Bradford City manager Mark Hughes able to reflect on 'straight-forward' 3-0 win at Rochdale

The Bantams were 3-0 winners at bottom-of-the-table Rochdale, extending their unbeaten run to 11 matches. They have not lost away from home since Boxing Day, and have only conceded once in six matches on their travels.

Their away record is equal with champions-elect Leyton Orient as the division's best.

So when Sam Stubbs became the first City defender to score a goal this season, just five minutes in, there were no real dramas.

Rochdale had a couple of chances a minute apart midway through the first half until Devante Rodney hit the crossbar in the closing stages. By then it was 3-0.

Ethan Ebanks-Landell put through his own net and Scott Banks scored a deflected third.

"An early goal from a centre-half, we'll take that all day," reflected Hughes.

"We played well, I felt, and had any number of chances in that first half, we probably should have had more.

"They had a little of play in and around our box when we trying to get a little bit of pressure on them when really we just needed to stand off and wait for them to pick the wrong pass.

"That's what we resolved at half-time. Clearly they wanted us to over-commit so they could play in behind with clever passes.

"We dropped off a bit in the second half, allowed their centre-halves to have it and the only option they really had was diagonals, which wasn't really what they want to do.

"We worked that out and from that point on it was pretty straight-forward."

For a long time there was a nagging doubt that although a Dale goal did not look likely, Bradford had left themselves open to a fluke or a moment of brilliance. The second goal, after 74 minutes, put that to bed.

"When the second goal went in, the game was over," commented Hughes.

"The third totally put it to bed.

"I was really pleased, it was quite a straight-forward victory – not easy with the situation they're in and the new manager bounce they've been experiencing.

"It was a different challenge for us and we just had to work it out, which we did.

"We had great support as always and we were able to give them a good performance and a good result so onto the next one."

Bradford remain sixth in the table, two points outside the automatic places, but their momentum is building.

The top three go up automatically in League Two, with the next four teams in the play-offs.