DEFEAT HARD TO TAKE - BOSS

DEFEAT HARD TO TAKE - BOSS

Head coach on Bradford defeat…

United head coach David Hockaday has spoken of his disappointment after exiting the Capital One Cup at Bradford City on Wednesday evening.

Three goals in the space of five second half minutes saw Bradford earn a dramatic victory, but United were down to 10 men after Luke Murphy received his marching orders on 29 minutes.

“No complaints, it was two yellow cards and then a red card,” said David of Murphy’s sending off. “It was totally out of character and I can’t explain it and I’m sure he can’t.

“The first one was silly so then you just have to stay on your feet. There are no excuses and he left us with a mountain to climb and we almost climbed it.

“All the basics, the work ethic, the team spirit and the fitness levels, I can’t ask anymore from the players. These players that are here at this moment in time are giving the club everything.”

United played the majority of the cup clash with 10 men but the head coach says his team should have seen the game out after Matt Smith gave the visitors the lead in the 82nd minute.

“Even with 10 men I was starting to feel more and more comfortable in the second half,” said the head coach. “Then we got the first goal and we should have seen the game out.

"But we made a mistake to give away the corner but the half volley was a great strike. There was only one place the ball could go because there were three Leeds bodies desperate to stop it.

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"Then they put the ball in the box, I’ve got two players that slip, and their striker puts it away. It wasn’t over because we made a change and we had two great chances. Nobody misses chances on purpose but we should have played extra time in my opinion. But that is all it is, it’s my opinion.

“We have lost the game to one of our local rivals and that will be hard to take. We were the victims of our problems because we were down to 10 men.

“We are not a horrible, nasty, dirty or kicking team and it’s out of character but at the moment we are just giving ourselves mountains to climb and we can’t keep doing that.”

The head coach says that Murphy’s double yellow was out of character and that he needs to learn from it.

“Luke is not an aggressive player,” said David. “It was completely out of character.

“He is distraught and devastated, and he knows that he let the boys down on the night.

“He has got to learn from that and so do the rest of us. We have had four red cards this season and we aren’t a dirty team, that is not what we are about.”

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