GRAHAM Alexander wants City to savour that winning feeling again after getting his first league points in charge.

Tyler Smith’s well-taken goal sunk Accrington at Valley Parade to end a run of four straight losses which had seen the Bantams drop to 19th in League Two.

It was third time lucky under Alexander, who could sense the immediate lift in mood around the ground.

“You could feel it round the changing room, the stadium and on the bench,” he said. “We’re in the game to win and compete.

“We work exceptionally hard during the week and you want reward at the end.

“We’ve got to enjoy that feeling. I’m not one for just parking wins and forgetting about it.

“But when we wake up tomorrow, we’ve got a game to prepare for on Tuesday.”

After the 5-1 thrashing of Barnsley in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy, City had to work for their win in a tight encounter against John Coleman’s Stanley.

Alexander added: “We’re really pleased. The players have worked exceptionally hard since last week to find a winning formula.

“We did great on Tuesday in the EFL Trophy and we wanted to try and build momentum in the league.

“This was a really good place to start because Accrington are a good team who will be in the play-off picture.

“It was a really hard game, really tight and we’re delighted that we’ve won it.

“We would like to have created more chances and that was our intent. But Accrington are where they are for a reason and defended well.

“They made it difficult for us at times but we did with them as well. I said to the players at half-time that this could be a 50-minute grind but it’s a grind we managed to win.

“We have to learn to win first and win in different ways. I think if we get a bit more confidence about ourselves, we’ll create better chances.

“The attacking intent from the team has been there in previous games and it was today but we came up against a good opponent.”

Smith’s goal, clipping the ball over the keeper from Ciaran Kelly’s long pass, was his third in City’s four games under Alexander. The City boss felt he worked well again alongside Andy Cook.

“It was a brilliant finish. I thought Cooky was a real handful for them to handle and Tyler picked up the spaces that he created.”

City restricted Accrington to few opportunities as they claimed a first clean sheet in the league since last month’s 1-0 win at Wimbledon during Kevin McDonald’s caretaker reign.

Alexander said: “If you want to be successful, you can’t just be good at one end. You have to have both sides of the game.

“We want to be an attacking team. We’ve shown that in the previous two or three games in how we played.

“We didn’t have as much attacking threat. But always we must balance out how we defend.

“I do believe in defending as far away from our goal as possible and I thought the press was really good.”