By Jason McKeown

Oh hi there. It’s great to see you. How are you? I hope you’re having a great summer.

So, are you ready to start again? Okay, I just need a few seconds first…actually, I need a bit longer…let me just take some deep breaths…okay.

I’m sorry, but I’m really struggling to get going again. I know it’s the start of the new season. We’ve got new signings to be excited about, a lovely new home kit to consider buying, and the pre-season friendlies are about to begin. Saturday afternoons are set to become busy again – and that’s just how we like it. There is much to look forward to.

But truth be told I’m not over it yet. That is to say, I’m not over that play off semi final defeat to Carlisle United.

A good few times each day, I have involuntary flashbacks to the raw pain of that sun-soaked afternoon at Brunton Park. The sight of Carlisle fans invading the pitch in joy at full time. Ben Barclay, unmarked in the box, heading the goal that sent the Cumbrians to Wembley. That bloody substitution from Mark Hughes. That moment when Richie Smallwood was through on goal and needed to shoot but crossed. The fact the team just didn’t turn up on the day. It hurt so much then, and it still rankles.

Sure, the 2022/23 campaign was a good season. Maybe not successful, as Hughes recently tried to claim. But there were some really enjoyable moments – especially at Valley Parade. Grimsby home was an epic occasion. The joy of stoppage time goals against Colchester will take some beating. Memorable afternoons at Rochdale and Northampton, where everything was coming together and the excitement levels were off the scale. Andy, Andy Cook – getting the ball and scoring a goal. Super Harry Lewis in goal.

Lots to look back on and smile about. But also other moments of anguish and regret. The mess up at Crewe, when automatic promotion was very much on. The Swindon loss, where it all started to go wrong. Gillingham scoring at Valley Parade, seven minutes into injury time. And all those other last minute goals we conceded for that matter. Regrets? We’ve had a few.

Missed opportunity was the damning verdict you can apply to 2022/23. All that build up, all that momentum. It was like blowing up a balloon that kept getting bigger and bigger. But we weren’t able to tie up its end, the air drained out, and the balloon ended up flying around the room. Deflated, and now it’s in need of blowing up all over again.

To be a Bradford City supporter of any real length of service is to know disappointment, frustration and let down. It instils into you a heavy sense of pessimism. And that is what I’m currently taking into pre-season. Because yes, there’s a lot of reasons to believe that City can go again and have an even better year. But there’s also a lot of reasons to fear that it will go badly wrong from here.

Last season ended with the sixth play off campaign in City’s history – they’ve now won two and lost four of them. And in each of the previous ones we’ve lost, the club has failed to bounce back and get promoted the year after.

Of course, that’s a really small sample size, full of circumstances that do not link together. But still, it’s a fact that we’ve never recovered from play off heartache to go one better the following year. To succeed this season will be to produce our own small piece of history.

Instead, the scars of 1987/88 and 2016/17 in particular tell us to be wary about what happens next. After both of those play off losses, the club struggled the year after and sacked their manager. Amazingly, in both instances, City were relegated to the division below within two years. That’s probably not going to happen this time, but it’s another example of something within the club’s DNA that habitually stops it from showing resilience to on the field set-backs. Like the fact that only once in our history have we been relegated and then promoted back up the year after.

That inbuilt Bradfordian pessimism just makes it too easy to imagine a similar year of post-play off defeat blues. Maybe we’ll start well, like we did in 2017/18. But that disappointment will still linger, ready to be piled on at the first sign of a bad run. Maybe Hughes will see out the final year of his contract, at the very least. But it doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to picture him coming under fire from fans and losing his job mid-season.

When you add in the fact League Two looks much tougher this year, there’s further reason to rue the Brunton Park anguish. At the recent fan forum, someone said they were sick of hearing about Wrexham and that’s fair enough. But they’re favourites for a reason. Get used to the noise that will only get louder.

Notts County look financially powerful. Gillingham, in their first full season under new ownership, will be even stronger. Stockport County probably won’t be hindered by the weak start they made to last season. Salford continue to pack a financial punch.

It’s not going to be easy.

But before the doom and gloom goes too far, we should pause. Because there are reasons to be optimistic too. Each year at Bradford City, there’s always some sort of positive slant applied to events – and the theme this year is continuity. The fact that City aren’t signing 17 players this time around, or that a new manager is trying to embed his values, is held up as a good thing right now.

And I do agree with that. For every single year since – well, let me think, I want to say 2015? – we’ve had big changes on and/or off the field during the close season. Lots of players coming and going, different managers, ownership even switching over at one point. Usually, there’s some major alternation in strategy being applied, such as a new playing style or recruitment philosophy.

This year is the first for a long time that things are settled. And if we want to find reasons to believe that this won’t be a repeat of post-1987/88 and 2016/17, it comes from the fact we haven’t lost key players. In 1988, Stuart McCall and John Hendrie left Valley Parade. In 2017, Mark Marshall, James Meredith, Josh Cullen, Billy Clarke and Rory McArdle exited. There was a rebuilding job needed. That is not the case this time around.

There was some debate in the summer that the club should have been more ruthless with its out of contract players. Get rid of Liam Ridehalgh and Alex Gilliead, rather than offering them new deals. And I get those arguments, but I’m sort of glad they’re still here. I’m reassured we begin the year with the same goalkeeper, full backs, and strikers. The centre of defence and central midfield options are slightly bolstered, but still have a familiar feel. Sure, losing the on loan Scott Banks and Romoney Crichlow is sad – but they’re not irreplaceable players.

The point is we shouldn’t be weaker this season compared to last. It doesn’t mean we’re going to achieve the same things, or do even better – the competition, as we just talked about, is tougher – but it puts us in a solid position to start inflating that balloon again. We’ve set up some sort of base camp, part way up the mountain. Rather than resetting at the bottom.

I’m trying to talk myself into being excited about this season. And at some point, I promise I will be. Perhaps those giddy feelings will return when I get to a friendly game and watch a City player belt the ball into the top corner. Maybe it will return on that first afternoon on the Kop for a League Two game, when there’s a positive atmosphere to soak up.

We have no choice but to keep going. We cannot undo the misery of Carlisle and the despair of not getting promoted. We have a good group of players and an off the field set-up that is edging us closer to success. We can look forward to matchdays that are as good, if not better, than some of the brilliant ones of 2022/23. There are reasons to believe we can end our League Two exile this time.

But it isn’t easy, getting over what happened on 20 May. And some of us probably just need a little bit more time before we’re truly ready to move on and embrace the now.

Categories: Opinion

Tags: 2022/23, BCAFC, League Two