Graham Alexander savoured Alex Pattison’s moment of quality to maintain high-flying Bradford’s impressive home form.
Pattison’s 30-yard blast decided a tight encounter with Accrington as the Bantams moved into the automatic promotion places.
It was Bradford’s eighth successive win at Valley Parade – a streak they last managed 71 years ago.
Alexander said: “That was a tough game for both teams. It was a bit attritional with not many goalscoring opportunities for either team.
“Both teams’ defensive records are good and it was going to probably take a mistake or pure quality to win the game and in the end, it turned out to be pure quality.
“You are going to get games throughout the season which you won’t remember, but you will remember that goal. It was a great strike.
“His first touch sets him up really well and it was a good weight of pass from Bobby Pointon. Patto was able to take the touch out of his feet, as you can get closed down very quickly from defenders, and he hit it with pure venom.
“These players are finding the moments to win the games and then we’re really getting the benefits of the defensive discipline, structure and work ethic of the whole squad to get clean sheets.”
Pattison scored the only goal on 20 minutes, firing home from distance after Pointon set him up from a short corner. Bradford have now collected 39 points at home – the most in League Two.
But Accrington, who remain 20th, were the better team in the second half. They went very close to an equaliser when Alex Henderson’s shot was deflected on to the bar by Bradford defender Jack Shepherd.
Assistant manager Ged Brannan felt the visitors, who lost three players to injury, deserved much more from the game.
He said: “I thought we were the better side by a mile. Defensively we were very strong and switched off from one set-piece – but it was a fantastic strike, to be fair.
“It shouldn’t have happened. We watched set-pieces about them and knew what was coming, but we never tuned in for that one set-piece and that kills you.
“Take that away, I thought we were brilliant. I thought we had a stonewall penalty on Faz (Farrend Rawson) but I’m not going to complain about referees because it’s pointless.
“We seem to be getting nothing at the minute but there were so many positives to come out of tonight.
“You definitely wouldn’t think we were the team down the bottom of the league and they were the ones at the top.
“The teams we’ve played lately in the top six – there’s no gulf between us and them. We’ve had a lot of bad luck.”
