Peterborough United suffered a 2-0 loss to Bradford City, with Graham Alexander sending a message to his opponents. The Bantams' win marked their first of the League One campaign. Graham Alexander spoke of the importance of retaining faith after his Bradford City side defeated Peterborough United 2-0.

What happened?

The Bantams had to wait until the second half to convert their control into goals, eventually going ahead via Macauley Gillesphey and Nick Powell. David Okagbue saw red for Posh late on and Bradford's first win of the League One campaign was a relatively comfortable one in the end.

Why it matters for Peterborough United

There was some frustration from the hosts before the goals went in, but Alexander was pleased his players did not lose heart. He said: “I thought the performance was really strong all the way through the game. The intensity that we played at was excellent.

What comes next?

We could have taken the lead in the first half, hit the woodwork twice and had a few other opportunities flashing across the goal. We had to make sure that defensively we were strong, because they've got a lot of attacking talent throughout their team. But I said at half-time that we have to keep this intensity up. We have to keep banging the door.

It's difficult for the opponent to stand up to it and I thought we did that all the way through the game. It's important for us to understand not everything's going to go our way all the time. There's going to be a little bit of frustration sometimes or disappointment in the lack of end product.

But as long as we keep the game strong and never lose heart, that will build up our resilience to seeing games through. Peterborough United manager Luke Williams said: “There was no malice and it wasn’t a discipline thing. He's just trying to flick the ball, but he's a big guy and his foot was high.

It was tough against a very good side and we weren't able to really get control of the game. I think for the most part we competed pretty well, but we lost too many duels. There was an error from a set-piece which meant they got the first foothold in the game and I don't think we were able to be enough of a threat to get back in it.

Current form

Peterborough United currently sit 17th in the League One table, with 52 points from 43 games. They have scored 62 goals and conceded 62, with a goal difference of 0. They are 41 points behind leaders Lincoln and have a recent form of DLLDL.

Injury update

Peterborough United are currently without S. Hughes and R. Adebisi due to injury.

Next match

Peterborough United's next match is against their League One opponents, with the date and time to be confirmed.