By Jake Verity

Two potential scenarios.

It’s August 2nd, 2025:

Scenario 1: Our first competitive game against Huddersfield Town in 12 years since August 6th, 2013. The away end is full of 4,000 Bantams who have made a short trip across West Yorkshire. The team walks out of the tunnel, with Andy Cook making his competitive return to action. Consecutive home games will follow this against Derby and Bolton with over 20,000 tickets sold for each match.

Scenario 2: After agonisingly missing out on promotion in the 24/25 campaign, a few hundred Bantams have made the long trip to Swindon. Home games followed against newly promoted Barnet and Forest Green Rovers. The Bantams are tipped to be a promotion contender once again after recruiting strongly in the summer window.

It’s simple really. This is what the next few weeks may define for us.

A chance to finally get out of this division and begin playing bigger sides more regularly. An opportunity to have a fuller Valley Parade, bigger away ends and some Saturday afternoons we won’t forget in a hurry.

Or it’s more of the same. Being tipped to go up for another season. Looking over at an empty away end inside Valley Parade, or struggling to get a good ticket allocation away from home. More episodes of the Truman Show – stuck on the Hamster Wheel of League Two life.

While promotion of course gets us up the pyramid and brings with it more money, better players and a greater chance of success – there’s the very real impact it has on our Saturday afternoons and Tuesday nights as fans.

We travel the country and sink our time, money and emotions into this club. So wouldn’t a chance to visit different places, see new teams and as I started this piece, potential for a West Yorkshire Derby in the league is all exciting.

But that could be Halifax or Huddersfield at the minute. That’s ultimately what this is about.

On the March

We’re a few games into the month that we thought would define our season, but hasn’t quite proved to do so in the way we hoped.

It is really simple. Just keep winning games of football and we are pretty much up, barring a huge turnaround in our fortunes.

Five games minimum out of our next nine should be enough.

But there has been a problem of late. After finding a way past Bromley and Salford and giving a perfect performance against Cheltenham – optimism was at an all time high.

But two losses against Gillingham and Tranmere have brought us crashing back down to earth. With Alex Pattison, Bobby Pointon and Antoni Sarcevic out, we’ve undoubtedly struggled.

Many of us saw March and a slightly kinder fixture list as the chance to create a points buffer. But those opportunities have evaporated quickly, with our final two fixtures of the month against a Colchester side who have flown up the league – and an Accrington side who are quickly pulling themselves into safety.

April is a bumper month

It doesn’t get easier after that, either.

In fact, it is April that will decide everything for us. We play 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th; as well as a 12th placed team battling for the play-offs and a 15th placed side who have a record almost as good as us since the New Year.

We shouldn’t fear anyone. But now is the time to start winning. We all know it. But I really mean it. Because the final three games in April are very, very tough matches. All fairly local teams against strong sides with good support. It is going to be very, very difficult if we can’t find a way to win quickly.

We will not only be playing to win points for ourselves. But to take them away from other teams. Each match counts.

The disappointment could finally come to an end…

Every season I buy the FourFourTwo guide before the opening game, to see what they rate our chances. The truth is I’m often left disappointed when we aren’t put in the conversation for the top-seven. Because as an optimistic fan, I simply have seen promotion as a given for too long. It’s hopefulness rather than overconfidence.

But every year I end up disappointed. So when I bought a copy this year, I vowed to go into the season with no real expectations. Because I was sick of being let down.

But now we are in the scenario I’ve wanted for years. There is a very real chance we can win promotion.

We have been competing for most of the season and put bluntly would have the most immense post-season regret if we missed out. Despite all our setbacks, we have clawed our way up the league and fate lies in our hands. We are not waiting on anybody else to drop points. We are not hoping for a miracle.

For once Bradford City hold the power to make their own destiny, which is more frightening than it is exciting.

I hope when I buy a copy before the first game of next season, I’m looking at our name on a League One table – but there’s a long way to go.

We all learned quite quickly and harshly that the League wasn’t won away at Salford – and as an eight point gap over the automatics has turned to three, the pressure has built.

… but for now, it’s time to just enjoy it

Many of us are no doubt finding our position in the league a bit stressful – and very different to what we are used to. This is the first time we’ve been this high up the table in about 25 years at this time in the season.

But for all I and others have well documented our struggles the last few years, bring them to the forefront of your memory and look at how different things are now.

If it’s a choice between going back to those more difficult moments, or worrying about whether we’re getting automatic promotion or play-off football; I’d happily do this every season!

But this weekend, the team needs us. They have proven over the course of the year they are a more than capable squad. Yes, the last two games have been disappointing and we are missing key players, but there’s no need for extreme pessimism to set in. We have a chance – and can make it happen.

As the club has done credit to itself putting tickets on sale for a fiver, and the two most in-form teams in the division play each other on Saturday – we have the chance to create memories that will last for a lifetime. This might feel like hyperbole, but it would be our third ever automatic promotion in our history if we can do it.

So let’s meet this moment with what we’ve got. Bradfordian pride and determination. Fortress VP to be a wall of noise and to push the players metaphorically as the 12th, 13th and 14th man out there. We must rise to this occasion, and unlock a new era for this football club.

We can do it. I’m confident and you all should be too.

But we must do it together. Because after years of underperformance, underwhelming and underdelivering – we have maintained one thing. Our sense of unity and commitment to the club which we will show this weekend when we turn up in numbers. And renew our season tickets for next year.

When you factor into the equation we’re up against the Cowley brothers this weekend, there’s extra reason to meet this game with some extra passion and pride.

Because we got the manager who has delivered good times to Bradford City so far this season.

But by going one step further here, and over the next eight games afterwards – they can be great ones.

Categories: Opinion

Tags: BCAFC