Bradford City manager Graham Alexander only needed a week's training to stamp his mark, says defender Matty Platt

Centre-back Matty Platt thinks it was midway through Alexander’s second game in charge when things began to click.

Alexander lost his first after being chosen in the protracted search for Mark Hughes’ replacement, and his new team were 4-0 down at Notts County live on Sky Sports halfway through the next.

The Bantams could not turn the game around – although they scored twice and had chances for more – but have won every match since.

“We were struggling at half-time,” reflected Platt, pictured, who came off the bench at that point. “I am a big believer you can only effect things in front of you and you can’t change what has gone on.

“At half-time, the aim was just to win the second half and as it turned out, we probably could have drawn the game if we’d taken a couple more chances (they lost 4-2).

“It gave us a bit of belief that we are a good team and we’ve gone on a great run of form since. You’d say that was probably the point where we have kicked on from.”

With nearly 400 games to his name even discounting a spell with Motherwell, Alexander is an experienced Football League manager and Platt said he was able to get his ideas across very quickly.

“Maybe (after) a week of training,” he said. “We’re all professional footballers and a lot of us have experienced different styles of management. We can all relate in certain ways from past experiences.

“It might take a week or two weeks max but we then got a good idea of what he wants. It’s then trying to take it into games. You can train as much as you want, but it only gets tested when you go out there on a Saturday.

“We’ve now adapted to the way the gaffer wants to play, that’s shown from the results we’ve had. We’ve had a good run of form.

“It is a bit more tricky during a season. When a manager has four or five weeks in pre-season, you can really drill it and go over it and you also have pre-season games to practise what he wants. It’s a bit more difficult and you can’t go into Saturday, trying different things out.”