GRAHAM Alexander is reading nothing into the form of Roses play-off combatants Bradford City and Bolton Wanderers ahead of Saturday night’s League One semi-final first leg in Lancashire.

City won three of their final 10 matches of the regular campaign, while Wanderers triumphed just twice in the same amount of games.

The Bantams had the fillip of finishing off with a dominant victory at Exeter to secure a berth in the end-of-season lottery, while Bolton lost at home to Luton on a day when a positive result could have given them home advantage in a second leg.

But Alexander, who is continuing to assess Bobby Pointon and Tyreik Wright, believes there is no psychological advantage for City, who will step out at Valley Parade for the second instalment next Thursday.

Alexander's Bradford City side visit Bolton Wanderers in their League One play-off semi-final first leg on Saturday evening. Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe

placeholder image — Alexander's Bradford City side visit Bolton Wanderers in their League One play-off semi-final first leg on Saturday evening. Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe

He said: "I don’t believe so. Whenever there are runs of form in the season, it doesn’t dictate the result of the next game for any team, unless you let it.

"I can only speak about my players and team. Regardless of win, lose or draw last week, going into the play-offs would have been a positive feeling for us and an excitement.

"I wouldn’t see that as any advantage whatsoever. All the teams in the play-offs have won a lot of games this season regardless of recent form.

"We never really look that deeply into another team’s form throughout the season anyway. I knew Exeter had won one in 19 but that didn’t make them any less dangerous."

Bobby Pointon. (Image: Jonathan Gawthorpe)

With City in action on Saturday, it has enabled their pre-match build-up to remain as normal as possible ahead of their first play-off involvement at this level since 2016-17 - which is something that Alexander is grateful for.

He continued: "There's a couple of (new) haircuts and a couple of sunbeds maybe, but I haven’t seen anything else.

"Training has been competitive - sometimes tetchy, sometimes good quality - all the usual range of emotions in a competitive environment.

"There's players wanting to play and wanting to be involved and players helping and supporting each other. I haven’t seen anything to suggest any overconfidence or lack of confidence.

"We’re just seeing this as an extension of our season. This is game 47 and that’s it.