Derek Adams admits Bradford City ‘got what we deserved’ in defeat to Leyton Orient

Second-half goals courtesy of Ruel Sotiriou and Harry Smith saw the Bantams’ unbeaten start to the League Two campaign brought to an end.

City had won three in a row heading into the game and were enjoying their best start to a league season since 2016 but Adams had no complaints as his side tasted defeat.

“I didn’t think it was a great game in the first half where there were two teams cancelling each other out but over the 90 minutes Leyton Orient deserved to win the game,” admitted Adams.

“In the second half they were the far better side and took more of their opportunities.

“They started on the front foot and it was only a matter of time as they created a good number of opportunities but we allowed them to do that.

“We gave three passes away in midfield, three separate players that did that and they took advantage.

“We tried to change it to get players forward but that didn’t work either and you could see it was Leyton Orient the team that were going to score.

“The pitch was longer than usual, they changed their style and it worked well for them.”

The result leaves Bradford third in the league table behind Yorkshire rivals Harrogate Town and Forest Green Rovers, who saw their perfect start to the league season ended by a 2-0 defeat to Port Vale.

Bradford City: O’Donnell; Cousin-Dawson (Crankshaw 63), O’Connor (Kelleher 84), Canavan, Ridehalgh; Songo’o, Watt (Lavery 63), Cooke, Vernam; Gilliead, Cook. Unused substitutes: Hornby, Foulds, Evans, Scales.

Leyton Orient: Vigouroux; James, Wood, Happe, Clay; Smith, Archibald, Pratley, Beckles; Sotiriou (Omotoye 77), Kyprianou. Unused substitutes: Byrne, Kemp, Papadopoulos, Sweeney, Ogie, Nkrumah.

Referee: S Mather (Atherton).