GARY Bowyer rapped his City side for conceding “soft” goals in their 2-1 loss at Crewe.

James Vaughan had headed them in front from a rebound after Jamie Devitt’s shot was tipped on the bar. But the home side hit back through Charlie Kirk and Tom Lowery as the Bantams were beaten for the second week running.

Bowyer said: “We looked comfortable, were controlling the game and scored a good goal.

“It was a fantastic strike from Jamie. I don’t know if it went over the line in the first place but it was brilliant centre-forward play from Vaughany following it in.

“We gave them one or two opportunities on the counter from careless play ourselves, which should have been a warning.

“But then we get a throw in the bottom corner, it gets cleared and then we don’t deal with it well enough. The lad has a free run from inside his own half.

“They were the two softest goals that you’ll see. Don’t get me wrong, their second was a great strike but how they get out of the corner and he gets to turn like that is just not acceptable.”

City switched formation to 3-5-2 with Paudie O’Connor coming in as the third centre half.

“I thought it worked well in terms of how we went about it,” added Bowyer.

“It gets you two up the top, and you also keep men in the middle of the pitch.

“The formation is irrelevant when you allow them to get out of that bottom corner or allow their lad to run like that. It’s just poor defending.

“I thought the response after the second goal was good. Clayton (Donaldson) had a great chance with his header narrowly wide.

“Harry Pritchard and Callum Cooke gave us good control in terms of getting back in the game.

“Harry has his big chance from Kelvin Mellor’s cross and then Paudie should score.

“We should have scored more with the chances we had.

“We’ve got to dust ourselves down and get ready for the cup game on Tuesday but really focusing on Saturday when we’re at home to Northampton.”