The Width of a Post is brought to you by the following lovely people: Jason McKeown, Tim Roche, Ian Sheard, Luke Lockwood, Omar Eliwi, David Lawrence, Rob Craven, Gareth Walker, Mark Scully, Alex Scott, Damien Wilkinson and Mark Danylczuk.
Read on to find out more about them.
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JASON McKEOWN
Resides: Skipton
Watches City from: Upper tier of the Kop
All time favourite City match: Wolves 2 Bradford City 3 in May 1999. I was lucky to be part of the 3,000 away following who witnessed first-hand promotion to the Premier League.
Additional info: Jason is editor and founder of The Width of a Post. He is also the author of the Bradford City book, Paying on the Gate.
Twitter: @Jason_mckeown
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TIM ROCHE
Resides: Keighley
Watches City from: Kop lower
All time favourite City match: Bradford City 2 Notts County 0 in May 1996. Walking up Wembley Way amongst a sea of claret and amber will live with me forever. It was followed by a near-perfect City performance which sparked celebrations like I had never seen before. This was the beginning of City’s journey to the Premier League and a truly amazing day.
Twitter: @tjroche
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IAN SHEARD
Resides: Wibsey, centre of the Universe!
Watches City from: Kop, top tier
All time favourite City match: Wembley, Wolves or L’Pool. Wolves away ’99 I think. Arsenal at home 2-1 is also a good one! I’ll stop now…
Twitter: @ShadeyBantam
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LUKE LOCKWOOD
Resides: Skipton
Watches City from: Kop up in the gods.
All time favourite City match: Thinking outside of the 1-0 win against Liverpool, it has to be 3-1 away to Rochdale in 2010. It followed possibly my worst ever City match – a 2-0 away defeat to Accrington Stanley (Peter Taylor’s first game in charge).
Expectations were low, but a huge following travelled to the league leaders to see Robbie Threlfall make one of the best debuts I have seen by a City player. As he stood over that free kick I turned to my friend and said that I’d heard he was a set piece specialist (I hadn’t) but my friend then told whoever would listen. Threlfall pinged the free kick into the top corner, set another up from a corner and generally looked like a superstar. And of course Gareth Evans also scored that wonder goal.
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OMAR ELIWI
Resides: Barnsley, South Yorkshire
Watches City from: Midland Road Stand, Block C
All time favourite City match: Wolves 2 Bradford City 3, May 1999 – what a surprise!
Additional info: City first came onto a young Omar’s football radar in 1996 when he was attending school in Bingley and living in Wilsden, after Chris Kamara’s side won at Wembley to get promoted to the current Championship division. Prior to this, ‘glory’ supporting Liverpool FC was all he knew.
A couple of free school tickets and ‘quid a kid’ promotions the following season, and Omar was hooked. This love for watching his local side was supported by the access to extremely cheap junior season tickets in the Geoffrey Richmond era (£19, £23 for example) and has continued ever since.
A move down to London for University post City 1 Liverpool 0 meant mostly southern-based City games were reachable; but following graduation and a round the world trip, Omar has settled back in Yorkshire, via Wakefield and most recently Barnsley – and has again become a season ticket holder since the 2006/2007 season. He hardly misses any home matches, and attends away games where work and family commitments allow.
Twitter: @Omareliwi
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DAVID LAWRENCE
Resides: Bath, Somerset
Watches city from: Afar. Used to watch from the old Bradford end ‘back in the days’. On rare visits to VP usually sit in the Main Stand but wish the seats were removed from the lower Kop, then I’d stand there.
All time favourite match: Blackpool 0 Bradford City 3, May 1996. City were two down after their home leg of this semi final playoff leaving pool manager Sam Allardyce and the Blackpool fans prematurely organising their plans for a trip to Wembley. City had other ideas and won the play off second leg tie 3-0 at the old Bloomfield Road through goals from ‘Dessie’ Hamilton, Carl Shutt and Mark ‘well hard’ Stallard. After this result there was no way they were going to lose the final at Wembley.
