HUGHES LOOKING FOR BOUNCE-BACK PERFORMANCE
Bantams boss Mark Hughes has called for his team to bounce back against Crewe Alexandra this weekend at the University of Bradford Stadium.
City fell to a 3-0 defeat last time out against Morecambe, a result and performance the City manager is keen to put down as a “bad day at the office”.
Now, with the Alex visiting Valley Parade on Saturday (3.00pm) in what is only City’s second home outing of the campaign, Hughes is keen to see a response.
“It has just been a case of getting everyone back in and working hard,” he said.
“We have discussed the level of performance we put in at Morecambe, which was not anywhere near where we wanted it to be.
“We have looked at it, and areas we have to improve. We did not do well on the fundamentals. I just view it as a bad day in the office.”
Hughes draws confidence from the fact, during his tenure, a below-par performance has frequently been followed up by an improved one, and he is confident of the same in front of the Bantams faithful.
“I am absolutely certain we will get a reaction on the pitch,” he added.
“Whenever we have dipped in the past, we have picked up really strongly, and I expect that will happen again this Saturday and onwards.
“Our last home performance was very good, and we want to try and improve on that level.
“It is a great opportunity to get back on track, and it will calm everyone down.
“We have to play well at home and we know that. I just think we have had a setback, but now we have a great opportunity to put it right.”
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CREWE’S remarkable powers of recovery will ensure that City cannot afford to switch off at Valley Parade.
Alex arrive in West Yorkshire on the back of a two-goal fightback to rescue a point against Walsall.
Remarkably, that is the THIRD time they have done that in the opening month of the season.
Lee Bell’s side have also performed similar salvage operations from seemingly lost causes against Mansfield and Swindon to maintain their unbeaten start.
“I always believe we can get back into games,” said Bell, who hopes to have Charlie Colkett and Conor Thomas back in contention to face the Bantams.
“We play how we want to play and we want technical players on the pitch.
“But we can’t keep going 2-0 down in this league. We know what we have to do better so we will work hard at that.”
Crewe have had to adapt after losing last season’s 16-goal top scorer Dan Agyei.
He rejected a new contract to join promoted Leyton Orient. City were among the clubs who did make an inquiry.
But they have not found goals difficult to come by so far – with former Newport stalwart Mickey Demetriou weighing in with three already from the back.
Only Wrexham have scored more than their tally of eight from the first four league outings.
Bell told a fans’ forum this week: “Dan Agyei had the best season of his career so it is difficult to keep him because he knows his worth.
“Chris Long, on the other hand, was easy to deal with because he wanted to stay and he told us that early on. But when they score 16 goals, they move on.
“Trust me we tried to approach and keep Dan early on. But he was open and honest that he wanted to wait – we have to respect that.
