Bradford City v Gillingham: Why the top end of League Two table is an irrelevance to Graham Alexander

Ahead of Friday night’s game between Newport and Chesterfield, just six points separated first place from mid-table - a ‘good week’ in league terms.

It has reinforced the view of many who opined that the fourth tier would be very open in 2024-25, before a ball was kicked in August.

Alexander’s Bradford City side are positioned handily, moreso given the disruption they have faced, but the last thing he will be doing is getting side-tracked by the standings.

He simply has too much on his plate and a difficult opponent to deal with in the here and now in Gillingham.

Alexander said: "There was a lot of talk in the summer about the big financial clubs going through the league and into the next division and it being a bit more of an open playing field. Whether that is the case long term, we’ll see, but it looks similar to that at the moment.

"I’ll be honest, I don’t know the top six, it’s irrelevant to me. I know we’re seventh.

"I know where we want to be, points-wise, roughly and where we have done well in and out of possession and where we have to improve. For me, that’s the things we have to focus on as players and staff.

"If we look at the league table now with 30-odd games to go, you are putting yourself through a lot of unknown thoughts. We have to focus on the here and now.

"We could be sitting here saying: ‘The division’s open, it’s a right chance for us.’ But I am telling you now, there’s 15 or 16 clubs thinking the exact same thing. We have to earn it as much as anybody else.

"We’ve made a solid start and navigated throughout a really difficult period for us as a team. The players deserve great credit for that. But we are also working on where we can get better."

Encouragingly, the evidence of this term is showing that City are displaying an ability to handle disruption, a key part in any successful side and Alexander has certainly been pleased on that count thus far.

He added: "We saw on (last) Saturday that Byrner (Niall Byrne) was in the team on Friday.

"Friday night - nothing and then Saturday morning, we have to change.

"That’s the need to be prepared both as a staff and players. They have to be ready to play and the majority are.

"The team and squad have done really well and carried the torch in recent weeks."