Graham Alexander's reaction after Bantams' poor performance at Notts County

The Bantams were torn apart by three goals in a four-minute burst late in the first half at Meadow Lane this afternoon.

“It's hard to put into words right now, considering the scoreline, because it was such a crazy short period of time,” Alexander admitted.

“If you had asked me a minute before their first goal, I thought we were doing really well. We had an offensive threat and we wanted to go up against them.

“If you slack off against Notts County they will just make it hard for you and you will probably end up scoring because they have such a high quality forward line.

“We wanted to come here and score a goal ourselves and we had a chance to do it in the first 30 minutes.

“In those five minutes, we gave up some really poor goals. We had some basic duels to win and we didn't, and they were very poor from their point of view. punished us well.

“I thought my team was still competing in the remaining games, going forward and looking to score. But it gives them enough cushion that they can defend a little more calmly to see the game through. Now.”

City took control in the second half and created several chances of their own. But Alexander admitted they lacked quality going forward and was frustrated at not being able to test the home side with 11 corners.

“We turned the ball over a lot in very good areas with very few overloads,” added the City manager. “But we couldn’t take advantage of them.

“Our quality in that aspect of the game was not good enough. When we reached the final position, our final finish was not good enough.

“We had the same number of entries into the box, touches and crosses, but the quality of our finishing was better than us.

“Our corners weren’t good enough, we had some really good targets in the box with the back three and Cookie (Andy Cooke), but the delivery just wasn’t good enough.

“They were too close to the keepers and allowed the keepers to take them too often.

“That issue brought us together in the final third. We certainly got into some good areas where we could have scored, but we just couldn't do it.”

Corey Evans and Badeen Oliver are both missing and are unlikely to feature in the Boxing Day game against Port Vale.

Alexander said: “Corey hasn't trained this week. We were hoping he would be at the weekend, but that wasn't the case, so let's see if he's available.

“Vadeen had a small operation on an old scar that had become infected for some reason. He will have to do complete bed rest for five days and then slow jogging for five days.

“Notts County is in a different position to Swindon so I would like to think this momentum will remain intact.

“But there are certain nuances that you have to be aware of. These are real basics, not big actions, but important.

“This week we emphasized to our players why these little things are important. When we look over the three goals, we forget to repeat them again.

“Notts County are always a good scoring team and we had to go up against them and score our own goals and we tried to do that.

“I've seen teams that tried to shut them down, but they'll always find a breakthrough.

“All the attacking stats were at a pretty high level, but the game is all about the goals, which is why players in the forward areas are paid more than anything else.

“We kept competing and trying to score, but we just couldn't score on the day. Perhaps the forwards lost a little bit of confidence in the second half when we were down 3-0 and it took a lot of effort on their shoulders to find that last bit of quality. Maybe there was too much in there.”