Gary Bowyer praises ‘outstanding’ Burton after beating Bradford

Burton boss Gary Bowyer said his side were “outstanding” after registering a second League One victory in three games courtesy of a 2-1 win at Bradford.

Jake Beesley opened the scoring four minutes before half-time, heading home from close range after Sam Walker had produced a fine double save.

Albion doubled their lead in first-half stoppage time when Charlie Webster finished off a swift counter-attack, getting on the end of Kyran Lofthouse’s cross.

Bradford were handed a lifeline in the 76th minute when Alex Hartridge brought down Stephen Humphrys in the box, and Bobby Pointon calmly converted the resulting penalty.

Bowyer said: “I thought we were outstanding. For us to come here today, in front of 20,000, with the young team that we are and the squad Bradford have, we were magnificent.

“We showed real courage to play with the ball in the first half and I was delighted for Jake Beesley to get the first goal because the amount of work he has done has been incredible.

“The second goal was magnificent, and the finish was magnificent from Charlie Webster getting in at the back post, it was a devastating counter-attack.

“We are a young team, but the learning they have done over the last 12 games has been phenomenal and they are going the right way.

“There were one or two brilliant blocks, but I can’t remember our goalkeeper making a save to keep us in it and that’s a credit to everybody.

“I’m delighted with the win today and it was all about our character. We’re going to enjoy tonight for sure, but then we have to go again.”

Bradford manager Graham Alexander said: ”We didn’t do enough to win the game.

“In the first half we didn’t put pressure on our opponents, we put it on ourselves. We got lulled into playing a lot of balls across our back-line.

“Maybe the build-up to the type of opponent is different from what we came up against at the beginning of the season.

“Our game is built on pressure and putting pressure on the opponents and I think we brought that on ourselves today.

“It’s a learning experience for us having started so well. I said to the players to listen to our opponents after the game and how they were celebrating.

“Winning here feels to them like they have won more than just one game and that’s what we have to be prepared for in the next game.

“Our approach to opponents has slowly changed over the last two or three games from the first four or five, when we were a newly promoted team, and we have to counteract that.”