SHELL-SHOCKED Graham Alexander admitted City lost their intensity as they fell to Crawley’s stoppage-time double blow at Valley Parade this afternoon.

The Bantams conceded a late equaliser having fought back from behind to lead – and then let in two more in time added on.

Alexander said: “The scoreline doesn’t reflect the overall game but we have to take it on the chin.

“We changed our mindset after going 2-1 up and allowed them to come back in.

“There was almost a sigh of relief after we got in front. But that has relaxed our minds and we went about it the wrong way with the way we finished the game.

“We went to protect the lead instead of staying on the front foot. We became flat as a team.

“We became a back five with too much space for the midfield to cover and they played through us and got the equaliser.

“It was a real harsh lesson for us in how good we’ve been at pressing teams and not allowing them easy space. It was too easy for them to play through our team.

“We’ve been so good at being aggressive in our pressing. Sometimes you make mistakes and get away with it but we haven’t done that today.

“It was like, ‘right, let’s get behind the ball’ and that’s now how we play or defend. You could see it.

“The players sensed it themselves and were voicing it after the game. ‘Why did we take a step back?’

“They know what they’ve done negatively and hopefully we’ll remedy it and continue what we’ve been doing ever so well in the previous games.

“It’s a lesson if you learn from it and get better. If you don’t, then that’s what we are.

“We didn’t look like a good team in the last five to 10 minutes. We looked ragged and that’s not us.”

Jake Young was not involved in the squad after complaining of an ankle issue in training yesterday.

The striker was recalled from his Swindon loan earlier in the week and is subject of interest from a couple of League One clubs.

Alexander added: “Jack came back on Thursday and didn’t train.

“He came out on Friday to train as normal but pulled out with a niggle maybe 10 minutes in.

“He reported that he’d had a niggle maybe three or four games ago with Swindon. He carried on playing with it and obviously told us about it.

“That’s why we left him out of training to give him that extra day.

“But 10 minutes into training on Friday he said it was too sore to continue, so we cracked on with preparing for the game.”