Mark Trueman admitted there had been a few home truths told after Bradford fell to their fourth straight defeat with a 2-1 loss at Port Vale

The Bantams had led through Clayton Donaldson but conceded an equaliser just two minutes later as Theo Robinson struck.

After then falling behind to a Tom Conlon penalty, Bradford failed to really trouble their hosts, and joint manager Trueman said there had been some frank discussions in the dressing room.

“We had a good conversation with the players and they spoke openly after the game, which was needed,” he said.

“We had a conversation with them when they first came in, about what we wanted from them and about sticking together as a team and managing these moments better collectively and individually.

“They know that they haven’t been good enough today; it’s not just me coming out here and blaming players, they know it, they’ve been honest about it and they’ve got to show that honesty when they go out on the pitch to compete.

“They’ve shown that we can beat any team in this league, this group of players are good enough but when things change you start to see who’s really fighting to win football matches.

“We started brightly, we were on the front foot, even though they looked like they had the potential to play through us.

“But we had to manage those moments better, that’s what we didn’t do and that’s led to us chasing and playing into their hands by going a bit more direct.”

Port Vale’s win made it nine games unbeaten for Darrell Clarke.

And though they could not get a sixth straight clean sheet, the Valiants boss was delighted they showed their mettle in coming from behind.

“The pleasing thing for me is that we haven’t gone a goal down in our run,” he said.

“I’ve been waiting for that, I’ve been waiting for the reaction to it. It’s fine when things are going well for you, everyone is getting pats on the back and everyone’s getting carried away, which they shouldn’t do anyway.

“But to react when something hits you like that and to come back and win the game was the most pleasing aspect for me today, to be honest.

“Successful teams come back in games and I don’t think we’ve done that very well this season.

“The most important thing is always going to be the W. I think the team has deserved that, not just the defence but for our defending as a team. It wasn’t to be but the reaction was superb.

“I’ve been mentioning it in the last four or five games, and it wasn’t me being negative towards the boys, it’s just the fact of the matter, it’s football. You need to come from behind in games and we’ve done that today.”