MARK Hughes admitted City were too easy to defend against after a toothless departure from the Papa Johns Trophy.

The Bantams were knocked out with a 1-0 loss at Salford in a poor second-round tie last night.

Hughes said: “I was disappointed in the first half with our accuracy. I thought we got in some good positions and had moments when we broke well but didn’t play the correct pass at the right time with the right quality.

“Clearly, we’ve got to be better in those moments because things just petered out for us.

“You’re not too sure as an away team how many opportunities you’re going to have. So, when you do create them, you’ve got to be really accurate and correct and make sure you get the most out of those moments.

“I just felt we were a little bit loose putting balls in when we weren’t set or players hadn’t made the run soon enough.

“We just needed to add a little bit more craft and guile at the top end of the pitch. If you rush things or delay it as we did, those opportunities don’t go your way.”

On-loan Brighton striker Lorent Tolaj scored the only goal 10 minutes before half-time. Hughes was unhappy that he had not been closed down.

“It’s a throw end in our defensive third and we’ve got to do a lot better,” he added.

“There were plenty of players in that area and we didn’t react to just a quick turn from their lad on the edge of the box and he got a shot off.

“There were very few occasions where that amount of time and space has been afforded to ourselves. So, we have to say that’s a poor mistake and it’s led to a goal.”

Harry Chapman hit the post in the second half and sub Scott Banks had a late effort tipped over the bar by Salford keeper Tom King.

Hughes said: “I thought the lads had a real go in the second half. I can’t criticise their effort in trying to make something happen.

“We huffed and puffed up to a point but didn’t have too many clear-cut chances. We didn’t work the keeper enough.

“That’s an area of our play we’ve got to improve. We’ve got to make sure we free people in good areas and fire in balls across the box and cause mistakes from opposition defenders.

“At the moment it’s a little bit too easy to defend what we produce.”

City have also blown the chance of any windfall from going further in the Trophy.

“That’s not an outlet for us and we’ve got to accept that,” said Hughes.

“It’s not like we underplayed the game. We went strong as did they - there was intent from both teams to progress but we haven’t been able to do it unfortunately.

“There’s no dispute that we wanted to progress. That was shown by the team that I picked but it wasn’t to be on the night.”