Written by Jason McKeown (images by John Dewhirst)

It was weird to be on the other side. Last Wednesday in the office, and two Huddersfield Town fans are anxiously watching the clock, waiting for 9.30am – when tickets for Bradford City away would go on sale. There was a scramble for tickets, which for my two colleagues would ultimately end in disappointment. Apparently the system crashed. Oh, and it turned out tickets were available to buy on the site earlier than advertised. A ticket shambles. Huddersfield sold out their allocation within minutes, leaving my friends and others frustrated at missing out on the big game.

And it really is a big game. Bradford City vs Huddersfield Town. Two clubs separated by a mere 13 miles. A derby. A derby that hasn’t taken place in the league for 18 years. A derby that hasn’t been staged at Valley Parade for nearly 19 years.

That last BD8 meeting came in October 2006. Then, as now, a third tier fixture. Huddersfield Town won 1-0 through Mark Hudson’s first half header, spoiling City’s promising start to the season. The Bantams line up included names that are fondly remembered – Donovan Ricketts, David Wetherall, Mark Bower and Dean Windass. Other players involved maybe less so – Ben Parker, Lee Holmes, David Graham, Marc Bridge-Wilkinson. The Huddersfield team that day included one Michael Collins. I’m sure he’d make a fine manager one day.

2006 feels an awfully long time ago. Tony Blair was Prime Minister. George Bush the US President. Sven Goran Eriksson stepped down as England manager after the underwhelming World Cup performance in Germany, with that bright young Steve McClaren put in charge (I imagine that will end well).

In 2006 the Nintento Wii was released, with thousands camping out overnight to be amongst the first to buy one. An obscure platform called Twitter was launched – ignored by most of us in favour of maintaining our MySpace pages. James Blunt was terrorising us with the earworm song “You’re Beautiful”. Arsenal had just left Highbury.

The 18-year absence of Huddersfield Town on the fixture list makes this Saturday feel like such a major event. A rivalry returns after a very long absence. Bragging rights retrieved from a dark corner of the loft, waiting to be claimed once again.

Small wonder, then, that Huddersfield Town fans battled hard for the 2,700 tickets made available to the visitors. Long-standing Terriers fans who have made this trip before are likely to have decent memories. Valley Parade is (sadly) a happy hunting ground for Huddersfield. They’ve won three of their last four trips to this corner of West Yorkshire – and lost only two of their last 14 Valley Parade encounters.

City’s record isn’t great then. But even if the right result has been a little too infrequent, Bradford City vs Huddersfield Town is rarely a quiet affair. Let’s take a potted trip through history and look at some of the most memorable City vs Town meetings at Valley Parade.

City 4 Town 0 (1 April 1922)

Bradford City definitely had a head start on Huddersfield. Elected into the Football League in 1903 without ever playing a game, the Paraders quickly climbed into the top flight and became one of the best teams in the country. As City celebrated lifting the FA Cup in 1911, Huddersfield had only just completed their very first season as a Football League club.

But the power was shifting. After World War I, City were in financial trouble and their First Division status precarious. Huddersfield rose to the same tier in 1920. And so the first four City-Town derbies proved unique to all the others that have followed – they took place in the top flight.

By 1921/22, City’s luck was certainly running out. They spent fairly big during the close season as they tried to replace an ageing side – including smashing their transfer record by splashing out £3,000 (£3,000!) on Billy Watson. But it was all in vain. City won only 11 games and shipped 72 goals, getting relegated alongside some little-known club called Manchester United (not sure whatever became of them).

April had brought a glimmer of hope. They welcomed Huddersfield Town to Valley Parade and smashed the soon-to-be FA Cup winners 4-0. Former England international striker Billy Hibbert netted all four goals. The fact he only scored nine other times that campaign, and was City’s top scorer, said much about their struggles.

A week after that they played Town at Leeds Road and won again (2-1). And the week after that, they defeated Newcastle. It left them needing only five points from their final five games to avoid relegation.

They lost the lot.

The 1920s continued to be tough for City, as they eventually fell to the Third Division for the first time in history. And what of Huddersfield? Well, they only went onto win the First Division. Three times in a row.

Luckily, their fans have never mentioned it since.

City 3 Town 1 (19 March 1977)

If 19 years between Huddersfield league visits to Valley Parade seems a long time, try 53 years. That was the gap between City’s 4-0 Town success in 1922 and the Terriers’ next trip to Valley Parade, in 1975, for a Fourth Division league encounter that finished 2-2.

