Bradford City manager Graham Alexander happy for fans to 'get carried away' as Bantams eye first title in four decades - but the players won't be

Talk of a first championship since 1984-85 is rapidly doing the rounds among the claret-and-amber faithful and should their side’s magnificent League Two form continue well into this spring, it will reverberate loud and proud across the West Yorkshire city.

For his part, Bantams manager Graham Alexander, whose side set a club record of 10 successive home league wins in Tuesday night's 3-0 victory over Cheltenham, has no truck with success-starved followers getting carried away, more especially given the club's previous well-documented struggles to escape English football’s fourth tier since 2019-20.

What he can promise is that his players, in what is proving to be a truly outstanding squad effort, will retain focus and leave others to get giddy.

City’s midweek win was their 12th in a remarkable 15-game sequence since Christmas - regardless of venue.

Their latest triumph saw them move to within two points of faltering leaders Walsall, who drew at basement club Carlisle United, managed by ex-City chief Mark Hughes.

On the growing expectation and fervour among supporters, Alexander, among the nominees for the League Two manager of the month for February - the winner will be announced on Friday - said: "I am not going to try and manage that.

"I want supporters to believe, be excited and get carried away and be singing the songs they were singing and go home happy and excited about the next game. I want all that and am not going to even attempt to dampen that sort of energy down.

"But inside the changing room, I am. It’s about us and our results. Don’t start that.

"I know people will do it and everyone around you. I got a text from my missus after the game as well.

"Inside, we are professionals and make sure we only focus on the next game. If we even, for a second, get distracted, we are only going to do ourselves a disservice and not justify all the work we have put in from day one of pre-season.

"Everyone else, get excited. I hope they are."

A tenth home success in a row was secured thanks to a brace from George Lapslie, his first goals for the club since arriving in early January and a strike from Michael Mellon.

It took City’s number of home points this season to 45, the same total as Leeds United and Birmingham City - leaders of the Championship and League One respectively.

Victory was achieved without the influential duo of Antoni Sarcevic and Alex Pattison, with the pair set for spells in the treatment room.

Sarcevic is sidelined with a hamstring injury, but he could return later in the run-in, as could Pattison, who faces a period out after having his appendix removed.

Meanwhile, left wing-back Lewis Richards (shoulder and hamstring) will miss the rest of the season and is likely to require two operations.

Despite their stunning recent form, the ability of City - who lost talismanic striker Andy Cook for the rest of the campaign following knee surgery in January - to share the load has been their biggest core strength and must continue to be in the key weeks ahead.