GRAHAM Alexander blasted City’s terrible start at Harrogate as they slumped to a third straight away defeat.

The Bantams were two down in the opening quarter of their 2-1 loss in the Yorkshire derby at Wetherby Road.

Alexander stormed: “Starting like that is nowhere near any level of any football match.

“If it was a training session, I would have stopped it, stepped in and demanded to know what was going on.

“We can’t do that. We have to try and influence from the side but the first 20 minutes in an out of possession was nowhere near what we expect.

“We didn’t really want the ball. We didn’t play how we wanted to and like we had at Mansfield, which was the blueprint going into this game.

“All the signals from training and in the sessions were there that we were going to come here and perform.

“You saw it at 2-0 but we can’t give teams a start like that. I don’t want to take anything from Harrogate but I don’t think they did anything particularly special to score those goals.

“I don’t think we showed enough courage to do what we’d done during the week and at Mansfield. We left people isolated and didn’t give them options.

“We just didn’t play what suits our players. If you don’t do that, you’re going to turn the ball over a lot and you’re going to give the opposition time to put you under pressure.”

Andy Cook pulled a goal back – his sixth of the season – and City improved following three substitutions at the break.

But they could not undo the damage from early on as Harrogate hung on for their seventh win in 10 encounters between the clubs.

Alexander added: “We gave them too much time on the ball to pick out any pass they wanted.

“It’s an issue for us because every single day we are pressing, high intensity and trying to get the ball back.

“The goal Cooky scored is from that and the encouragement we’ve seen in actual goal-scoring from turning the ball over time and again.

“If we take a step backwards, you’re allowing them to make any pass they want and that’s what happened.

“I didn’t recognise the first 20 minutes and we have to get to the bottom of that mindset.

“The players have said that themselves. The mindset was the answer coming back.

“That’s something we have to fix. I don’t know if we think we’re any better than what we are but the first 20 minutes was a chastening performance from us.

“I thought we had enough warning signs at Walsall and Grimsby where we didn’t start particularly well on that side of it and we’ve done it again today.

“That’s three games now where the start of the game away from home has been well off.”