Aden Baldwin did not deserve red card, says Bradford boss Graham Alexander

Bradford manager Graham Alexander felt “superb” Aden Baldwin should not have been sent off in their 2-1 win over Leyton Orient at Valley Parade.

Antoni Sarcevic scored twice to seal a fifth straight home win for the fourth-placed Bantams.

He struck the winner four minutes after Bradford had been reduced to 10 men when defender Baldwin was dismissed for a sliding challenge on Ollie O’Neill.

Alexander said: “I don’t think it is a red card, but I can see why it was given in today’s game.

“I’ve seen it on TV cameras and he’s tackled the ball cleanly with his left foot, not caught the guy at all. His trailing leg has contacted the opponent.

“I don’t know what you’re supposed to do with your trailing leg, apart from detach it from your body, which is obviously impossible. I don’t get it.

“If that’s deemed a red card, I don’t get it. I don’t think Aden deserved it, I thought he was superb. I don’t think the team deserved it.

“Hopefully sense is seen and it’s rescinded because I just don’t think there’s any malice in it. I don’t think he’s hurt the player and I don’t think it’s a foul.

“But we continued to play in the way we wanted to play, continued to look like the team most likely to win it. Every credit to the players, I’m so proud of them.”

Sarcevic gave Bradford the lead after 33 minutes with a shot that proved too strong for goalkeeper Will Dennis.

Leyton Orient levelled against the run of play 10 minutes later through O’Neill and received another boost when Baldwin saw red, but Sarcevic struck a 79th-minute winner from Stephen Humphrys’ pass.

The defeat keeps Orient in the bottom four.

Manager Richie Wellens said: “There was loads of effort defending our box, but there was a lack of quality at times, especially on the counter-attack. We were in too much of a rush to get the ball in their box and crosses weren’t great.

“You can’t fault the work ethic. We tried our very best in recovering and our desire to block shots.

“We’ve worked all week on wing-back marking wing-back and we allowed diagonals after diagonals. Don’t let 10s run into space when we play a back five and ultimately the winning goal comes from a 10 running through.

“The biggest frustration was that I didn’t want the man to be sent off. I thought we’d weathered it and were coming into the game.

“I felt we were on top at that moment, but then we just don’t have that mechanism to pass the ball and make them work and play at a real tempo.

“When it went down to 10 men, the crowd got louder and better for them.”