Bradford City – Unreliable History, Club Records and Details

Following these heady days, the club slipped from grace (a lovely girl) and found themselves in the Fourth Division as their fortunes fluctuated during the swinging sixties. When things did turn in their favour, what should have been a day for celebration ended in disaster. An 11,000 crowd had gathered on 11 May 1985 to cheer on Terry Yorath’s Bradford side that had claimed the Third Division title. Just before half-time, someone noticed smoke coming up through the wooden floor of the main stand, which had served the City fans for 77 years. The alarm was raised, but nobody had realised that a pile of rubbish had ignited below the seating and within 5 minutes, the whole stand was ablaze. Tremendous feats of heroism from fans and staff alike were witnessed by the television cameras that were at Valley Parade, as attempts were made to rescue people from the stand with the roof alight and raining burning material from above. In total, 56 people lost their lives that sad day and 200 suffered burns. Following a report into the fire, safety was tightened up at grounds across the country to ensure that a disaster like this would never happen again.

It was suggested that following the fire, the club should relocate at a new venue, but local feeling was strongly against this and Valley Parade has (literally) risen from the ashes with a smart new Pulse stadium. The team have consolidated their position in the First Division, with the help of some exotic signings (i.e. the Brazilian Edinho, not Eddie Youds).  Their last day survival in the Premier League in 2000 at least gave them another year to build on before they hit the bottom three of the table and stayed there for most of the season.  So, in 2001, their odyssey came to an end and they will have to rebuild from the First Division.  Successive managers had little chance to make a difference to their plight and with ever more financial difficulties (the club went into administration for the second time in February 2004), the club slipped into Division Two at the end of the 2003-04 season and the future looked difficult for manager Bryan Robson.

The Bantams fought against relegation and financial strictures and stayed in the bottom division, but in 2012-13, the team put together a fine run of results in the League Cup, knocking out Arsenal and Aston Villa on the way to the final, where a sending off condemned them to a 0-5 defeat at the hands of Swansea City.  The disappointment was tempered by promotion to League One, where a succession of managers kept them until they finished bottom of the pile in 2019.

FAMOUS PLAYERS:- Cec Podd, Charles Capon, Ian Ormondroyd, Donald Duckett, Phillip Flippitt, Stuart McCall, Harry Hampton, Bobby Campbell, David “Bronco” Layne.

FAMOUS FANS : –  John Helm  (Football commentator), John Holmes (Actor – ‘Gonch’ in “Grange Hill”), George Layton (Comedy actor – “It Ain’t Half Hot Mum”, “Duty Free”), Joe Johnson (Ex snooker World Champion), Tony Wright (Musician – Terrorvision)

(Kit images courtesy of the fantastic Colours of Football website)

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