By Sacha Gatenby, Associate Sports Editor
If you follow the English Football League, then you may have come across the season’s current feel-good story; the post-promotion success of Bradford City A.F.C. Perhaps you’ve also seen the claret and amber chicken stickers floating around on social media captioned; “you’ve just been pecked by the chickens.” Fans of the Bradford City ‘Bantams’ have been invigorated by the team’s current run of victory in League 1, having so far only lost one match (knock on wood) to Doncaster. With this Orbital Issue’s theme being ‘movement’, I thought it would be fitting to look at the progress being made at Valley Parade that is pushing the team back into football relevance after the decades long dry spell.
When looking into Bradford City’s team history back to their founding in 1903, the only major trophy they are credited with is the victory at the 1911 FA Cup final. Otherwise, you’re looking at a mediocre run at best, which pains me as a fan to admit. That is what my dad, a lifelong Batams supporter, has always iterated. To quote him loosely; “being a Bradford City fan means you should always expect disappointment.” I’m glad to see that given the teams current victorious streak his disposition is slowly shifting, however he is still ever the sceptic.
Perhaps part of his mindset stems from having endured the team’s 1999 promotion to the Premier League, where they lasted two seasons, and then subsequent triple relegation all the way back to League 2 by 2007. It was certainly a painful adjustment for the Bradford City community, and the proof is in the pudding with the turbulent finances of the club at the time. As expected, when a lower league team earns promotion to the richest domestic league in the world, they rarely survive.
As such the relegations forced the club into administration in both 2002 and 2004. In the age of technology, social media, and marketing, money is essential in the world of football. For a front of shirt sponsorship deal for one of the big names in the premier league, companies would be looking to splash up to £60 million, so you can see why the Bantams struggled to stay afloat in this era.
The darkest point in the team’s history however was the tragic Bradford City Stadium Fire on the 11th May 1985, that took place during a Saturday match and claimed the lives of 56 fans. With the wooden roof and build up of litter underneath the main stand, what started as a small fire escalated in four minutes to a much larger disaster. Every year before kick-off at the last home game of the season the team and fans come together in memory of those who were lost on that day.
This past May 3rd, just shy of the fire’s 40-year memorial, was one of those matches. The atmosphere in the stadium was tense, there was the burden of a potential loss on such a significant anniversary year, and also the opportunity to claim the final spot in automatic promotion if the team were to come away with a win. After a rather uneventful game, with many goal opportunities for the Bradford players but none landing, the game went into stoppage time. In the 96th minute, English player Antoni Sarcevic broke the 0-0 tie with a much anticipated goal. Fans stormed the pitch, valley parade grounds turned into a sea of claret and amber, and the team had earned promotion to League 1.
Since then, the form has been impeccable, which I don’t need fan bias to admit. They have now well surpassed the expected adrenaline fuelled early success run and it is evident that the attitude in the locker room has flipped. Graham Alexander, manager of the club, has clearly had an effect, after having sought the job at Valley Parade in hunt for a new challenge in his career. In an interview with the Greatness on Demand podcast about his move to Bradford City, Alexander said;
It is clear his heard work is paying off, and proving himself he is, because Bradford are on the rise again. One day I would love to see the Bantams back on top, and be able to experience my team fighting in major tournaments again, just like my dad was briefly able to. But for now, the teams current moral and the electric energy surrounding their early season success has brought so much joy back into the spectacle of football.
The ‘under-chickens’ of the EFL football are on the rise, and no matter the results, I hope that the Bradford City A.F.C. community will always keep their spirit.