By Jason McKeown
Is it a blessing or is it a curse? To be a Bradford City fan, you get the opportunity to see a lot of different parts of the UK. The club’s ups and (mainly) downs have taken it from the bright lights of the Premier League to the harsh landscape of League Two. If you’ve followed City for long enough, you’ve had the opportunity to see them play Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Mansfield and Morecambe. Glamour away trips to Anfield and Stamford Bridge. Gritty visits to Huish Park and Roots Hall. Oh and lots and lots of days out at Vale Park.
There’s variety for sure. A wide spectrum of away fixtures that few football clubs can compete with. Whilst supporting a team like Everton means the same away days year after year (after year), being a City fan gives you a very good chance of joining the 92 club. After City travel to Bromley in January, Fulham’s Craven Cottage will remain the only other club in the 92 City haven’t played at since 1994.
It’s a journey of wide variety that Bradford City supporter Duncan Yellen has captured in his captivating book ’92’. Having first set foot inside Valley Parade in December 1984, Duncan has travelled the length and breadth of the country supporting the Bantams. 92 is a collection of crisp memories, funny anecdotes and wry observations from his adventures around England’s top 4 divisions. He isn’t quite a member of the 92, with a few grounds to tick off, but it’s fair to say he’s seen an awful lot.
Books about the 92 sometimes seem ten-a-penny. What makes Duncan’s story different is the way his trawl around the grounds is told to the backdrop of him growing up and navigating life. He talks about trips to Huddersfield, Reading and Scunthorpe, not so much in terms of what those grounds are like today, but what they were like to visit in the 1980s. We go around the 92 in a completely random order – random to everyone but Duncan, who samples them on his own individual path, as a regular football fan. In other words, the way all of us haphazardly tick off new grounds.
92 also tells the story in a relatable way of how friends, family and matchday routines evolve over time. In his early years, Duncan talks about the joy of passing his driving test and owning a first car, giving him and his friends the chance to sample all sorts of away games. Later, Duncan moves South for work reasons and makes a new friend in fellow exiled Bantam, Pat, who becomes his new matchday companion. Duncan even admits to stopping going for several years when he his own kids and family takes priority, before a resurgence of interest in the last decade, going to games with another new friend, Tony, and his kids.
All of which might be of limited interest for a book if City were stuck in the same division, experiencing the same away days, year on year. But Duncan’s story takes place with the Bantams rising from the lower divisions to the Premier League and back down again. Duncan gets to tell the story of going to Chester and Plymouth, and then a few pages later it’s visits to Manchester United and Tottenham. It’s a reminder of the amazing unpredictability of the last four decades of being a City fan. If you’re feeling weary about yet another visit to Tranmere in a few weeks time, let’s just hope history repeats itself and City go on another expected surge up the ladder, swapping Birkenhead for Merseyside and visits to Liverpool. Hey, it happened once…
Like the fixture list, 92 throws up a wide range of topics. Duncan goes deep talking about some away grounds and clubs he’s visited, then in the next chapter he’s talking about City’s status at the time, or a former player fondly remembered. Some games totally forgettable, some away trips remembered forever because of the 90 minutes that unfolded. Again, it all echoes the kind of conversations we all have with our matchday mates when we look back at away games over the years. Remember that miserable trip to Oxford with that dodgy pub? What about that day when Kyel Reid smashed in a 30-yarder against Walsall?
All in all, Duncan has watched games in over 100 different stadiums (including Wimbledon in three different grounds). His story is well worth a read. ’92’ costs under a tenner with profits going to the Burns Unit. It’s fun, packed full of memories and is a nice reminder of the long and winding road that we all follow as part of being a Bradford City fan.
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A very good book… and I’m not at all biased!
ps: we will be there at Tranmere… lucky us
Shades of Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch!
Ordered, thanks for the heads up.
On a sort of related topic, I lived down south when we was in the Prem, so went to most London and Midlands games. I’ve got to say, West Ham and Villa where my favourite grounds. Both great atmospheres, but the Villa fans were great fun to have a pint with.
Ordered, thanks for the heads up.
On a related topic, I lived down south when we was in the Prem so I visited most London and Midlands clubs. Upton Park, and the Villa ground were my favourite. Great fans and atmosphere in both.