Graham Alexander will not let travel woe be an excuse for Bradford’s display

Graham Alexander refused to blame delays to Bradford’s team coach after a 3-1 defeat at AFC Wimbledon.

Bradford were held up in traffic, leading to the League One match starting 30 minutes late.

But Bantams boss Alexander said: “Was it ideal? No. Was it what we usually have? No. But this is what life is sometimes – it happens out of the blue and you have to react to it and commit to the game.

“I’m not going to use or hide behind it and that’s not me ignoring what went on.

“We can’t hide behind it for what we showed today.”

The Dons scored after 11 minutes when James Tilley’s right-wing cross went straight into the Bradford goal, and the hosts made it two just before half-time when Myles Hippolyte’s quick throw released Marcus Browne to charge forward and score.

Matty Stevens bundled in the third in the 67th minute after the Bantams failed to clear Tilley’s cross.

Stephen Humphrys scored a crisp strike from outside the box in the 76th minute, but it was not enough to prevent Bradford slipping to fifth in the table after a fourth straight away defeat.

“Today was just nowhere near good enough,” Alexander added.

“It’s easy to see what we should do better but we have to do better. We can’t keep conceding goals of that nature away from home then hold our hands up on Monday.

“We have to know our game inside out but at the minute it looks like a fog descends at certain times and we become a team I don’t recognise.”

Victory lifted AFC Wimbledon to 13th place, with the Dons now eight points above the relegation zone.

And boss Johnnie Jackson was delighted to see off a side battling for promotion.

He said: “Bradford are a top side doing really good things this season.

“Graham’s got a proper team there with real energy, experience and stuff like that, but we matched that and more.

“On our day, we can match teams. It’s about doing it consistently week in, week out, but when we play like that, we’re capable of beating anyone.

“We had moments in the week against Cardiff, who are probably the best team, but didn’t quite get what we wanted, and today we’ve done it from minute one to 93.

“Today was brilliant, seeing it bouncing and the noise the fans made from start to finish, especially at the end.

“There was no tension really, which can happen when the opposition pull a goal back. I felt like, if anything, we could’ve got another one and we saw it out really well.”