Birmingham City Recap: Such Things Should Not Be Happening In Football Because It Can..

Graham Alexander on honest pre-match meeting after Trophy

GRAHAM Alexander revealed he needed to bring City back down to earth after their Birmingham semi-final exploits.

The Bantams boss is delighted that his squad keep performing “like animals” to keep churning out results during their full-on schedule.

But he delivered an honest appraisal of where he felt they fell short at St Andrew’s ahead of yesterday’s 2-0 win against MK Dons.

Alexander thought City had shown League One leaders Birmingham a bit too much respect in the first half in midweek – and addressed those shortcomings in Friday’s pre-match briefing.

“Sometimes teams can make you go passive with their quality,” he said. “I felt we did that a little bit on Tuesday in the first half.

“I could understand it because of the size of the opponent.

“There was a lot of emotion as in the performance against who it was and at that stage of the competition.

“We got some nice plaudits but I would have felt guilty if I wasn’t honest with the players.

“If I hadn’t had addressed things that I felt we could have done better, I felt I would have been letting the players down and having a smokescreen over it.

“We stuck to it in the second half and showed what a good team we were. I just want to show that at all times whatever opponent we play against.

“I fancy my players against any team we go up against because I trust them.”

City face yet another quick turnaround for their fifth consecutive Tuesday clash as they make the long trip to Bromley.

Alexander is still without Calum Kavanagh and Tyreik Wright – while Alex Pattison took himself off in the first half yesterday after feeling his Achilles tighten.

The Bantams boss has been impressed with how his squad have tackled their intense workload.

He added: “The biggest thing for me is the mental preparation.

“We played for 70 minutes with 10 men last Saturday and then you play Birmingham City in a cup semi-final on Tuesday. Then you come home and play against a team that are really expansive and keep the ball well.

“The players have just been animals in the last month in how they’ve approached it.

“They’ve not let any weakness seep into their mind and the mind will take you wherever you want to go.

“We’ve got really good characters in there taking it forward. Players who maybe didn’t realise they could do that before are realising now that they can.”