Bantams boss: Doncaster derby game is always competitive

More than 17,000 tickets have already been sold for a fifth against fourth League Two derby that has proved fractious in recent meetings.

There was the infamous opening day of the 2022/23 season when debutant Emmanuel Osadebe had his leg broken in two places by a rash tackle from Ricky Ravenhill’s son Liam.

Alex Pattison’s campaign last year was curtailed after City’s win at Doncaster three days before Christmas. Jamie Walker also went off that night and would miss nearly three months.

It was Doncaster’s turn to suffer at Valley Parade in January when midfielder Ben Close was stretchered off in the EFL Trophy quarter-final with a season-ending knee injury.

And the last time the sides met in March, Sam Stubbs fractured his skull when he was elbowed in the head by Harrison Biggins – ruling him out for City’s final 12 games.

Alexander is not surprised by the feisty nature of the contests but insists nothing has “crossed the line”.

“It’s a Yorkshire derby,” he said. “It’s two good clubs, two competitive teams trying to win a game of football.

“I wasn’t here when Manny got injured but with Stubbsy, it should have been a foul for us. He ended up getting booked for that – and he missed three months.

“But I didn’t see any maliciousness from the opponent. It was just a typical challenge in the game – and there certainly wasn’t any malice in the challenges our players made either.

“Sometimes an unfortunate set of circumstances can lead to an injury.

“But it’s certainly competitive and I’d expect nothing else from a game like that.

“I’ve never witnessed the games going over a line that shouldn’t be crossed. It’s just two teams going at it hammer and tongs.

“That’s what the fans expect to see. That’s what we expect from ourselves and that’s we expected from the opponents on the day as well.

“Whether tomorrow is the same, you can’t tell. But I would expect the atmosphere round it to be pretty similar.”

Alexander wants City to keep their emotions in check – something he felt they did not do at Cheltenham for a spell in the first half.

“We lost a little bit of our discipline and focus because they built up a head of steam and their supporters got behind them.

“All of a sudden, it felt like they were doing good things when really they might have won a free-kick or throw-in in our final third. But it felt like they’d got on top from the crowd reaction.

Emmanuel Osadebe is stretchered off on his City debut in 2022 (Image: Thomas Gadd)

“We talked about that at half-time and we ignored it in the second half and just focused on the on-pitch stuff. We got a few of the basics right and our performance flowed from that.

“It doesn’t just have to be 18,000 to create an atmosphere round a game. We’ve seen that many times this season already in front of 2,000 or something.

“That emotional control has to be apparent in every game because English football is always competitive and there’s always an atmosphere from the supporters.

“Obviously at Valley Parade it’s probably just a little bit louder than other places. But there’s always that control we have to have about how we see the game.

“The players have learned that harshly at times, certainly at Valley Parade, which we’ve done really well at managing.”

Doncaster cross to West Yorkshire on the back of a shock home loss to Bromley in midweek. But Alexander knows it will be tough getting one over Grant McCann’s men.

“He’s been at Donny a couple of times now and done a really good job with them.

“The run they had at the end of last season to get into the play-offs was phenomenal.

“They’ll be wanting to go one better. They are one of the fancied teams so it’s a big challenge for us.”