Graham Alexander sees Bantams improvement from winless run

Graham Alexander celebrated his first league win in the Valley Parade hot-seat this time last year by beating Accrington – sparking a burst of four successive victories.

The Bantams could certainly do with the same against Stanley tomorrow to end a stuttering run that has seen them pick up two points from the last four games.

“It can change like that in both ways,” said Alexander.

“We’ve tried to take this group of players away from this rollercoaster of emotion where we can be high as a kite and then down in the depths.

Graham Alexander bawls instructions during City's win last year (Image: Thomas Gadd)

“We have to keep a balance so we can ride the rough patches and come out the other side stronger.

“We know where we need to improve and the wins will come. We understand the issues we have as a squad.

“When we’re winning games, we’re not blindly looking at the result and thinking everything’s great. We’re always aware of potential problems or things we have to improve upon.

“It’s the same right now. I am a harsh critic of our performances in private.

“But I also understand the toughness of playing competitive football every weekend.

“I know the difference between a player or a team that’s trying and one who isn’t, a team that’s together and which isn’t, a team that’s right on the verge and which isn’t.”

Alexander has spoken about the fine margins not going City’s way right now.

He sees no comparison between the current run of results and City’s car-crash March when they lost four on the bounce – which prompted the manager to rethink his team.

"I had to draw a line in the sand because it wasn’t good. There was no doubt in my mind that we had to change.

“But I don’t see that right now. I can see the improvement we’ve made in certain aspects of our game.

“This season, we have had a recurring issue of conceding early goals away from home.

“We worked all week before Colchester about managing that period and coming out the other side in a positive state and that’s what we did.

“We were 60 seconds away from a solid 1-0 away win. Those are the margins we talk about.

“But the players took on board everything we worked on the training pitch. They took it into the game and almost got their rewards.

“But it shouldn’t be a step back. We can see how comfortable we looked in the game – it was the 60th minute before Colchester finally had a shot on target.

“That’s improvement and gives us encouragement. We’re not perfect and there’s loads of improvement to make but the players always respond in the right way.”

City led until the 99th minute against Colchester last week (Image: Thomas Gadd)

Accrington sat bottom of League Two at the start of last month winless from their first eight games. But they have won four in eight since with just one defeat.

It sums up how tight the fourth tier is panning out to be.

“A lot of people spoke about the big spenders going out the division last year,” said Alexander.

“I think the budgets are probably a little bit closer to each other this season.

“Nobody has really put a stamp on this division yet, or maybe Port Vale a little bit just recently.

“What that does is keep everyone alive. If you’re in the bottom half, you’re thinking that no one’s running away with it.

“The gap isn’t that big and it keeps people fighting and competing.

“There’s a minimal amount of points between a lot of teams at the moment.

“We’ve just got to focus on our points tally and adding to it. Can we get stronger as a squad and a team?

“We’ve had those troughs as well. We had a really good period and now we’re in a sticky patch with the four league games.

“But I look at the team and the squad and think we can have a similar positive run again.”