[themaclad]

v
Venue


LAST MEETING

Bradford City 0 Preston North End 3


LAST TIME OUT

Grimsby Town 1 Bradford City 1


Preston North End 3 Wigan Athletic 0



wiki

Bradford City Association Football Club is a professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the only professional football club in England to wear claret and amber, and have worn these colours throughout their history. They have though been known by various nicknames, with the "Bantams" being the most commonly used nickname as it appears on the current club crest. Supporters hold West Yorkshire derby rivalries with Huddersfield Town and Leeds United, as well as an historic Bradford derbyrivalry with the now non-league side Bradford (Park Avenue). The club's home ground is the 25,136-capacity Valley Parade, which was the site of the Bradford City stadium fire on 11 May 1985, which took the lives of 56 supporters.

The club was founded in 1903 and immediately elected into the Football League Second Division. Promotion to the top tier followed as they won the 1907–08 Second Division title and then they went on to win the 1911 FA Cup Final, which remains the club's only major honour. They were relegated in 1922 and again in 1927, before winning the Third Division North title in 1928–29. Another relegation in 1937 did allow the club to go on to win the Third Division North Cup in 1939, however a further relegation followed in 1962 to leave the club in the newly created Fourth Division. They secured promotions back into the third tier in 1969 and 1977, but were relegated in 1972 and 1978. They found success in the 1980s under the stewardship of first Roy McFarland and then Trevor Cherry, winning promotion in 1981–82 and following this up with the Third Division title in 1984–85, though they were relegated out of the Second Division in 1990.

Bradford were promoted back into the second tier via the play-offs in 1996, before securing another promotion in 1998–99 to reach the Premier League, marking a return to the top-flight after a 77-year absence. They entered Europe and reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2000–01, but ended the campaign with relegation out of the Premier League. A succession of financial crises followed as the club entered administration twice in two years and further relegations followed in 2004 and 2007 to leave the club back in the fourth tier. They found success under the management of Phil Parkinson by reaching the 2013 League Cup final and then going on to win that year's League Two play-off final, but were relegated out of League One in 2019.

Fire

The Bradford City stadium fire was an accidental conflagration which occurred during an English League Third Division match between Bradford City and Lincoln City on Saturday, 11 May 1985, killing 56 spectators in the stadium and injuring at least 265.

The Valley Parade stadium, the long-established home to Bradford City Football Club, in common with many other British football stadiums of the time, was known for its antiquated design and facilities, which included the wooden roof of the main stand. Previous warnings had also been given about a major build-up of litter in the cavity below the seats in the stand. The stand had been officially condemned and was due to be replaced with a steel structure after the football season ended.

The match against Lincoln City, the final game of that season, had started in a celebratory atmosphere with the home-team receiving the Football League Third Division trophy. At 3.40 p.m., a small fire in the main stand was remarked upon by the TV commentator John Helm, but in less than four minutes, with the windy conditions, it had entirely engulfed the whole stand, trapping some people in their seats. In the mass panic that ensued, fleeing crowds escaped on to the pitch but others at the back of the stand tried to break down locked exit doors to escape, and many were burnt to death at the turnstiles gates, which had also been locked after the match had begun. There were many cases of heroism, with more than 50 people later receiving police awards or commendations for bravery.

The disaster led to rigid new safety standards in UK stadiums, including the banning of new wooden grandstands. It was also a catalyst for the substantial redevelopment and modernisation of many British football grounds within the following thirty years.

Bradford City continues to support the Burns Unit at the University of Bradford as its official charity.



Incomings at Bradford

Happy Gary Bowyer has had a busy time during the summer basically bringing in a new squad, virtually all free transfers but with experience James Vaughan, Sean Scannell, Clayton Donaldson, they still have a certain someone called Eoin Doyle who once scored a hat trick against us and also got me a free ticket to a cup tie against Arsenal due to getting sent off at Sheffield Wednesday.
As for the game expect us to make wholesale changes always a risk as proved at Accrington two seasons ago, might get to see how Harrop and Bayliss play together.
Strangely think the home side may be slight favourites for this, as for the ground like the place massive stand behind the game hard to forget though first time I went was a couple of months before the fire.
The ground has changed considerably since then, coach for me the road trips begin

[themaclad]

Match Officials: Bradford City Away
The referee appointed to take charge of Tuesday night’s Carabao Cup tie with Bradford City will be refereeing the Lilywhites for the first time.

Matthew Donohue will be the man with the whistle for the game, visiting the Utilita Energy Stadium for the second time in the calendar year, having refereed the Bantams’ 3-1 home win over Peterborough United in March, when former North End striker Eoin Doyle was amongst the scorers.

