Graham Alexander urges Bradford not to get carried away after beating Walsall

Jan 25, 2025 2 min read
Bradford City manager Graham Alexander (Mike Egerton/PA)
Bradford City manager Graham Alexander (Mike Egerton/PA)

Graham Alexander says Bradford must not get ahead of themselves after a convincing 3-0 win over League Two leaders Walsall.

Alex Pattison scored twice after Antoni Sarcevic got the opener to end Walsall’s 16-game unbeaten run in the league.

Bradford manager Alexander said: “With regards to playing the team top of the table and the phenomenal run they’ve been on, it’s a good win and a strong win.

“But for me, looking at my players, we approached it in exactly the same manner as we did last Saturday against the team at the bottom.

“That for me is more pleasing to see that the players are at it and up for it regardless of who we’re playing.

“That’s how we have to maintain our consistency. That’s where the results are borne out and we have to work exceptionally hard to keep that up.

“We can’t ever get ahead of ourselves. But we’ve got players with consistent mindsets.

“When players are going off skew, they are brought back into the group straight away by the experience and knowledge that we have.

“There are players that have gone the distance many times. That was why we tried to recruit them.

“When it was a difficult period for eight or nine games, we were still together and very hard to beat.”

Bradford had already hit the post through Brad Halliday when Sarcevic fired the first into the top corner.

Pattison then drilled a low shot under the diving Tommy Simkin to give Bradford a two-goal lead at half-time.

Pattison scored his second soon after the break with a superb solo effort running from the halfway line.

Walsall’s hopes of pulling one back were then denied by Sam Walker’s penalty save from Danny Johnson after Jack Shepherd brought down Ethan Wheatley.

Walsall manager Mat Sadler said: “They are a big, strong team and showed a lot of that today. They probably did to us what we’ve done to a lot of teams.

“They got the better of us and took their chances when they came. We kept going, kept fighting and moving even though it wasn’t our day and kept trying to get ourselves back into the game.

“But when the moments came, we didn’t quite take them. Credit to Bradford who put us under pressure.

“It’s another one to learn from and we’ll continue to move forward again.”

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