Mark Trueman bemoaned his players’ “unacceptable” levels of aggression and intensity - after City fell to a 2-1 defeat against Port Vale.
The Bantams took the lead 14 minutes in at Vale Park, thanks to Clayton Donaldson’s seventh goal of the season, though conceded a further two before the interval and proved unable to take anything from the game.
Despite starting the game brightly, the Bantams boss felt City did not have enough control of there game, and lamented their ability to compete.
He said: “We were not good enough. We started the game brightly, and got our goal, but did not control the next 15 minutes - which is really important when you go 1-0 up.
“Something I cannot accept is the lack of aggression in our play to compete. For some reason, these players did not show it, which led to us losing.”
“We failed to stay in the game and did not manage it well enough, which is when we conceded a penalty for them to go 2-1 up.
“We played to their strengths, which was disappointing. Individuals did not defend well enough, and were not aggressive enough, and they let the team down. That is what I cannot accept.
“When you are wearing a Bradford City shirt, you have to fight for it. That was not evident and has gone away from our game lately.
Despite his disappointment, Trueman also drew positives from the fact he and Conor Sellars were able to further experiment with the side ahead of the coming campaign.
He is looking forward to “experimenting” more over the final three games of the season, having seen Lee Novak, Matty Foulds and Callum Cooke all feature against Darrell Clarke’s men.
Trueman added: “There are some positives, with regards to looking at different personnel in different positions. It was good to give Matty Foulds some more game time.
“We want to win football matches from now until the end of the season, and just have to make sure our effort and aggression is in our play.
“We have looked at certain strengths and weaknesses from playing different formations, which was confirmed today. We got our goal from our two strikers, but looked vulnerable at the back after that.
“We have got into a place where we are safe from relegation, but did not do enough to make it into the play-off places. We cannot let this season go flat and lose more football matches.”