Bradford City boss Graham Alexander not fooled by Rotherham United's lowly position
BRADFORD City manager Graham Alexander says he is reading little into the wretched run of weekend opponents Rotherham United - and says he didn't have a clue about it in any case.
Both Yorkshire rivals come into the game at Valley Parade in decidedly contrasting form.
Whereas high-flying City won three of their four matches over Christmas and New Year and have triumphed in six of their past eight League One outings, the lowly Millers are in the midst of an atrocious sequence of six straight defeats.
Equally, Alexander (inset) is conscious of not putting too much stock into results in any case. In the reverse fixture in October, a gritty point for Rotherham - then also in poor form - was the precursor to an upturn.
Alexander said: "I didn’t have a clue about their recent run. I’m so insulated into getting our best performance, our track record, our history and making sure we’re in the best possible condition. It really doesn’t make a difference to me. I’ve been in football too long to look at a team’s past games.
“One game can change the season for any team either way. We go hell for leather on one game at a time and then assess the next one.
“We will always plan around what Rotherham’s best game will look like and can we overcome it, not when they are making mistakes. Because of the play-offs, the season has life for everybody for a long time. We’ve only just reached the halfway stage.
“We’ve seen it ourselves last season where we hit the ground from halfway. It can happen for anyone.
“Rotherham have got good players, they’re motivated, they gave us a really tough game in the last one which was a really valuable point, so we’re up for the challenge.”
City's record of goals from corners and set-plays - including Aden Baldwin's cracker at Blackpool - has caught the eye of late, but Alexander stressed there has been no extended focus.
“We’ve been doing what we’ve been doing all season," he added “We work on ideas, we look at data on the opposition set-piece wise and ours.
“It can happen like that where a streak of goals can come from it. But we haven’t changed anything we’ve been doing all season.
"What we saw on Sunday, especially with Aden, was brilliant technique. That was nothing to do with me, Chris (Lucketti) or Doyler (Colin Doyle) or Truey (Mark Trueman – that was down to the player and his skillset.”