Graham Alexander believes the full force of Bradford’s brimming confidence carried them through to a fourth straight league triumph after battling back to beat Doncaster.
The Bantams shook off the blow of falling behind to Joe Ironside’s early strike to coast to a 3-1 win at the Eco-Power Stadium, with Andy Cook scoring twice and Tyler Smith also finding the net.
And Alexander was delighted with the manner in which City, who have now won six games in all competitions, were unfazed by conceding.
“It was a difficult game – a derby game – and I was intrigued to see how we responded to conceding the first goal early on because we’ve been on a good run of starting games really well,” he said.
“I knew, at some point, we’d get a test like that and it happened tonight.
“But, after their goal, nothing changed in our approach to the game. No heads went down and we just got back at it again and put Doncaster under pressure.
“We had two great chances before our equalisers and I’m delighted to win 3-1. There will be many different challenges and obstacles along the way this season and that was one.
“The players are in a really confident mood and it’s great to see.”
Bradford were backed by a travelling support numbering almost 3,000 on the night.
“We went a goal down and the crowd got even louder. It makes you feel the hairs on the back of your neck and I’m delighted that the players rewarded that noise with three points,” Alexander said.
Doncaster boss Grant McCann has ordered his players to take a long hard look at themselves over Christmas to find a way out of their current mini-slump.
Rovers followed up the 5-0 defeat to Morecambe with the 3-1 reverse to Bradford with McCann bitterly disappointed with both performances.
He said: “We said to the players after the game that they need to have a look at themselves because what they’re showing at the minute is nowhere near.
“All of us together need to take responsibility. I’ve never shirked that as a manager. I’ll always do that because I’m the one that picks the team.
“But when you’ve got a plan that’s working and experienced players going away from that. The first goal just gives Bradford the initiative and it’s disappointing.
“The last two games have been really disappointing because it’s felt like we’ve gone backwards in those two games. There’s no point in saying anything different because the fans can see it.
“You saw at the end – there were probably 100 people left in the stadium. I said to Joe Ironside as we walked around ‘look at this’. This is what we’re producing at the minute and the fans are just disappearing because we’re not giving them anywhere near enough.”
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
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