Phil Parkinson admitted it was tough to take after Wrexham suffered their third consecutive league defeat.
Andy Cook scored Bradford’s late winner just minutes after his penalty had been saved by Arthur Okonkwo.
But manager Parkinson felt his team had done more than enough to take the points as their promotion hopes took another hit.
He said: “It hurts. We dominated the game, particularly in the first half when we were excellent.
“We set out to do everything we wanted to against a 3-4-3 system, moved the ball well, got in some good positions and just couldn’t find the moment.
“The way we played probably justified us coming in one or two ahead. That was probably as good a first-half performance as we’ve put in for a while.
“We know we’re in a period where it’s not going our way but the lads have given us absolutely everything today.
“We just couldn’t find the moment to unlock the door. But it was certainly not through lack of effort.
“We were very much on the front foot all over the pitch but football is about putting the ball in the back of the net. It’s very rare for us at home.
“When you’ve had a few defeats and things are going against you, that can happen.
“We deserved to win the game but one big moment proved decisive.”
Cook claimed his 14th goal of the season, heading home from close range after Okonkwo had blocked his initial effort.
It was a first win in nine league games for the Bantams – and second at the Racecourse Ground for manager Graham Alexander, who had beaten Wrexham with MK Dons on the opening day of the season.
Alexander said: “I can’t speak highly enough about my players.
“Wrexham are always going to have moments in games because they’ve got an array of talent and their belief is massive from their two-and-a-half year run.
“I feel defensively we’ve been really strong, really disciplined and structured. It’s just taking the moments in front of goal that has let us down.
“That’s the whole team, not just the forwards, it’s midfielders getting in there, defenders from set-pieces and things like that.
“We all have to take responsibility for those opportunities. If we had done that, I think we would have won many more games which we deserve.
“We are where we are. We’ve won a big fixture today for us and hopefully it will give the players and supporters the belief that there’s still something there worth fighting for.
“There was a freshness about us because we knew we had to work exceptionally hard. They are a very good team with an unbelievable home record.”
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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