Graham Alexander felt Bradford showed their true identity after replacing Walsall at the top of League Two.
Bobby Pointon and Calum Kavanagh scored in a 2-0 win over Crewe – their 12th victory in the last 13 home games.
Pointon’s opener came after just 12 seconds – the quickest at Valley Parade since December 2000 when Ledley King scored inside 10 seconds for Tottenham.
City manager Alexander said: “That was more like us. I felt we let ourselves down at Port Vale on Tuesday.
“I have to keep reminding the players of what our identity is as a team and what’s got us success and we showed that today from minute one.
“The goal was so early I wondered if that might change our performance. I was interested to see if we’d sit back and try to manage it.
“But we didn’t, we kept going and were really aggressive. We stayed on the press and had other opportunities and it didn’t detract from our performance after that.
“It’s where we are in four weeks’ time. We have to keep our eye on just the next game.
“I know it’s going to be difficult. I don’t know if we got a little bit carried away after the last home game and winning 4-1.
“That might have lingered and then we didn’t win the next two games. Enjoy today but on Monday we have to be back to work.”
Crewe had not even touched the ball when Pointon put City ahead, scoring the rebound after Kavanagh hit the post.
The visitors had the chance to level when Aden Baldwin handled in the box but Sam Walker saved Ryan Cooney’s penalty. They also had an Omar Bogle effort ruled out for offside.
Bradford had opportunities to extend their lead before Kavanagh made sure late on.
Crewe manager Lee Bell was unhappy that his side had been caught cold.
He said: “You always lose games of football if you’re not ready when the opposition kick off and we weren’t ready. They weren’t in the correct positions that they should be – two of them weren’t even looking.
“There were people messing with their socks, people dropping off – it didn’t look anything like they expected what was coming. That shouldn’t be the case.
“Ultimately, that’s cost us the game. It’s tough enough as it is coming here.
“We’ve battled back into the game and the lad’s made a good save from the penalty. At half-time we were 1-0 down and they hadn’t really done anything.
“Obviously they’ve scored again when we’re going for it a little bit but ultimately it’s how we started the game before we even kicked a ball that cost us.”
