GRAHAM Alexander felt “fortune favoured the brave” after City’s gutsy comeback win in a wild game at Walsall.

The Bantams recovered from two down to win 3-2 – playing the last quarter down to 10 men after two-goal Jamie Walker was sent off.

City trailed 2-0 after just 16 minutes before Andy Cook started the recovery against his former club – the fourth time he has scored in five trips back to the Bescot.

He then got assists for both Walker goals as Alexander’s side rallied to make it four wins in five games to move up to 10th.

The City boss heaped praise on the recovery after such a poor opening.

“It was a really bad start, really sloppy and lethargic,” said Alexander.

“Maybe that’s the underlying thing, when we’ve won 10 points from our last four games, do we just come off our levels? It looked like it and we were rightly punished.

“We can’t complain about being 2-0 down because we deserved it.

“But that said, the players have maybe learned a little bit in the last few weeks about how far personality and character can get you.

“I thought we showed that in abundance for the last 70 minutes, not only in scoring three goals but going down to 10 men for such a long period against a team that really puts you under pressure in your box.

“We stood up to it and got a little bit of luck of the post and crossbar but Sam made a couple of good saves. Fortune favours the brave and I thought we were extremely brave.”

City fell behind for a third away game in a row in this unbeaten run but Cook’s 18th goal of the season, within a couple of minutes of Walsall’s second, restored the belief.

Alexander added:  “We’d been in the corner getting pummelled.

“But the players picked it up from within and showed that mindset and determination not to be a loser.

“Sometimes you just get that moment to give you belief. That first goal sparked us into life.

“It looked like a runaway train for the first 20 minutes and could have been a really long afternoon for us, similar to a couple we’ve had maybe a month ago.

“But we get the goal, whereas in those other games we had those opportunities and didn’t take them and lost a bit of belief.

“I challenged the players at half-time to see whether this was the end of our run of consistency. This was the opportunity to show we could be better and string more results together.”

Walker was dismissed after 68 minutes after picking up a second yellow card for a foul outside the City box.

“I thought there were a few harsh things against us,” said Alexander. “Tyreik (Wright) getting booked just before and then Jamie’s were really cheap bookings.

“Then we were under the cosh for the last 20 minutes but fair play to the players, they stood up to it.

“They’ve had to dig even deeper than they have in the last two away games to win."