Bradford City boss Graham Alexander defends away form ahead of Barnsley derby
BRADFORD City may be fighting for promotion for the second successive season, but it hasn’t stopped their away form being cited as a key area of concern by many observers.
Graham Alexander, whose fourth-placed side face a Yorkshire derby at Barnsley on Saturday lunchtime, has stressed that his glass remains steadfastly half-full – and with good reason.
City’s total of 23 points in 21 away games thus far is less than half of their tally at Valley Parade (48) in the same amount of matches. Just six victories have arrived and ahead of Wednesday night’s action, the only top-nine team with a worse record on the road in 2025-26 were Huddersfield Town.
With a massive away play-off semi-final leg on the horizon in May should City clinch their top-six place – as most suspect – a psychological boost or two on the road would be timely before then.
Alexander is quick to venture that wins at some pretty tough venues in League One circles such as Cardiff, Stockport and Plymouth have arrived, alongside three points at Wycombe last time out.
The City manager, who confirmed that Bobby Pointon (ankle) will definitely miss Saturday's game with the club awaiting scan results, said: “The thing is, we all live in the now, without a doubt.
“You can look at a short spell, so we've won two of the last four. Then you look at the last 10 games, it's not so good.
“Then you look at the course of the season, I think we're maybe in the top 10 away from home.
“It's which bit you want, it's which block you want to take. I think what we've shown is, pre-Reading, we had a proper sit-down with the players and we looked at everything. I think since then, our performances have been reasonably good.
“Away from home, there's still little details that can go against you that we have to fix, but I think our performances have been reasonably sound up to a certain point.
“I think the players understand that there's certain different little aspects that change from Valley Parade to an away fixture. I think we have the mental and technical tools to be able to actually make them happen in our favour.
“You can take the whole season. I think we haven't been as bad, but what it is, it's been condensed into a really short, tight period (seven losses in eight in winter).
“That's why it potentially looks worse than it is, but I think we've done okay in the main.”
Despite the game being televised, City will be backed by a sell-out travelling contingent of over 5,000 supporters at Oakwell as the club visit Barnsley for the first time in over six years.
The same amount of fans made another short away trip last month, this time across the Pennines to Wigan Athletic when City lost 2-0 in a below-par performance.
On whether his players will have an extra motivation to atone for that result, given events in Lancashire on March 14, Alexander continued: “I think we haven't got to use a game five or six weeks ago, whatever it was, to make up for that and do it here. I think it's brilliant when we walk out of the tunnel and we feel the emotion and hear the crowd and you see the numbers.
“I think the initial sort of view is great because you know how many we've got with us.
“Then the next image you want is the picture at the end of the game when we're with them celebrating,” he said.
“There are moments in games where that support base 100 per cent helps and supports us and keeps us going. I think the supporters understand that our team always gives its best but doesn't always succeed. We get that.
“But I don't think you can ever look at our team over the course of a game and say: 'well they're not even trying'.
“I don't think that's ever been put on our team for the last two years.”