DAVID Hopkin felt City should have got a point from their 2-1 Valley Parade loss to Sunderland.

Defeat dropped the Bantams, who saw Jack Payne miss a penalty, back into the bottom four. They also had Sean Scannell sent off in added time.

But Hopkin thought their performance was worthy of a share of the spoils against the team tipped to win League One.

He said: “I hate getting beaten and I don’t think we deserved that.

“The players are very disappointed. We kept it positive and put attacking players on to see if we could get something from the game.

“A 2-2 draw would have been a fair result. We showed we could compete with them.

“I’m delighted with the performance of the players. I think Sunderland have got away with one today.”

City were unhappy with Sunderland’s opener, claiming Josh Maja handled as he diverted the ball past Richard O’Donnell.

Anthony O’Connor equalised early in the second half but they then allowed Sunderland to quickly restore their lead through Jack Baldwin.

Hopkin added: “I asked the players at half-time if we could get the next goal and we did – then we switched off for five or six minutes and conceded again.

“But credit to the players and Jack was brave enough to take the penalty. I thought after that we continued to press and try to get something.

“You’re always at your worst when you score a goal and these are things we need to manage better.

“But it was a fantastic effort from the players when you see we’re down to the bare bones.

“Losing Sean Scannell for three games is another massive blow for us.

“We’re going to be down to 16 players, which is very tough for anybody. But if I get a response like that from the players every week then I’ll be happy.”

Hopkin admitted he did not get a good view of Scannell’s shove which led to his red card. But he felt referee Anthony Backhouse was too keen to make the call having already dismissed Sunderland’s Max Power.

The City head coach said: “I couldn’t really see it. I just thought he was trying to get the ball off the player.

“But some young referees are naïve and get sucked into these things.

“You get four or five Sunderland players around the ball and before you know it, you’re a man down. I just thought he tried to even things up.”