Best goal: John Hendrie, August 1987 – Oldham 0 Bradford 2. If you were there you’d know why.
Additional info: David has been watching City since the late 70s in the era of Podd, Hutchins, McNiven and Campbell. As such, he’s watched City in each tier of the football league. He particularly enjoys watching City on their travels, as he likes visiting new grounds and interacting with football supporters from other clubs.
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ROB CRAVEN
Resides: Finsbury Park, North London
Watches City from: Main Stand/ Twitter
All time favourite match: Tough call…I could go for the dream days at Wembley or Wolves; or the game that got us into the play offs in 1996 against Hull, because they were such amazing days and I have so many fond memories them! But I think there is one game that would rival them all…I will always remember the 1996/1997 FA Cup fourth round tie against Everton at Goodison Park for the pure unexpected joy. Magic.
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GARETH WALKER
Resides: Accrington.
Watches City from: Kop Upper Tier.
All time favourite City match: Thinking away from the three obvious ones of Wembley, Wolves and Liverpool, I’d go forGordon Watson’s two late goals at home toBarnsley in September 1998. I find it impossible to describe the euphoria on the Kop when those two late goals went in after what “Flash” had been through and come back from.
Additional info: Followed City since 1991-ish. Fortunate enough to be at Wembley, Wolves and The Liverpool games. One of my biggest regrets is not bullying my Dad enough to take me to the Blackpool away game. Seen City in all four divisions and maintained a season ticket whilst living in London and now Accy. Love my away games, but having to rein them in a bit now due to recently becoming a Stay at Home Dad.
Twitter: @AccyGaz
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MARK SCULLY
Resides: Longridge
Watches City from: Upper tier of Kop
All time favourite City match: It would be easy to say the wins against Liverpool, Arsenal, Wolves etc. But thinking outside of the box in recent years my favourite match would be at Accrington in 2008, where 2-0 down with 10 minutes to go (and being outplayed) we staged a miraculous comeback to win 3-2 it made the short trip home a lot more sweeter.
Additional info: Mark was the resident blogger for the website and podcast We Are Going Up last season covering all things Bradford City, and is hoping to do more of the same for the coming season.
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ALEX SCOTT
Resides: Headingley, Leeds
Watches City from: Co-op
All time favourite game: Bradford 2 Arsenal 1, February 2000. Being eleven years old at the time, I couldn’t possibly claim to remember the intricate details match, or any of its peers, but when I think back to those Premiership years, the mental photographs I took from this game are the first to arrive. Deano’s ingenuity, Saunders’ slip, the disconsolate faces of my childhood heroes Bergkamp, Suker and Petit, they all live long. The subsequent years of numbing mediocrity also aided this game’s cause.
Twitter: @alextscott
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DAMIEN WILKINSON
Resides: Hellifield, Skipton
Watches City from: Block D, Co-operative stand
All time favourite City match: Everton 2 Bradford City 3 FA Cup 4th round, 1996/97.
Additional info: Lured into regular attendance in the nearly season of 1987-88 and haven’t looked back since!
Twitter: @damowilko
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MARK DANYLCZUK
Resides:London (originally from Shipley, Bradford)
Watches City from: Mostly away games living in London (those within an hour distance of travel with the odd sporadic weekend away) but when at home, Midland Road Stand, Block A
All time favourite City match: Bradford 1 Liverpool 0 – May 2000 – can’t beat the atmosphere after the game, priceless.
Additional info: First started watching City in the mid 90′s when my dad started taking me down. Been a season ticket holder since I can remember until moving down to London over 3 years ago.
Part of a small Yorkshire-origin London-based contigent who travel to many away days, experiencing some good (and bad) places, generally decent away fans, often good real ales and some interesting days out. A massive football fan in general and at present, two-thirds into visiting all the 92 grounds in the English Football League. Need City to get promoted to League One and back into Championship as these are my leagues of most grounds remaining!
