Bradford City find winning formula through hard work, says Graham Alexander

Tyler Smith’s neatly-taken second-half goal settled Saturday’s game with Accrington Stanley in Bradford’s favour, earning City their second win in a week following the EFL Trophy win over Barnsley on Tuesday.

It’s their second win of Alexander’s four games in charge, while Smith was scoring his third goal in that timeframe.

It also ended Bradford’s four-game losing streak in the league.

Alexander, who was in charge for two of his defeats, said: “We’re really pleased. The players have worked exceptionally hard since last week to find a winning formula.

“We did great on Tuesday in the EFL Trophy and we wanted to try and build momentum in the league.

“This was a really good place to start because Accrington are a good team who will be in the play-off picture.

“It was a really hard game, really tight and we’re delighted that we’ve won it.

“We would like to have created more chances and that was our intent. But Accrington are where they are for a reason and defended well.

“They made it difficult for us at times but we did with them as well. I said to the players at half-time that this could be a 50-minute grind but it’s a grind we managed to win.”

Accrington had the best chance of a cagey first half when Harry Lewis tipped away Korede Adedoyin’s snap-shot.

Smith lifted the Jon McCracken from Ciaran Kelly’s long pass for the only goal.

Alexander said: “I thought it was a brilliant finish. I thought Andy Cook was a real handful for them to handle and Tyler picked up the spaces.”