GRAHAM Alexander has thrown his support behind Ryan Sparks as the City chief executive faces mounting anger from fans.

Sparks was targeted for stick at the Harrogate game – along with absent owner Stefan Rupp – and a further protest is planned outside Valley Parade before kick-off tomorrow.

City’s shocking recent form has triggered the frustration against the club’s top brass at seeing another season in League Two drift away.

“If things aren’t going right on the pitch, then someone’s getting it,” said Alexander.

“That’s not bespoke and unique to Bradford City. That’s throughout my 35 years in professional football, someone’s getting it.

“Sometimes it’s the players, sometimes it’s managers, sometimes it’s people above that.

“My experience in my four-and-a-half months is that Ryan has supported me, allowed me to manage, allowed me to pick the team, allowed me to coach, allowed me to make the decisions I wanted to in January.

“It’s just part of the game and unfortunately it happens.

“I don’t know enough of the last five years to have a massive opinion of why Ryan or Stefan might get stick.

“I’ve tried not to delve into three, four, five years ago because it’s not my concern.

“I can’t affect it and I don’t think it’s going to help my job. What I try to do is create a team that wins, and we’re still trying to do that, and that relieves the pressure off everybody.

“It gets the Bradford fans believing that we can do something good in the long term.”

Alexander had his usual post-match conversation with Sparks after the Harrogate game and the pair met up again at the training ground for a couple of hours on Monday.

The Bantams boss understands how hard it can be to deal with the abuse.

“Take it from me, I’ve heard everything and it does hurt.

“You become immune to it. You have to do that.

“There are tough times in life and you have to understand that they will come, especially if you want to be in professional sport.

“I think I said in January that as manager you have people around you – CEOs, sporting directors, head of medical and stuff like that.

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“We all believe that we’re the experts in our field and then we have to help each other in all the other aspects. All those departments have to come together to create a winning football team.

“As much as Ryan supported me, I’ve supported him. He knows it comes with the territory.

“But from my perspective, he’s a guy who works exceptionally hard to make Bradford City a better football club with whatever we’re dealt with. We have to work with what we’ve got.

“We might put on a brave face and deal with it. But we’re human beings and if you care about your job and trying hard to produce results for people, then criticism is going to hurt.

“I didn’t go too deep into it with Ryan. We were talking more about solutions to help the team win rather than ‘woe is me’.

“It was more a conversation about how do we get to where we want to be as a football club. That, for me, is the best way to behave.

“Sitting there moaning about everything, what is that? That’s not a life.

“It’s about how do we help Bradford City become the team and the club we want it to be.”