Last season the match official took charge of 37 games, issuing 135 cautions and seven red cards and this season he has officiated two games, Saturday being his first Championship game, Hull City’s 2-1 success against Reading.

His first game of the season took him to Crewe Alexandra, where Ryan Lowe’s Plymouth Argyle had a 3-0 away win, but the yellow card was brandished eight times.

The other members of the third team involved in Tuesday night’s first round clash see Philip Dermott and Robert Merchant as the assistants and Andrew Miller taking fourth official responsibilities.

[themaclad]

Hello

[Lord Snooty]

Worra dump!

[St Charles Owl]

Nice result for you tonight, makes the exciting trip to Bradford worthwhile!!!!

[themaclad]

Easy win full report tomorrow Neil put out a strong side

[themaclad]

Bradford City 0 Preston North End 4 Green, Barkhuizen 2 Harrop

Bradford City line-up: Hornby, Longridge, P O’Connor ©, A O’Connor, Scannell (Patrick, 73), Doyle, French, Anderson, Akpan, Wood, Devine (Colville, 73). Subs not used: O’Donnell, Mellor, Richards-Everton, Donaldson, Palmer.

PNE line-up: Ripley, Browne, Rafferty, Ledson, Clarke ©, Storey, Barkhuizen, Bayliss, Stockley (Harrop, 71), Potts (Walker, 80), Green (Ginnelly, 72). Subs not used: Crowe, Pearson, Davies, Maguire.

Attendance: 3,456 (917 PNE fans)

Referee: Mr M Donohue

As easy as it gets, apart from a brief spell at the start of the second half when City hit the bar and a chance which was put put wide right at the end this was a stroll for the Whites.
Neil made a stack of changes from Saturday but this did not look like a second string side, given our lack of full backs Browne ended up at right back and didn't look out of place.
Two goals in the first 20 minutes, Clarke's cross was fired home at the back post by Green, the second Ledson's superb defence splitting pass found Barkhuizen who slid the ball past Hornsby, from then on in it was game management.
Green could have added a second however his goal bound shot hit Stockley, there were rare attacks from City but these were easily dealt with.
After the initial second half pressure we were gifted a third Anthony O'Connor's attempted pass across the area only found Barkhuizen and it was game over. (Celebration)

Harrop, Walker and Ginelly were then given some useful match time, Harrop with his first touch fired in a shot which took a deflection and looped over Hornsby's head into the net.
Could have had others Barkhuizen with brilliant control fed Harrop who found Potts but a defender closed down the shot for what could have been a great goal. Late on as I said City missed a sitter.
Job done Wembley here we come


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q_JATVwY2Q

Manager Alex Neil was delighted with the attitude of his squad as they secured a place in the second round of the Carabao Cup.

The gaffer asked his players to give him a selection headache ahead of the next game and they certainly did that with a superb performance and a 4-0 victory.

"I thought it was important that we gave the other players an opportunity to show what they can do. We spoke a lot before the game about making sure they put a really good performance in and making my job for the weekend as difficult as possible.

"I don't really think they could have done much more, they were excellent to a man. It's really tough at the moment to pick a squad, but they are the headaches you need. All the lads can do is go and perform very well and win the game and they did that."

"When you've got good players and you leave them out, they are naturally frustrated and disappointed but what they always do is they react. I thought all of the lads did that tonight and I think they all thought 'well, this is what I can do, I've got plenty to offer this club and plenty to offer you going forward' so I was delighted with every one of them."

On the attitude of his side throughout the game, he continued: "Attitude is key, if you come here and you're attitude isn't quite right and you think you're just going to roll up because you are in a higher division, that's the wrong way to go about it.

"I think if your quality on the night is not right as well that can be a problem, and if you're sloppy, and I didn't think for most of the game that we were any of those three at all.

"I thought our attitude was excellent, our quality was very good in terms of being patient and moving the ball and when we got our chances we were clinical."

The tie saw full debuts for Tom Bayliss and Andre Green, with the latter opening his account for the season with the first goal of the night, and the manager was happy to see the on-loan Aston Villa man get off the mark.

"I think the first goal is always important because when you get that first one, Bradford needed to change tack slightly and come out and attack a bit more to get back in to the game and that leaves a lot of spaces for us after that and I think that's how the game panned out.

"It was nice to see a wide player getting inside his full back, it's something we talk about regularly. Callum used to do it really well, Tommy B [Barkhuizen] does it really well and so it's nice to see Andre getting in there and getting his goal, it was very good."