DAVID Hopkin saluted his first win as City boss and said: “It’s what we’ve deserved over the last few weeks.”

Jack Payne’s first-half penalty proved enough to beat Wimbledon as the Bantams defended strongly to claim a second successive clean sheet.

Hopkin said: “I’m delighted for the players.

“It’s something they’ve deserved over the last three or four weeks and tonight we were magnificent to a man defensively.

“I just asked the back four that we needed to defend set-plays and crosses. I thought the defence and Richard (O’Donnell) were magnificent.

“We lost Jim (O’Brien) and had to put Anthony O’Connor into midfield but the players were fantastic.”

O’Brien went off after half an hour with a hamstring injury but Hopkin highlighted the performance of O’Connor, who denied Jake Jervis with an athletic clearance off the line.

Hopkin added: “I thought it was in but Anthony’s fantastic in reading situations like that.

“He played a captain’s role tonight, starting centre half and then going into centre midfield.

“We lost Eoin Doyle just before kick-off because he was still feeling his back.

“With the presence and deliveries that Wimbledon had, it was important to try and get as much height in the team as I could.

“That’s why I played Kai Bruenker and I thought he did well in his first game for a few months.”

City won it with a penalty after George Miller was tripped by Deji Oshilaja. After seeing legitimate calls for spot-kicks dismissed in the previous three games, Hopkin appreciated the irony.

“It’s probably the weakest one we’ve had over the last few weeks,” said the head coach. “The boy just stuck his leg out and George went over it.

“But we’ve earned that and I changed the shape three or four times to make sure we saw the game out.

“The fitness levels were great towards the end and we harried and chased every ball.”