Phil Parkinson showed his tough streak after accusing City of treating Saturday’s home defeat “like a testimonial”.

The Bantams boss was left fuming by such a flat performance as high-flying Cheltenham cruised to a 1-0 win at Valley Parade.

Parkinson slammed keeper Matt Duke for letting in a soft goal and he also revealed that Jamie Devitt had been axed from the squad for arriving late.

Duke had a poor game, diving over Kaid Mohamed’s eighth-minute strike, and Parkinson let him know.

He said: “Dukey has held his hands up but that goal has got to be saved. He’s got to do better than that.

“We’re in a ruthless working environment and it’s a dog eat dog business. It’s not worth me mincing my words.

“He knows he needs to save that. If he does, we get to half-time at 0-0 and can get the crowd behind us in the second half to have a real go.

“But conceding such a poor goal just created negativity around the ground.”

On-loan midfielder Devitt was also targeted by his angry manager, who kept the players locked in the dressing room for almost an hour afterwards.

Parkinson said: “Everybody else came down the same road he did and made it all right.”

Full story in today's Telegraph & Argus