Attacking intent 'hurt' Bradford City at Scunthorpe United, says Mark Trueman

Bradford City chief Mark Trueman urges his players on during Tuesday night's League Two loss at Scunthorpe United. Picture: Getty Images

The Bantams rattled the woodwork on two occasions in addition to spurning a number of other clear goal-scoring opportunities, but were twice hit on the counter-attack and ultimately ended up on the wrong end of a 2-0 scoreline.

Defeat at Glanford Park means that the West Yorkshiremen are now without a win in five League Two matches, and while he conceded that his side were "below-par" across the field, joint-manager Trueman believes that their slightly bolder approach contributed to their downfall.

"We talk about the identity that we are trying to create and we kind of went a little bit more attacking with it and that probably hurt us in a way," he said after Tuesday night's reverse.

"We got done twice on the counter and we have got to learn from that quickly. We'd usually be more solid and set up to prevent that.

"We need to stick to what we are trying to create and what we're trying to build and know that if we hit the performance levels that we know we can then we can beat anyone in this league.

"We were below-par for the standards we set, we know we can be better in all departments. Individually, we have got to be better both in possession and out of possession."

The only encouragement that Trueman was able to take away from City's display was that they did look a real threat going forwards.

In the first half, Charles Vernam hit the bar while Elliot Watt struck a post, then Vernam, Paudie O'Connor, Gareth Evans and Andy Cook all had clear openings after the break.

"The only positive is that we created good chances," Trueman added.

"We created enough chances to at least draw the game. If we convert them it's a different game.

"It just didn't fall for us today, and that happens, that's football. We're disappointed. You create that many chances you expect at least one or two to go in.

"We still believed even at 2-0 that we could get back into the game, we've always got that belief with the players we've got in the building but we just gave ourselves too much to do."

Defeat sees the Bantams drop to 14th in the League Two standings ahead of Saturday's trip to struggling Colchester United.

The gap to the play-off places remains at nine points.