Graham Alexander on his up close and personal insight into the current frustration of Bradford City supporters

Sat in the stands due to a one-match suspension, the vantage point of the Bantams chief meant that he could hear and see the sense of frustration in a 1-1 draw with Barrow which extended their winless league sequence to five games.

A display where Alexander thought his side 'overthought' things in a pretty forgettable watch was compounded by the fact that 12-goal talisman striker Andy Cook, who rescued the hosts with a late leveller, received his fifth booking of the season and will miss Saturday's tough trip to high-flying Crewe.

On the agitation of fans, Alexander said: "I was one of them. The chair in front of me got booted to pieces.

“Of course there’s going to be frustration. We can see good players not playing to their full potential, the team not playing at the pace and fluidity and aggression that we usually play with.

"We all want to win. The supporters are with us and they want us to win. If I’m frustrated, then I know the supporters will be.

"I work with these players every day. I know how good they are and what good people they are.

"It’s like when you get frustrated with your kids sometimes. You love them to bits, but you still want them to do better.

"For me as a manager, it’s about controlling my emotions. But I can’t put that on the supporters as well.

"They are there to feel emotions and you can’t always direct those to positive ones if what you’re seeing isn’t good."

Antoni Sarcevic took part in a full training session on Wednesday at City, who welcomed back Alex Pattison, Aden Baldwin and Ciaran Kelly to their squad in midweek. Sarcevic has been out since August 24 with a knee issue.