Bradford City boss Michael Duff on 'bitter pill' of derby defeat to former club Huddersfield Town
BRADFORD City chief Martin Duff admits that his side’s 3-0 derby loss to Huddersfield Town constitutes a ‘bitter pill’ to swallow following a second half when everything went wrong for the hosts – in his view.
The game remained evenly balanced at the break, despite Town leading through a fine overhead strike from Joe Low inside four minutes.
The reasction of City – who would have moved level on top with the Terriers at the League One summit with victory – was a decent one, but two quick-fire strikes early in the second half from Town’s deadly duo Derensili Sanches Fernandes and Joe Taylor ended the derby as a contest.
Matters were latter compounded for City by the dismissal of captain Antoni Sarcevic following tewo bookable offences, while interval substitute Adam Phillips limped off late on with an injury.
Duff, who was serenaded with unflattering chants during the second half from Town supporters, commented: “It’s a bitter pill. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong in the second half.
"I thought we’d been the better team in the first half. We were on the front foot and most of it was spent in their half.
"They’ve scored from a centre half putting an overhead kick in the top corner.
"We started the second half well for three minutes and then we take a short corner for some reason. It’s two individual errors in two minutes and the game’s almost dead at that point and then the red card.
"Their first three shots went in. One’s an overhead kick in the top corner, the other two have gone through Jon McCracken’s legs but there are errors before that.
"We shouldn’t have taken a short corner (ahead of the second) and then the third goal, we’ve given them the ball twice. One thing we do know is that they are devastating on the turnover.
"So it’s a bitter pill to swallow. You’ve just been beaten 3-0 by your local rivals.
"But it's not like we've been terrorised from minute one to minute 90. First half, we were the better team. I don't think that's me being biased, there's numbers that will tell you that.
"But 3-0 invokes reactions and emotions, so people will say you must have been battered. In the end, we have been, because we're down to 10 men and we're 3-0 down.
“But there's reasons for that. We've had a lot of games this year where we've conceded a lot more than three shots and not been 3-0 down.
"You've got to suck it up. The last half an hour, you've got people wanting to get after the ball, but you don't want to turn it into a four, five or six.
"It’s frustrating because you're at home against your local rivals, but you can't go after them at that point, because you're 3-0 down and down to 10 men.
"That's the horrible bit, because supporters want you to go after everything, but we've got to be careful.”
City return to action next Saturday when they host Marine in the FA Cup.