Graham Alexander expects Bantams to pick up in hectic month

Saturday’s FA Cup defeat at Morecambe extended their struggling run to one win in seven games in all competitions.

They are straight back to league action against Barrow at Valley Parade tomorrow – with Alexander insisting the approaching mid-season market must take a backseat.

“There’s a lot of talk about January and that but we’ve got loads of games before that,” said the City boss. “I’m not looking at January.

“We’re still in a strong position in the league considering all the challenges we’ve had over the last two or three months.

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“We’ve got 30 games to go. We’ve got players we feel can help us win games right now – and that’s all I’m going to focus on.”

Owner Stefan Rupp has promised Alexander there is money to spend in the window, despite blowing a potential FA Cup windfall with the second-round exit.

But Alexander added: “I don’t want to talk about January. I don’t want to talk about improving this or that – I want to help these players fulfil their potential.

“At the moment, I don’t believe we are. There are things that we just have to tweak.

“Look at Colchester away, it goes to 10 minutes overtime. We’re losing players and they score in the 99th minute.

“On Saturday we were in full control and then the red card. This is the hand we’re dealt with.

“But I’m not interested in sulking about it or complaining about bad luck.”

City were guilty of their own downfall against Derek Adams’ side as they blew big scoring opportunities before Neill Byrne was sent off.

Alexander said: “I don’t think we’ve created as many chances as we have done but we worked a lot during the week on certain aspects of our frontline to get those sort of opportunities.

“Players get paid to go over and do the job. We can help them get into positions, which I’m really positive about and we’ll take that into the next game, but ultimately, it’s down to actions that happen on the pitch.

“We looked at how we had let ourselves down in previous games against Morecambe in the last 18 months, conceding four goals in three games in the first 20 minutes.

“We didn’t look anywhere near doing that at all. We were reasonably in control and had the good opportunities to score.

Graham Alexander acknowledges the fans after the game (Image: Max Lomas)

“We’ll just keep working with the players because we’ve got a lot of games coming up.”

City play seven league games between now and New Year’s Day as well as the Vertu Trophy trip to Stockport a week tomorrow. Alexander remains confident in an upturn in fortunes.

“We have to work exceptionally hard to turn it in our favour.

“I believe we will because we’ve got the staff and the players to do that. Then we will show our potential over the course of the next 30 games in the season.

“Our ambition is in the league and it’s still there for us.”