It seemed lest than 2 months ago that I bought a ticket to see Bradford City’s last game of the season. Little did I know at the time that Bradford would be  sitting 3rd in the League 2 table, and in the last automatic promotion place needing to do better than Walsall, playing at Crewe, to go up.
I have seen Valley Parade set on the side of a hill overlooking the city many times as I passed through, with its huge stands, and I couldn’t understand why I have not been before.
I approached the ground and found parking a problem with the large crowd like me getting there early. Driving past Grosvenor Road, a throng of fans were swaying and chanting their way to the stadium under a haze of orange smoke from flares. Eventually, I found a space and abandoned the car, half on the path, near the top of one of Bradfords many hills. A 23-minute walk initially downhill but then the steep ascent to the ground. People were swarming in, in a happy mood. Inside the ravenous hall entrance to the Morrisons stand, I was greeted by long queues for food and drink, so I made my way up numerous steps to the top where my seat was near the back.
Wow, what a view of Bradford and hills beyond with spires and domes illustrating the multicultural life of the city.

Bradford is our ‘City of Culture’ for 2025, and in the ground, I was experiencing one of the events that shape some of our country’s culture.
After a week of temperatures in the mid 20’s it had dropped today to 14 degrees, with grey overcast clouds giving way to some blue skies and sunshine. The pitch shone a bright green with the flat grass surface cut in stripes. All parts of the stadium have seated stands but those behind one goal and down one side are immense, part of the redevelopment that followed the disastrous fire in 1985 that cost the lives of 56 fans on that fateful day, being remembered today, close to the May 11th anniversary.
The atmosphere was all consuming with a deafening noise and  the brilliant orange and claret. The day was all about Bradford, but a group of Fleetwood fans made themselves known as they stood and chanted.

The teams entered the arena like gladiators and lined up for introduction. They then moved to the centre of the pitch to observe a minutes silence in remembrance when you could have heard a pin drop. Raucous applause, and the teams were ready for the contest.

Bradford City 1 Fleetwood Town 0

Saturday 3rd May 2025. 17.00 kick off
English Football League Division 2
University Of Bradford Stadium, Valley Parade, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, BD8 7DY.
3rd v 14th.  Bantams v The Cod Army  or the Fishermen

After the first 15 minutes, the Bradford fans had quietened due to the tension, and just 8 minutes later it was Fleetwood who had the first real chance of the game, which was blocked and cleared by defenders.  Play was continually interrupted with injuries, and on 35 minutes, the teams took advantage with a drinks break.

Although Bradford retained most of the possession, neither side looked like they were going to break the deadlock as the teams left the field at hal time.

A cold wind blew up at the interval, hopefully not a portent of a cooling second half.
Bradford continued to press forward, but their high balls were easily dealt with by Fleetwood’s big back four. Some wing play, particularly from the left and long throws from their right back, did cause the most angst for Fleetwood.
Halfway through the half news came through from Crewe that Walsall had scored and the crowd groaned, knowing that only a win would see them up. A few ripples hope we’re extinguished when information of a Crew equaliser were unfounded. Could the introduction of substitutes galvanise the team to score.

It seemed unlikely, although the board saying 6 minutes of added time gave hope. Halfway through this, a shot hit the post, but the crowd continued to believe, and Bradley Halliday strode over from the right to deliver his last long throw. It reached the penalty area and was headed down for Antoni Sarkevic to get a foot to it. Somehow, it caught a slight deflection and ended up in the right-hand corner of the net.

Pandemonium broke out, and people from all around the stadium invaded the pitch. Most realised that time was not up and booed the interlopers. Stewards, police, officials and loudspeaker announcements finally cleared the pitch but an ill timed announcement of the goal scorer, with the words Bradford one Fleetwood nil only provoked another invasion as they only heard ‘Bradford won’. Another frantic effort again cleared the pitch for the referee to play one minute and blow the final whistle. Que pitch invasion and Bradford City were promoted in the Year of Culture.
Just down the road Leeds too were celebrating their winning of the Championship. No one cared here. It was all about their local sister city that is starting a fight back after so many years in their shadow.
I was out of the stand like a shot and sailed down the many stairs reflecting on an amazing finish to a game and a season. How lucky was I to be part of it.

Football food.

The queues were so long that I didn’t have anything. There were, however, no chips on the food menu anyway.