Graham Alexander full of praise for Bradford matchwinner Jenson Metcalfe

Bradford manager Graham Alexander hailed Jenson Metcalfe’s superb strike that earned a 1-0 win over Port Vale at Valley Parade.

The midfielder’s second-half goal was his first for the club since joining from Everton in the summer.

Alexander said: “He’s been threatening it in games but he’s been doing it in training, so we weren’t surprised.

“It’s a fantastic finish and he’s dug it out because his touch was really close to his feet. We’ve seen him doing that in training several times and it was only a matter of time before it happened for him in a game.

“I think he’s a player capable of that stuff and always has been. He’s just a young player learning the tempo of League football.

“He had the season at Chesterfield in League Two and now he’s stepped up a level with us. It’s his first time – as it is for several players – and the aggression, competitiveness and speed of the game is so quick.”

Port Vale sacked Darren Moore over the weekend and first-team coach Jamie Smith took charge of League One’s bottom club.

They kept Bradford at bay, although the home side had two strong penalty claims for challenges on Curtis Tilt and Joe Wright.

Metcalfe broke the deadlock after 67 minutes with a curling finish from Tyreik Wright’s corner and Stephen Humphrys also had a shot cleared off the line and sent a header against a post.

Alexander added: “It was a really physical game. They are a tough team to play against and their position in the league belies their underlying data, which is stronger than a lot of teams we’ve been playing recently.

“Darren unfortunately leaving added another bit of an unknown entity to it. We had to find a way.”

Smith declined to speak to the media but Port Vale midfielder Jordan Shipley said: “We came here with a game plan to turn them behind and pick up the bits and pieces. Unfortunately, they didn’t fall our way today.

“That’s football and we’ve got to move on to the next one. It was always going to be a battling performance, that’s the standard now and we have to do it every game.

“Obviously, it’s never good when someone loses their job and the boys will take most of the blame for that. We’ve got to regroup now.

“It showed out there that we’ve got to stick together. It’s only us that are going to change this and hopefully results can start changing for us and we can start climbing the table.

“There is loads of football to be played and we’ve got to start grinding out results now. Hopefully we can get two or three on the bounce and we’ll see what we can do.”