Graham Alexander reaction as Bradford City beaten at Lincoln

The Bantams were outclassed by second-placed Lincoln last night as they were beaten 3-0 to slip to fifth.

Alexander admitted confidence has dipped following on from the defeats against Huddersfield and leaders Cardiff.

But he stressed they still have plenty to be proud of with what they have done so far in their first year back in League One.

Alexander said: “We’re under no illusions of the uplifting quality of individual players, teams, stadiums, facilities, infrastructures – every part has gone up a few notches.

“Everyone deserves so much credit for us to be in this position after so many games competing against these top teams that have been here for a lot of seasons or in the divisions above while we were scrapping to get out of League Two.

“The pain of defeat is still there but in a first season at a new level you have to take a bit of a wider view of where we are, without losing that ambition of trying to be competitive in every game.

“The players have shown immense mental strength and togetherness. But as we’ve seen in our time here, and at every club you play for or manage, there are periods of games when it doesn’t go your way.”

City were up against after Lincoln grabbed a seventh-minute lead. The Imps doubled their lead just before half-time with the visitors failing to register a single shot.

Stephen Humphrys had their only effort on target after the break but Lincoln scored a late third to make it 11 games unbeaten and increase the gap to the automatic positions to nine points.

Alexander added: “Lincoln were very, very good and they put you under massive pressure in your final third. Everything goes there, free-kicks from their half, long throws, corners.

“It was difficult for us to overcome that. Conceding the early goal from a free-kick put us on the back foot.

“I thought we responded all right without making an impact on their goal. But the goal just before half-time put a bit of daylight between us and for them to be comfortable.

“At the moment, we just haven’t got the speed in our play, which was big for us earlier in the season. It’s too slow.

“We have to make sure we understand how to speed our game up.

“We have to understand the level of opponents we’ve played in the last three games.

“The power of the previous two clubs everyone can see and Lincoln have been at this level for six-and-a-half years – we’ve been here for five months. That’s the reality.

“We have to compete at this level against top teams, which we have done all season.

“We’ve just come into a three-game batch where we’ve been on the wrong side of results and lost a bit of confidence.

“I still believe in this group of players. You don’t get to where we are so quickly if you haven’t got good characters and good people and haven’t done good things.

“It’s not through luck after this amount of games. We’ve taken a massive step forward from where we were five months ago and we’re doing unbelievable things that the other clubs who came up with us haven’t managed to match.”