Bradford City boss Graham Alexander rues 'poor' concessions against 'clinical' Doncaster Rovers as home run ends

BRADFORD City manager Graham Alexander felt his side paid the price for two ‘poor’ second-half concessions en route to their first home reverse since March in a 2-1 reverse to Doncaster Rovers.

Rovers, who dominated the first half, got the rewards for their efforts in the second half with breakaway goals from the outstanding Luke Molyneux and Billy Sharp, with both set up by the impressive Kyle Hurst.

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Andy Cook’s tenth goal of the campaign gave City – who made five substitutions in the 73rd minute – hope late on, but Rovers held out to secure a deserved derby win.

Alexander said: "They were more clinical with their chances than ours.

Graham Alexander, manager of Bradford City (Picture: George Wood/Getty Images)Graham Alexander, manager of Bradford City (Picture: George Wood/Getty Images)
Graham Alexander, manager of Bradford City (Picture: George Wood/Getty Images)

"The goals have really hurt us. They were two really poor ones from our perspective.

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"The clearance for the first one should be dealt with. It’s three against two and we don’t make any contact on the opponent at all through the move.

"With the other one, we’d talked about our press and one of the lads has unfortunately just switched off and they’ve broken through.

"But we’ve still allowed a top striker a free run into the box into the middle of the goals. We don’t see our centre forwards being allowed to mosey on in the box unchallenged.

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"If you saw the state of Cooky’s shirt every game, you’d realise the amount of contact he takes.

"I thought we were a little bit loose in possession sometimes in their attacking third. We didn’t secure it enough and it allowed them to hit us on the break a few times in the first half.

"We were happy to get to half-time and try to correct that. But the first goal wasn’t actually a counter-attack – it was just a boot up the pitch which we didn’t deal with.”

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On the impact from the bench, one positive for City in the final quarter, he added: "We make the subs and the response from the team was excellent. We get a goal back and just ran out of time.

"I definitely thought we were going to get another and the supporters did as well."

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