Bradford City boss Graham Alexander hails near 'perfect night' after Carabao Cup progression at Leyton Orient
BRADFORD City manager Graham Alexander hailed a near ‘perfect night’ after his much-changed Bantams side booked a place in round four of the Carabao Cup with a 3-1 victory at League One rivals Leyton Orient.
City earned their fourth round place with goals from Will Swan, Stephen Humphrys and Nick Powell.
Despite going behind to a Macaulay Gillesphey own goal, Alexander’s much-changed side – incorporating 10 changes from the weekend win over Mansfield Town with all their outfield players being switched – dominated the second half at Brisbane Road to run out comprehensive victors at the start of a run of three successive away matches.
Alexander, whose side now travel to Notts County and Luton Town in League One, said: "I’m so pleased with tonight, it was almost the perfect night to see the team compete like that with so many changes.
"We were excellent, there were a few moments at the start where some of the lads were a bit rusty because they’ve not played much football.
"But we got into the swing of the game – in the second half we created numerous chances to score more than the three goals.”
Gillesphey sliced the ball past Jon McCracken into his own net on 39 minutes, before Swan tucked his effort past Noah Phillips before the break.
Back-in-the-fold Humphrys, subject of deadline-day interest from Wigan Athletic, curled a header past Phillips on 58 minutes, before Powell netted late on with a volley to give Bradford a deserved win.
Orient head coach Richie Wellens rued the way his makeshift squad squandered their advantage.
He said: "For 60 minutes I thought we were the better team, their (second) goal came out of the blue. And then we lost our way for a bit.
"We threw a team together tonight, a few players playing out of position. But that was enforced, because we needed to protect some players.”