Alexander confident of Bantams response against Harrogate

The Bantams head into lunchtime’s Yorkshire derby at Harrogate on the back of three straight home defeats.

It is becoming a turbulent spell on and off the pitch but Alexander is backing the seasoned pros in the dressing room to stop the rot.

“If you’ve been in football for more than two or three seasons, then you must have come through a bad patch,” he said. “It’s par for the course.

“Even if you have been playing football since year 10, there’s times when you feel bad about yourself or not very confident or you are under the cosh or trying to earn a contract.

“You have to feed off those moments where you overcome those challenges and dark moments and become a good professional footballer who has been successful.

“We have players in there who have been successful in the past. Those are the guys who will know that whenever those successful seasons happened, there will have been patches in that where it wasn’t going right.

“As a group, you come together and get yourselves out of it. That’s all we can do right now.

“It’s not just about me and my staff and keeping that feeling going. It’s definitely the senior players I would look at and I think we’ve got some good ones to do that.”

City have faced plenty of flak from fans angry at seeing their team drift away from play-off contention after their Valley Parade misery. They have conceded eight goals in the last two games.

Alexander added: “Confidence isn’t just going to come back. It’s not a tablet you can take.

“You have to work at it by doing good things. It doesn’t have to be special but just good things over and over again and then your confidence comes back.

“That’s what we have got to do. I have spoken to the lads about their training habits and let’s see who trains well and let’s see who is going to go under and says: ‘what’s the point?

“You are not going to get anywhere if that is your character and personality.

“Then we go into the game and it’s the next opportunity to restore a little bit of pride and belief in the supporters and in ourselves as well.

“You can’t expect professionals who want to win to feel great about themselves when they’re not.

“I know when there’s a two-way path which way you have to walk down if you want to be better and turn it around. We’re going to take that path.

City have lost three on the bounce since beating Accrington (Image: Thomas Gadd)

“No one likes losing games, professionals, supporters, staff - the lot.

“All we can do is get our boots on, get out there and make sure we show the right character and attitude, because without that, it’s not going to change.

“The only way it starts to change is through the right actions, character and mindset to go forward.”

The Bantams boss will be watching the response closely against a Harrogate team without a win in eight games.

Several in the squad are out of contract in the summer, although City have one-year options on the likes of Richie Smallwood, Jamie Walker and Brad Halliday.

Alexander said: “We’ve been here four and a half months and are learning about players all the time.

“After the first five games, then 10 games and at this stage where it’s physically and mentally tough.

“Now we will learn about who wants to push through that pain barrier to be successful. We will be looking at everybody.”