Bradford City: Alexander backs strikers after Young exit

Young finally sealed his Valley Parade departure with a move to Stevenage late on deadline day.

But the Bantams boss is confident there is enough firepower in his squad to cope with losing another striker.

Olly Sanderson, City’s recent loan recruit from Fulham, got his first goal in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Grimsby.

Alexander said: “We’ve got the three that were in the squad on Saturday. We’ve got Jamie Walker who’s played up there in his career already and played there for us in the game we had behind closed doors.

Jake Young signed for Stevenage late on deadline day (Image: @StevenageFC)

“We’ve got Vadaine (Oliver) and Tyler Smith. We’ve certainly got enough personnel to compete so it’s down to them to show who wants to be in the team.

“It was great for Olly to get off the mark after coming on at half-time.

“He’s got good movement and we brought him in for a reason. His link-up play’s really good and we just want to make sure he stays in those aggressive positions up top to be able to do what he did.”

Young joined Stevenage too late to feature for them against Lincoln in League One. But Alexander was relieved to see the long-running saga brought to an end.

“It’s gone on since before Jake came back in January,” he added. “He’s moved on and I think it was the right thing.

“How it transpired in the last couple of weeks showed me that it was time for him to leave. That’s how it is.

“I’m glad it got done in time. Jake’s got what he wanted and I think we’ve still got a really strong squad.

“He hadn’t really played a part for us since January anyway because of the injury and so forth.”

Oliver is back in full training after going through the concussion protocol following the head injury he suffered at Grimsby in the Carabao Cup.

But Alexander is unlikely to risk him against Newcastle under-21s in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy at Valley Parade tomorrow.

Vadaine Oliver is back training again after his concussion (Image: Thomas Gadd)

“Vadaine got fully cleared on Friday morning after he had gone through the full protocol. He had to tick a box every second day.

“He finally headed a ball on Friday so he should be fully fit now. But he’s not really trained with us as much.

“He has done the last three or four days but before that he missed a week and he was relatively drowsy. We’ll just see how he is.

“There are a couple of boys with bumps and bruises, so we’ll assess them and then pick the team for Tuesday.

“Obviously, we have to pick up the performance level from Saturday.

“We’ve done brilliantly and the players have been exceptional in the run we’ve been on. We’ve got to make sure that’s a dip and a sore one for us.

“But good teams recover and show character and personality. That’s what we have to show tomorrow.”