'Getting' club key to Bradford success - Alexander

Graham Alexander's side have lost one of their seven home games in League Two this season

Bradford City boss Graham Alexander has said the most important thing he has done in his first year in charge has been getting the fans to believe in the team again.

The 53-year-old was appointed as Mark Hughes' successor at the League Two side on 6 November 2023.

Alexander has won 26, drawn 13 and lost 14 of his 53 games in charge of the Bantams so far.

"I think the feeling inside Valley Parade is getting there. I still think we can improve it," he told BBC Radio Leeds.

"I said after the Doncaster game when we got beat that the response to defeats in the stadium this season is different when we lost last season.

"I thought the response from the supporters was brilliant that day and that only comes from a place of belief and trust. They stayed with us."

Alexander, who played over 1,000 games as a professional, has been compared by some fans to the last manager to win promotion with Bradford, Phil Parkinson.

Former Fleetwood, Scunthorpe, Salford and Motherwell boss Alexander said he would not compare himself with the now Wrexham manager but felt both of them had understood the club.

"I think Phil probably got the club and I've tried my best to do that but I still think there's improvement I can make," he added.

"I think you have to understand and have empathy with what the supporters here have been through going back 10, 20 years and even to the disaster in the 1980s.

"I just wanted the supporters to be with the team. The team should be the star of any football club.

"I listen to the stadium for when they get excited and when they get down and try and get them to be up."

Success a journey not a destination

Parkinson led the Bantams to promotion from League Two in 2013, the club's only promotion since going up the the Premier League in 1999.

Alexander's side are seventh in the fourth tier after 14 games, four points off the top three.

They have been back at this level since 2019 and Alexander acknowledged his own spell in charge at Valley Parade would be measured by others on getting them back to League One.

However, he insisted, for him, that would only be part of being successful.

"I know what I will get judged on, I'm not confused about that. It will be success on the pitch and getting to a different division," he said.

"This is going to sound corny but it's not about the destination, it's the journey as well.

"I made my debut in the Premier League at the age of 37 and there were all these reporters who wanted to speak to me as if the previous 17, 18 years of my career had been a grind. But I enjoyed my whole career.

"I've been fortunate that I've had success at other clubs but that's only part of it.

"I know what I'll ultimately get judged on but I know what I'll take from the job as well."