WAYNE Thorne believes he will have a greater understanding of Bradford Town’s players following their important run of fixtures in the build-up to Christmas.

The Bobcats rescued a point against mid-table Hallen in their latest Toolstation League Premier Division encounter, which saw Thorne’s side reduced to nine men as both Charlie Maddison and Jack Witcombe were shown straight red cards in the second half.

Despite this, a last-minute strike from Will Hailstone ensured Bradford avoided back-to-back defeats and remain eighth in the division.

Thorne said: “We were in control for the whole game, really. We should’ve been two or three up before Hallen had a free-kick on the edge of the box that got deflected in.

“We’ve been giving teams a lot of goals – we need to learn about being tougher at the back.

“That will come, but we have to stop gifting goals.

“We still found ourselves in control of the game, even with nine men. That was pleasing because we dominated the game.

“To score in the last minute was our reward for the team’s effort and desire throughout the game.

“We’ve got to be better though, we need to be beating team’s like Hallen – who sat back and wanted to make the game scrappy.”

Having been in charge at Trowbridge Road for six weeks, Thorne admits the club’s recent loss to Plymouth Parkway and last weekend’s draw at home to Hallen will help him understand characters within his squad better.

He added: “I’ve got to learn characters off the pitch and on the pitch.

“Games are coming thick and fast now. We’ve got Willand on Saturday and then the FA Vase.

“The boys are going to have to show a lot of character over the next four to six weeks.

“We have got characters in the squad, and we showed that on Saturday when we went down to nine men and still got ourselves a result in the last minute.”