Graham Alexander believes Andy Cook, Bradford City’s top scorer, will come good and dig the Bantams out of a hole.
Cook, last season’s League Two Golden Boot winner with 28 goals, earning him the division’s PFA player of the year and a spot in the squad of the season in 2022–23, has scored only six times this season and once in his past eight appearances.
The 33-year-old missed several chances in Saturday’s 4-2 televised defeat to Notts County.
“That’s the nature of the business,” Alexander explained. If you’re a goalie, your job is to keep clean sheets. If you’re a striker, your job is to score goals, and Cooky thrives on them.
“What I would say is that he got into a lot of those situations, and we gave him a lot of opportunities.”
“We can’t do much more, and we’ve gathered support for him.” We put ourselves in some incredible situations and generated some fantastic opportunities.
“Every player goes through stretches of form in which their outstanding attribute isn’t exactly clicking. But we believe in Cooky, and his track record is available for anyone to see, and we will assist him in any way we can.
“The player had to believe we were going to create chances for him. But Cooky will be upset, rightly so, if he has not scored goals, if we have not won, and whatever.
“I am not expecting to see a player smiling and happy.”City’s season reached a new nadir in the East Midlands after conceding four unanswered goals in an awful first half at Meadow Lane.
Two second-half goals clawed back a bit of pride, but the afternoon was far from acceptable for City, who find themselves in a derisory 19th place in the table.The angst of 2,276 visiting fans at Meadow Lane was interspersed with chants calling on owner Stefan Rupp to sell the club and leave.
Alexander added, “You cannot look at the game as a positive experience at all.
“What we did show is that if you give them (fans) something and show fight, endeavor, and a positive attitude, they will get behind you, and that’s what we did in the second half.
“We had to give them something, and we can’t expect to take that support for granted. But we can’t pat ourselves on the back; we were 4-0 down at halftime and can’t sweep that under the carpet.”
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