The Bradford City players ran out for the second half at Notts County with boos ringing in their ears from the away end, after the fans had seen their side go into the break 4-0 down.

City seemed galvanised by that, as well as tactical switches at the interval, and hit back to record a semi-respectable 4-2 defeat.

But while that anger raining down from the stands at half past one was justified, it must have hurt the Bantams players.

Reflecting on that chastening re-entrance to the pitch at Meadow Lane, City midfielder Alex Gilliead said: “The fans will let us know when we’re not doing well, and they’re entitled to.

“We know we’re not doing well at the minute, so we’ve got to look at ourselves as professionals and do well for ourselves.

“We had to come out and show a bit of passion and pride within ourselves after the break and I felt we did that.

“It felt like we created some good things, so hopefully we can take some little positives out of that second 45 minutes.”

City would be sensible to harness those positives, but they needed to show something after that embarrassing first-half display.

Asked how it felt to be realistically out of the game after only 45 minutes, Gilliead said: “It’s extremely difficult and disappointing.

“Being 4-0 down, it’s one of those situations where you can come out and totally go under, or show a bit of character and try to get a bit of pride back, as a professional and as a team.

“It’s difficult to say we did well, because they were 4-0 up at half-time, but I felt we came out in the second half and created some good chances, scoring those two goals too.

“There were a few positives in there after the break, but we know the first half was nowhere near good enough.”

One of the main positives was City’s high-intensity press, which had Notts County all at sea defensively in the second half.

Gilliead said: “We were playing against a good team and in the first half we let them have a lot of the ball.

“They cut us open and when you give good players like that time on the ball, they will create things.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: This was an all too familiar scene for the City players and fans in the opening 45 minutes.This was an all too familiar scene for the City players and fans in the opening 45 minutes. (Image: Thomas Gadd.)

“In the second half, we put a bit more pressure on them, and when you put pressure on any player, they’ll give the ball away and make mistakes.

“But we need to know to do that from minute one.

“It’s not just this week we’ve let in an early goal (to David McGoldrick after five minutes), because we conceded against Barrow after 20 seconds last weekend as well.

“It’s something we need to improve on and we have to be in teams’ faces from the start of games.”

Discussing the mood in the Bantams camp after yet another defeat left them 19th in the table, just six points above the drop zone, Gilliead said: “We know we’re not doing as well as we want to be and we’re not where we want to be in the table either.

“But we know we’ve got a good team and a lot of lads in there from last year who got us into the play-offs.

“We had a good season and we’ve added some good quality to the squad over the summer.

“There’s no reason why we can’t turn the season and around and get some good results on the board over the next couple of weeks.

“We’ve just got to get that winning mentality back.

“I think Tuesday’s game (against Barnsley in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy) is the perfect opportunity to get that winning mentality back.

“It can help us build some momentum. If we get those wins coming, it starts to breed confidence within the lads, and we can go from there.”