‘A team is going to take a hiding from Bradford City’, warns Derek Adams

The Bantams dominated their League Two opener at Exeter City but had to settle for a 0-0 draw and despite creating almost twice as many chances as Nottingham Forest in the League Cup, they were beaten 2-1 on Wednesday night.

Whilst critical of his team’s finishing, manager Adams could see positives too.

“The number of good chances we had was heartening but we’ve also got to take them,” he said. “We had double the attempts on target that Nottingham Forest had (9-4) but they were clinical.

“If we score, you know what the confidence is like in the team – you saw that when we got our goal and we just kept on going.

“A team is going to take a hiding from us because we’re so on top of the game – Exeter on Saturday and then Nottingham Forest. Somebody is going to take four or five.”

Adams was pleased both with the mindset and football of his side, who conceded two first-half goals to Joao Carvalho but responded with a Callum Cooke free-kick in the second half.

“It shows you they can compete with Championship players,” he said. “That’s important for your mentality.

“They’ve shown how they can come back from two goals down. They’ve still got that willingness and belief in their ability to do that and that’s important.

“The way we passed the ball and stopped Nottingham Forest at times was good, as was the amount of chances we created. To do that we had to open up the defence, they are good Championship defenders, and we did that well.

“We had the better opportunities on the night but they were able to put the ball in the back of the net twice.”