with not too many games under their belt.

“There are five or six players with less than 30 English league starts. They are learning about how to find that consistency.

“It starts in their training, in their mind, their habits, their discipline – that’s how you find it.

“If you are going to be up and down every day, you’re going to be up and down in the season.”

Three wins from the remaining fixtures against Walsall, Barrow and Newport would see City end with 69 points – the same tally that the 2013 managed on their way to League Two play-off success.

Alexander added: “I just want us to make sure that we follow on (Saturday’s) performance next week. That’s all I’m doing.

“I think maybe our downfall has been looking too far ahead when we are on these winning runs, looking at what it could possibly mean in the future instead of focusing on the next challenge.”

Daniel Oyegoke and Tyreik Wright are both being assessed after going off in the second half.

Alexander said: “Dan had a bit of cramp at half-time and Tyreik as well.

“Tyreik coming off was definitely precautionary but Dan just had a little twinge so we’re hoping we brought him off before anything significant happened.

“It would be a shame if any of those guys had to come out of the team because they’ve been superb.”