Graham Alexander thought Bradford were good value for his first league win in charge after they beat Accrington 1-0.
Tyler Smith’s well-taken goal in the second half – the striker’s third in four games under the new manager – proved enough to end the Yorkshire side’s four-match losing streak.
Alexander, who had lost both of his previous league outings, 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.
Ash Taylor headed wide early in the second half before Smith struck the decisive blow, lifting his shot over Jon McCracken from Ciaran Kelly’s long pass.
Alexander added: “It was a brilliant finish. I thought Cooky (Andy Cook) was a real handful for them to handle and Tyler picked up the spaces.”
Stanley manager John Coleman was frustrated that his side failed to follow up their previous win over Wrexham.
He said: “We didn’t perform to the heights we did last week. We didn’t show the same spirit and you can’t put your finger on that.
“We defended very well first half and looked comfortable. We got to half-time 0-0 in front of a big crowd and half the job was done.
“But we didn’t come out second half. We gave up possession to them for 20 minutes and a lot of free-kicks came into our box.
“Then the goal we’ve conceded – we’ve conceded ones like that four or five times this season.
“A ball up to the edge of our box, their player jumps into ours, we’re going backwards, they get onto the second ball and lob the keeper. That’s happened a few times this season.
“It’s disappointing because we haven’t learned our lesson.
“We didn’t work their keeper. One header that was comfortable for him to save but we huffed and puffed.
“Bradford have leaked a lot of goals of late and they’ve got a comfortable clean sheet today that they shouldn’t have.”
Trust the process, says Pickford after penalty shootout heroics for England
England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford preached "trust the process" after his penalty shootout heroics against Switzerland.
Pickford got down low to keep out Switzerland's first spot-kick, denying Manuel Akanji.
While the 30-year-old could not prevent the Swiss scoring from their next three attempts, England stayed perfect through the shootout, with Trent Alexander-Arnold holding his nerve to send Gareth Southgate's team into the Euro 2024 semi-finals.
Pickford has now saved four of the 14 penalties he has faced in shootouts at major tournaments, twice as many as all other England goalkeepers combined saved between 1990 and 2012 (two out of 36).
Images shared widely on social media showed Pickford's water bottle had a list of each of Switzerland's penalty takers, and a direction in which he should dive.
And the Everton shot-stopper explained how he had to adapt his routine slightly in Dusseldorf, though he still trusted his process regardless.
He told ITV Sport: "The referee didn't let me do my usual process so I've had to adapt. I like to give the lads the ball, it helps me with a bit of focus, and staying calm, but I could only do it on the first one – luckily I saved it!
"I trust my process, what I do, with my mentality, that I'm going to save at least one for the lads.
"But massive respect to the lads that stood up and took one and to score in the way they did – huge credit.
Two lads making their major tournament debuts in this tournament, and then Bukayo [Saka] coming off the back of 2021 and stepping up – it shows the character in our squad.
"We've got a quick turnaround but we're still here, and that's what we want and what the nation wants."
For just the second time in their 10th shootout at a major tournament, England scored every single one of their penalties in the shootout (5/5), also doing so against Spain at Euro 1996 (4/4).
Penalty shootout victory over Brazil was winning in Uruguayan style, says Bielsa
Uruguay showed their character and the national team's "style" in their penalty shootout win over Brazil, so says Marcelo Bielsa.
Fifteen-time Copa America champions Uruguay progressed to the semi-finals at Brazil's expense with a 4-2 victory in the shootout after a 0-0 draw in Las Vegas on Saturday.
Uruguay, who have quickly adapted to Bielsa's full-throttle attacking approach, had to play out the last 20 minutes with 10 men after Nahitan Nandez was sent off for a lunge on Rodrygo.
It meant the usual offensive tactics had to make way for defensive ones, though from Nandez's red card onwards, Uruguay limited Brazil to just two attempts.
"Everything that happens, happens Uruguayan style, because the players are the ones that give their all to the team," Bielsa said.
"It was a match with very little goal opportunities, highly contested, very close, even with very little changes in possession.
"When we were one man down, we decided to dedicate ourselves to defending in our half.
"So holding on to that result as the Uruguayan team did shows the profile of Uruguayan football.
"They were very calm in the penalty shootout that demands not only accuracy but also character."
Uruguay have now kept three successive clean sheets, while they limited Brazil to 0.58 expected goals (xG), and their defensive resilience has pleased Bielsa.
"I am a bit more drawn to the offensive than the defensive game, but in a match that was as tight as this one, we created one more opportunity than our opponent and we defended well," Bielsa added.
"I do think that defensively, not because I achieved it but because the players are inherently good at defending, that they are very good at keeping a clean sheet."
This is the first time Uruguay have reached the semi-finals of the Copa America since the last time they won the trophy in 2011.
La Celeste had endured three consecutive quarter-final appearances without advancing, with two of those being decided by penalties (2019 and 2021).
Uruguay will face in-form Colombia, who hammered Paraguay 5-0, in the last four.
Dorival Junior urges patience with Brazil's rebuild after Copa America exit
Dorival Junior has asked for time to complete his revamp of the Brazil national team after the Selecao's Copa America exit.
Brazil, nine-time Copa America champions, lost 4-2 on penalties after a 0-0 draw with 10-man Uruguay in Las Vegas on Saturday.
Eder Militao and Douglas Luiz were unsuccessful from 12 yards, as a disappointing and often disjointed campaign for Brazil, who were without the suspended Vinicius Junior, came to a halt.
Dorival left out some big names for the tournament, while Neymar was absent through injury, and the coach, who was appointed in January, has reiterated the rebuild will require some patience.
He said: "We are undergoing a very important renovation or reinvention of this team.
"I have only coached this team for eight matches and this is a process that we have to go through.
"We are aware of the difficulties we will come across throughout the path, but we now lost a match in the knockouts and that wasn't what we expected."
Brazil are sixth in the South American qualification standings for the 2026 World Cup, and Dorival knows the Selecao must sharpen up.
"We have a lot of room to continue growing, evolving, improving and our main objective now is to qualify for the World Cup," he continued.
"Right now we are sixth in the standings, we are not comfortable with that."
Dorival did, however, point to Uruguay's rise back to form under Marcelo Bielsa as evidence that long-term projects can come to fruition.
"I think the Uruguayan national team has a pattern, a very well-defined pattern," he said.
"They have been working for a long time together. They had some problems at first, they corrected them.
"Now they are finding great results. I think we will achieve all that as well, not a doubt about it, but we need some time to make such corrections.
"We had some issues at the beginning of the tournament. I think we corrected plenty of mistakes.
"It is tough given the period of time that we had to work to try to speed up the process. I think we'll have some more time in the future."
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