Bradford City boss Graham Alexander's tactical message to Antoni Sarcevic and his view on Mansfield Town win

City produced a strong offensive display in the first half and led thanks to a splendid acrobatic effort from Antoni Sarcevic on 18 minutes.

Stags keeper Harry Lewis, who was promoted to the starting line-up after Liam Roberts were withdrawn following the warm-up, made a clutch of key saves to keep the visitors on the game.

On the resumption, the visitors pressurised a City line-up including debutant George Pratt much more, but the hosts saw the game out to claim three points and get back on the winning trail following losses to Plymouth Argyle and Cambridge United.

Alexander said: “I think the performance was as good as it was on Tuesday. We were obviously clinical with the goal and really solid at the back. That was the biggest thing.

"I thought we created a lot of moments the other night as well and chances to score. I don't think we were as assertive in the final third on Tuesday as we should have been (in the first half) and as we were in the second half and we showed the players the contrast there.

"I thought we were today.

"You saw in the first half the amount of real clear-cut opportunities and obviously Sarce's goal. We should have been two or three up at half-time, but the keeper's made a couple of good saves. So there was a little bit of frustration that we didn't have another one at least.

"But in the second half in how we had to defend, we had to defend the box a lot. I thought we let too many crosses in, to be honest, so that's something we have to improve on.

"But when it came into the box, there was a lot of good defending from everybody. At set pieces from the forwards who came back and the midfielders in picking up good positions and second balls. We had to see the game out.

"I can't remember too many opportunities for us to score in the second half, but you have to give Mansfield credit. They've got good players and obviously a good manager. “They can score a lot of goals. They put you under a lot of pressure. They get a lot of bodies in the box. Whenever they're in those crossing scenarios, they commit to the box.

"They get four and five right in the width of the post and you're just going to have to go up against them and make the first contacts and land on the second balls. And I thought the players were absolutely superb. If we'd have done that on Tuesday, we would have won that game as well.

"So that's a lesson for us. But we're imperfect. We're humans and we know where we sort of let ourselves down on Tuesday.

“But when I watched the game back the next day, the performance was really, really strong. Really good. We just had two mistakes that cost us the game, which can happen."

"But I loved the players' belief and resilience to go again today. And the first half was some really, really good football. Sarcevic’s strike was beauty, finishing off superbly after Jake Beesley won two headers following Josh Neufville’s high cross.

The City chief added: “There was a lot of moments where we've got him behind them. One-twos and third-man runs and stuff like that. I think it was great to see, but there was something for us to learn from on Tuesday.

"Tactically it’s about keeping players in certain areas so we can attack the box better and sort of keep Sarce running into those central areas rather than on Tuesday.

"I showed him some clips yesterday, he tended to be running into wide areas, but he's not going to score from those areas.

"So it's about trying to be disciplined in his movements and trust the players in the wide areas to do what they need to do. Because that's where he (Sarcevic) has proven for so long how good he is.”