Bantams boss pleased to have Neill Byrne back in defence

The Irishman had missed four games since limping off just 20 minutes into the Walsall defeat.

But his return coincided with the Bantams rediscovering their winning ways against Newport.

“He is a good talker and can organise players,” said Alexander.

“When we recruited these players in the summer, we pretty much knew what we were getting.

“We didn’t gamble. We had a profile of what we needed to go with the players we’d already retained.

“He gave us attributes we felt weren’t there.”

Byrne and Ciaran Kelly were both injured in the same first half against the Saddlers.

Having lost Aden Baldwin in the previous away game at Grimsby, that left City with loan duo Cheick Diabate and Jack Shepherd as the only fit centre halves – forcing Alexander into a formation switch.

That’s why Byrne’s very vocal presence in the heart of defence again has been greeted with open arms.

The City boss added: “It wasn’t just missing one player when he was out for a few games.

“It was a snowball effect, three senior centre halves who had been playing so regularly and three attacking midfield players.

“It’s a big chunk so it was hard to pin it down to one individual.

“But he was a welcome addition back after a tough couple of weeks.

“It would have helped Jack and Cheick just settle into their game instead of trying to lead each other when they’ve got enough on their plate in a different formation that we hadn’t trained for.

“Byrner likes the responsibility. He took it on his shoulders to relax those two guys especially.

“If you look through the spine of the team the other night, you’ve got Sam (Walker) in goal, Byrner, Richie Smallwood and Andy Cook right through the middle.

Neill Byrne provided vocal support playing alongside Cheick Diabate (Image: Thomas Gadd)

“There’s a lot of experience but there’s also a lot of vitality and youth on the outside of them.”

City looked more like their old self in recording a first win for five league games.

As they prepare to build on that at Tranmere this weekend, Alexander admitted the injuries had not knocked the team off their axis.

“I’d have been surprised if it didn’t. But I still wanted to compete and win the games in which we did have to change.

“I still believe that team was good enough to win those games but we needed more time to prepare and coach them and train together in that specific formation.

“We never really got a composed and comfortable spell in a game to get the ball rolling.

“We were hit hard really early in those couple of games and under the cosh straight away.

“I think you saw the other night they are good players who can still contribute to winning teams.

“But we did all our work on this way of playing and then it’s just slightly skewed.

“Maybe we got a bit too confident after Mansfield because that was the first game we went to it and we won 3-0.

“We didn’t have any choice because of the players we had. But it probably made us relax a bit more than we needed to and we needed to be more detailed in our stuff.

“But we can only go off what we see and that was a really strong performance.

“It wasn’t specifically about the formation but the things we do in that.

“These things come to test us but as a group and individuals, we’ll be better for it.”

FLASH SALE: Enjoy all our City coverage, and the rest of the T&A ad light, for just £5 for 5 months or 40 off the annual subscription by clicking HERE