BRADFORD City manager Graham Alexander has praised the 'old-school' qualities of captain Max Power.

Good sides require a good leader and the Bantams certainly have one of those in Power, a player who takes the lead in training every day and is the first to front up during difficult moments.

In fairness, City have not had too many of those in a season where they find themselves up in the thick of a promotion fight for the second successive year.

Power and his team-mates were inactive on Saturday after the game against Rotherham United was postponed. One blessing was that, having been cautioned nine times already, Power did not pick up another, which would have seen him cop a suspension for the big forthcoming games against both Cardiff City and Huddersfield Town.

Bradford City captain Max Power. Photo by George Wood/Getty Images.

placeholder image — Bradford City captain Max Power. Photo by George Wood/Getty Images.

Alexander said: "Max is the first one to speak on everything. He’s a good talker – I saw that right from day one before he even had the armband.

"I had an open mind about it when we started pre-season. I gave the armband to several players but he was still the same.

"Max is just Max. I think he’s proud to have the armband and I know it was something I enjoyed later in my career but I was still the same player with or without it and Max is definitely the same.

"What I like about him is that he’s a little bit old school. He doesn’t want to miss any training even if he’s been advised – it’s like: ‘no, I’m going to crack on’. Chris (Lucketti) and myself absolutely love that. He buys into what we are.

Bradford City duo Max Power (right) and Tommy Leigh (left) celebrate with Bobby Pointon after a strike against Huddersfield Town in September. (Image: Jonathan Gawthorpe)

"He’s made the most of his career so far and he’s still chomping at the bit. He’s not winding down. He’s still hell for leather every day.

"He wants to win when we’re having the small-sided competitions. More often than not, his picture is being taken because he’s driving his team forward. I think that’s infectious and rubs off on other people.

"When you’re a manager, you want to look at the leaders of your group. Are they taking your message into the room when you’re not there?

"I feel we’ve been really lucky since coming here that we’ve had leaders who have done that and Max is certainly one of those guys.”