Bradford City’s fringe players have had their chance to impress, says Derek Adams

Manager Adams had planned to make 10 changes from Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Barrow, although that became nine when Alex Gilliead had to come in for Caolan Lavery, injured in the warm-up.

The second-string players lost 3-0 to Manchester United Under-21s, their second defeat by that margin in this season’s competition.

“People are clamouring to be given opportunities and they’ve had that,” said Adams, who has already used 25 players in all competitions this season. “They can’t say to me that they haven’t had any game-time.

“I’ve given every single person at this football club an opportunity. I’ve seen them – the players that were here last year and the ones who have come in.

“We only had three new players in the team (from the start on Tuesday) so that shows you how much we’ve got to change going forward.

“I’ve come in and assessed it. I know what I’ve got to do to go forward and nobody can have any complaints.”

The Bantams actually played well up to a point for Tuesday’s first 45 minutes but the game ran away from them as soon as Yann Sanogo’o deflected Charlie Savage’s shot at the start of the second half into his own net.

Tuesday’s players might point to the fact they have not played together often enough, but Adams was not prepared to read too much into that.

“There is a factor in that but my eyes don’t lie,” he said.

“I see on the training field how things go. Other people don’t get to see what I do and that’s why I’ve been picking the teams that I have.

“On the training field, these are the players that I feel have done well.”