Bradford City: Graham Alexander confident team can challenge for promotion

Graham Alexander started the season as MK Dons boss but was sacked in October after 13 league games in charge

New Bradford City boss Graham Alexander believes his side can get back into the race for promotion from League Two.

The 52-year-old former Scunthorpe, Salford and Motherwell manager was appointed as Bantams boss on Monday.

His new side are 16th in the fourth tier, six points off the play-offs and 10 off the top three.

"We've got plenty of time, I don't want to put pressure on the players but there's 90 points to play for. Let's go for it," he told BBC Radio Leeds.

"There's been high profile cases of two clubs in the last couple of years not being great until January and February and they've taken it right to the wire."

Bolton Wanderers won automatic promotion from League Two in 2020-21 having been 18th in January and Bristol Rovers went up on the final day of 2021-22 after being 14th in February.

Alexander, who takes over at the West Yorkshire side after Mark Hughes was sacked last month, has won promotion through the play-offs with both Fleetwood and Salford City.

However, his most recent spell in management saw him sacked by fellow League Two club MK Dons in October after just 13 league games in charge.

Despite his short tenure he said he was not "bitter" about the nature of his departure.

"I haven't really assessed my time there. You try and learn from every experience you have but ultimately we didn't have long enough there to judge it over a period of time," he added.

"I have to make decisions about my role and some you get right and some you get wrong and that's the same for chairmen. I'm not going to carry a bag full of bitterness on my shoulder and weigh myself down.

"I have to look at the next challenge now and this unbelievable opportunity. I'd be wasting my time looking back."

Bradford squad 'too big'

Hughes signed 11 new players in the summer on permanent or loan deals after the Bantams were beaten by Carlisle in the play-offs.

So far this season only six teams in League Two have used more players than the 25 to have made a league appearance for Bradford, with Wrexham having used most with 29.

Alexander, who will lead the side for the first time in Saturday's home game with Barrow, says he would ideally work with a less "bloated squad".

"You've got to assess what you have. We've got a lot of games to go before January but I do feel that the squad is too big," he said.

"We like to have smaller, more competitive squads because it's hard to get that unity and togetherness with a bloated squad.

"There is the ability there to improve the squad in January but we might have to do some dealing to do that."