Richie Smallwood on why Bradford City players are buying into Graham Alexander's methods

The Bantams kick off their League Two campaign at Milton Keynes Dons on Saturday after a tough pre-season Smallwood says the players bought into.

"The way we finished last season gave us a lot of confidence we were a hard team to play against for anybody in the division if we play it correctly,” he said.

"We've been shown clips all the way through pre-season of the last games of the season where we went on a decent run and caused teams a lot of problems. We've just got to keep putting that into practice like we do every day."

Smallwood also saw the significance of the room-sharing arrangements.

"People had rooms with people they wouldn't normally share with so they're getting to know everybody," he said.

"I think the rooms were more based on building up a partnership with who you might be playing with. I think it was more position-based.”

It is, says Alexander, an example of the detail he goes into.

"Everything we do has a purpose," he said. "The players might not see it all the time but we think about absolutely every detail.

"We don't talk them through every decision or we'd be there all day but we do give them enough information to understand why we do certain things.

"I think they've seen the benefits already. I think they saw the benefits of the off-season programme when they came in for day one (of pre-season training), they're seeing the benefits of pre-season right now."