Anything that could go wrong, went wrong!

AS disappointed as he was with the result at Bradford City on Tuesday, John Coleman said it was a day when anything that could go wrong did so.

“I didn’t think Bradford were three goals better than us but things can get out of control and out of your hands,” he said.

“We conceded a sloppy goal very much against the run of play. We could have been two goals before that, we’d missed two good chances and if you do that in this league then you get punished.

“Bradford are on the crest of a wave at the minute, they are scoring goals, so if you give them chances you are going to get punished. We changed and shape and came out all guns blazing in the second half but we conceded again. So everything that could go against us did but one thing we didn’t do is let the travelling fans down. We kept going right to the end, created chances with ten men and forced the game, took the game to Bradford. Admittedly, they could sit back and counter us because they were 3-0 up, but we didn’t throw the towel in.

“We had three technical bookings – one for dissent because Billy Kee ran to the referee after the tackle on Sam Finley, while five of their players ran to the referee after the tackle by Zanzala. They didn’t get booked.

“Connor Ripley was booked for kicking the ball away yet when their player smashes the ball 70 yards, they don’t get booked. Mark Hughes then places the ball down three yards from where the free-kick is and it’s a petulant booking by the referee. It’s the referee’s first year – he’ll learn from that. I’m sure his assessor will remind him he can manage the game a little bit better than that.

“We weren’t beaten by officials, we were beaten by our own sloppiness, conceding a daft goal and then the sending off.”