Bradford banking on big-game know-how in play-offs
Graham Alexander has won promotion via the play-offs as a player and manager
- Published
Bradford City manager Graham Alexander said his side would take their experience of high-pressure games at the end of the season with them into the League One play-offs.
The Bantams are preparing for the first leg of their semi-final away to Bolton Wanderers on Saturday evening (20:00 BST).
They missed out on a League Two play-off spot on the final day two years ago before clinching automatic promotion with a late winner on the final day last season.
And in their first campaign in the third tier since 2019, victory at Exeter City secured an impressive fourth-place finish to set up the chance for successive promotions.
"We can all use our experience," Alexander told BBC Radio Leeds. "For the last two years here at Bradford, we've been involved in those types of games. We've been building that mentality up.
"Towards the end of the season, they're big games and there is a pressure on them, but that's where you want to be.
"We box it off properly in our minds and focus on what's needed to do. It will stand us in good stead."
Bradford have been in the top six for all bar one matchday of the League One season and consistently in a play-off spot since December.
That gives them the chance to emulate Wrexham's achievement last season of successive promotions from League Two and League One.
Having escaped the fourth tier after that dramatic Antoni Sarcevic goal against Fleetwood Town last May, Alexander is proud at how his side have tackled this campaign in the higher league.
"Qualifying for the play-offs was a good step forward for us as a club," he said.
"Being a newly promoted team, to validate the work we've done, not just from day one in pre-season but the work we did in the summer and the preparation.
"It just gives us an opportunity. It doesn't give us anything longer term, but another opportunity."
