Graham Alexander annoyed as Bradford City pay price for starting on the back foot

Christian Doidge put the relegation-threatened visitors into the lead from a corner inside the first minute and from there they were able to frustrate Bradford, suck the energy out of the Valley Parade crowd, and nick a second in stoppage time when Doidge converted a penalty.

The way the opener came about clearly annoyed manager Alexander.

"It probably took the wind out of our sails a little bit with the game the way was managed after that, certainly in the first half, and how slow it became," he said. It was in front of them and gave them the opportunity to play the game they wanted by playing so deep and blocking up all the space we need to try and create.

"We played at a pace that they were happy with.

"We thought we had possession and control of the game but it's what they wanted, they were in control of the pitch by letting us have it where they wanted us to have it.

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"In the second half we got into much better areas and into those tight spaces but we just couldn't find the quality we needed.

"It's not so much the corner, any team can score off a set piece and it's a good delivery to an experienced centre-forward, it's how the corner's conceded.

"When they take the kick off and play it forward 50 yards we're 20 yards deeper than where the ball lands. That's not us. Everything we do is on the front foot so we need to get to the bottom of that because it's something we don't see very often."

"We eradicated the early goals that were putting us under massive pressure at Valley Parade a couple of months ago and we've had a brilliant defensive record in that aspect but our lack of a consistent clinical edge – because we certainly had one on Saturday – is hurting us. Here, I don't think we've scored the goals our play has warranted over the last 10, 12 games

"In the second half we were good in spell in terms of creating chances but played into their hands a little bit by just putting high balls into possibly the biggest centre-half in the Football League.

"We should have got behind people and get the ball closer to people and we didn't do that enough but it's very difficult with a six, seven-man defence."

Bradford already had work to do to squeeze into the play-offs but with the gap extended to seven points and his team down to 13th, Alexander is not giving up hope, as he cannot.

"I still believe there's an opportunity there, it's going to be extremely difficult<" he said.

"I knew it was going to be right to the wire even if we won our next four or five games but we can't give goals like that away. It was the perfect thing for Forest Green to get that goal and get us frustrated, get the crowd frustrated and drag everything down to a slow tempo.

"We allowed them to do that by the goal we conceded so we have to fix it and be better in the final third, not just the forward players."