Graham Alexander on Bantams' last friendly at Altrincham

The Bantams face Altrincham this afternoon in the final pre-season friendly.

All eyes will be on Graham Alexander’s team sheet with the campaign curtain-raiser at MK Dons just a week away.

But while the line-up at the J Davidson Stadium should give a good indication of the manager’s thinking, he insists it is not guaranteed to be the same when the real action kicks off.

READ MORE: Bantams boss banks on long-term benefits from Austria

Alexander said: “I’ve gone into the last game of pre-season and made changes after that, sometimes more than one or two.

“Nothing is set in stone. We’ll play the game and then go through it afterwards and assess things.”

Jake Young and Clarke Oduor did not feature at all in the midweek win over Sunderland.

But Oduor had played 82 minutes in the game against SV Ried II in Austria and Young over an hour.

Alex Gilliead came off the bench on Tuesday after starting in Austria (Image: Max Lomas)

Alex Gilliead, who played the last 25 minutes on Tuesday, had stayed on the pitch for the entire contest in Obertraun.

“We took those two games so some started the last one in Austria and they got equal minutes with those who started the other night,” added Alexander.

“Over the two games we got a lot of minutes into the whole squad, so we did even it up over the course.”

Alexander knows the players named to start against the National League side today will sense they are in pole position to stay in at Stadium MK.

“I won’t be able to stop them doing that. It’s a habit and I was the same when I was a player.

“But if I went back and checked my last 10 or 11 final pre-season games and compared the team with the first game of the season, you’ll see the majority of the time there were a couple of changes.

“Things like someone not reaching the level we expect in that game or another player that has trained really well can make you decide into a last-week change.

“The players need to go into this game and make sure they keep up their own standards. That’s all we ask for.

“If the performance against Sunderland on Tuesday night is anything to go by, then I’m sure they will.”

Altrincham, who are managed by the "other" Phil Parkinson, finished fourth in the National League last season.

They were beaten in the play-off semi-finals by promoted Bromley.