Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Bradford City: Graham Alexander praises Bantams response

An improved second-half performance from Bradford City saw them make it two wins out of two in League One with a 1-0 victory at Sheffield Wednesday.

Aden Baldwin scored the only goal of the game early in the second period after a lacklustre first-half display from Graham Alexander’s men.

The hosts dominated the early stages and Jamal Lowe had a chance to level in time added on but he fired wide from close range.

After the game, Alexander reflected on a much improved second-half performance.

Brilliant

He said: “It was a tough game for us tonight, which we knew anyway. We knew the atmosphere would be electric.

“It was brilliant for the players to experience and play.

“We get it at home with Valley Parade. It reminds me a little bit of that, as in how they went at us in the first half.

“I thought we didn’t handle it very well. In and out of possession, I thought we turned the ball over too many times.

“We did well to get in at 0-0 but in the second half, you saw right from the start, we were more like us. We trusted ourselves, we believed in ourselves.

“They need to understand how good they are. But only if we commit to our game.

“We can’t have a little bit of doubt that infects us, and then we just start playing off the cuff or not playing at all.

“I thought that was the case, but fair play to the players as a learning experience to be able to turn around a performance and then commit to the second half and play so well and win the game.

“I told them I’ve been there as a player. You know, when you sort of leave the game behind and you regret every bit of it and you don’t get another chance to play it – but at half-time you do.

“You get another chance and you get another 45 minutes. So let’s not regret the second half. And yeah, the players didn’t do that.”

Match action

Wednesday were left to rue their failure to score when they applied some strong early pressure, with Barry Bannan and Louie Barry both threatening.

Bannan shot wide before testing Jon McCracken with a shot which was beaten away by the keeper.

Matthew Pennington then nicked the ball away from Barry inside the area as he threatened to score before the 23-year-old also put a curling effort just off-target.

However, Baldwin struck two minutes after the restart, finding the net with a volley after Ibou Touray’s corner was headed on by Pennington.

Joe Lumley kept out Jake Beesley’s header and saved Adam Phillips’ defected effort while Josh Neufville shot narrowly wide.

Lowe could have snatched an equaliser right at the death after a long throw was headed on by substitute defender Ricardo Santos into the path of the Jamaica international.

But after chesting the ball down and gaining control, he spurned the chance.

Not strong enough

Wednesday boss Henrik Pedersen admitted that they were “not strong enough” in the second half.

He said: “I’ll start to say what was good in the first half. I think we were stronger in the first half than we have seen before this season.

“I think we were very strong on the ball, we were strong in our press, we were strong in the verticality when we won the ball.

“So there was a lot of trust, a lot of belief from the first half. And then, second half, what went wrong?

“We had a build up from goal-kick, we lose the ball, we get a set-piece, and then we concede again after a set-piece.

“We were not strong enough in the second half. We had also the chances in the second half to score.

“So, the second half was not good enough after a strong first half.”

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