BRADFORD City boss Graham Alexander admits they were 'bitterly disappointed' to be denied victory at Colchester United after conceding a stoppage-time goal following a 1-1 draw.
It like the Bantams were heading for victory at the JobServe Community Stadium after Andy Cook gave them a first-half lead.
But Jamie McDonnell headed in Arthur Read's corner at the far post to rescue a point for the U's and leave Bantams boss Alexander and his players frustrated.
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Alexander said: “The players are bitterly disappointed.
“The things we talked about this week in training and how we approach away games, we did much better at that and got ourselves in a really good position to win the game but unfortunately, we didn’t.
"It's a really disappointed changing room because to have won here 1-0 would have been a really good win and certainly with a clean sheet as well but it wasn't to be.
“I can’t say anything negative about the players today – they’ve given absolutely everything.
"They've shown how much they care about the game and about their team-mates.
“I feel frustrated that we didn’t take three points from a game where at that stage of the game, we should have and could have.
“Unfortunately, they’ve hit us right at the death and scored from a set piece in the 99th minute.
“There’s a little bit of carnage in the box, the goalkeeper’s up there and everything’s just piled in there.
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“There’s maybe something we can learn from there; I think maybe we could have not given the set piece away and certainly defended it better but I understand it when their structure goes out of the window and it’s hard for them to keep to our structure.”
Colchester scored their equaliser in the ninth minute of stoppage-time, to rescue a point.
A total of ten minutes was added on at the end of the game, some of which due to Lewis Richards' second-half injury which resulted in the Bradford left-back receiving some lengthy treatment.
"I can't remember them having many opportunities at all, in the first half," added former MK Dons and Salford City boss Alexander.
"We score and take the lead and it's deep into injury-time.
"We were told five minutes and then it went to ten, because of Lewis's (Richards) injury.
"It's obviously given them more opportunity and I think the ten going up maybe lifted their crowd, which maybe gave them an injection of energy as well.
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"We saw the reverse last week when we were chasing it at 1-0 and two minutes went up, but I know the circumstances.
"The fourth (official) has explained it today and I can understand it, because of Lewis's injury.
"I just thought we could have maybe been a little bit more composed in possession, in that second half and maybe linked the play a little bit more.
"But I can understand it from the players' perspective when you've done so well to be defensively strong and solid, to just maybe focus on them but we've got to get that balance right between both sides of the game."
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