The season after that, City were closing in on only their second promotion in 58 years, when Huddersfield came to town in March. A side expertly managed by Bobby Kennedy and featuring Joe Cooke (17 goals that season), Terry Dolan (11 goals), Ces Podd and Peter Downsbrough comfortably beat Huddersfield 3-1.

It was the first of six home victories in a row. The Valley Parade winning streak only ended with a 1-1 draw at home to Bournemouth that would prove enough to take City up. Ultimately, the Bantams finished in the fourth and final automatic promotion spot (no play offs then), going up by one point.

The Huddersfield success was every bit as important as any of the other 22 victories they chalked up along the way.

City 4 Town 3 (15 November 1986)

We’ll take a scoreline like this on Saturday please, although we definitely don’t want it to take place in same venue. For this was a West Yorkshire derby in Bradford that didn’t take happen at Valley Parade. It was held at Odsal Stadium, home of Bradford Northern, where City reluctantly took temporary residence following the Valley Parade fire disaster.

As the stadium was rebuilt, City had spells staging home games at Huddersfield’s Leeds Road (which the players apparently really enjoyed) and Leeds United’s Elland Road. But there was a political will to ensure that City continued to play in Bradford, hence a decamp to Odsal.

It’s fair to say no one connected with City enjoyed the experience. Odsal was not a football ground, with the stadium set up for Rugby League and Speedway. The circular speedway track actually overlapped the pitch, meaning artificial grass had to be added to the four corners (see picture below).

Those who ventured to games found themselves stood well away from the action – and they didn’t even have the luxury of a roof on the stand to spare them getting soaked when it rained. A far from impressed manager Trevor Cherry said of Odsal, “I can’t understand why anyone plays any sport there. It should be filled in and used as a rubbish tip.” Ouch!

The team never really looked settled, and results were iffy. But for this derby game, the second season at Odsal, the end was in sight and Valley Parade would reopen within a month. As if to celebrate the beginning of the end, this game proved to be a rare highlight. Goals flew in at both ends with City triumphing. At the time it was a fourth defeat on the spin for Town, who would ultimately only narrowly avoid relegation.

City shortly afterwards harshly sacked their Odsal-hating manager Cherry, and under replacement Terry Dolan enjoyed a flying end to the campaign. All paving the way for the nearly season…

City 0 Town 1 (2 March 1988)

The game that still leaves City fans of a certain age waking up in a cold sweat.

Bradford City were closing in on top flight football for the first time since 1922. A team spearheaded by the talented John Hendrie and Stuart McCall was competing brilliantly at the top of the Second Division, playing some wonderful football along the way. At Valley Parade they were especially formidable, going on a mid-season run of winning 14 out of 17 home outings. So when bottom side Huddersfield rocked up on a Tuesday night – without an away win all season – the outcome seemed a formality.

But this is Bradford City of course.

And so against all odds, Huddersfield triumphed. A 1-0 win. It’s worth reflecting (or should that be sniggering) at just how awful Town were back then. Statistically 1987/88 is their worst-ever season. They conceded 100 league goals, won just six games, and finished 14 points below second-bottom Reading. This was also the year they famously lost 10-1 to Manchester City.

And yet for how inept they were, they beat high-flying Bradford City. That’s why this game has its own chapter in the Big book of Bradford City infamy.

Especially because of what happened next. Two days later, a shell-shocked Dolan hit out at the directors of Bradford City for not investing enough in strengthening the squad, telling the Telegraph & Argus, “We feel the policy the board are pursing is the wrong one if they are ambitious to get into the First Division.”

The argument still rages onto this day. What can’t be disputed is that the lack of signings hurt City during the final straight. They narrowly missed out on automatic promotion and lost in the play offs. The team was broken up, with McCall and Hendrie (the latter crucially suspended in the run-in) moving on. A downwards spiral began.

The Huddersfield Town defeat is looked back on as the crucial moment it began to unravel. The biggest of missed opportunities. It wasn’t enough to save the Terriers from relegation, but even in their darkest hour Huddersfield went a long way to ensuring there would be no promotion glory at their near neighbours.

City 3 Town 4 (24 September 1994)

As Ryan Sparks will testify, sometimes taking the first step forward is the hardest part. In January 1994 Geoffrey Richmond bought Bradford City and pledged to deliver Premier League football within five years. The Bantams narrowly missed out on the Division Two play offs that year, but Richmond wasn’t satisfied. Frank Stapleton was sacked as manager. Lennie Lawrence recruited as his replacement. Relatively big money was spent in the transfer market. 1994/95 would be a season to savour.

Only it didn’t go to plan, with City finishing a lowly 14th and Richmond’s Premier League pledge looking foolhardy. Worse still, Huddersfield stole a march on City. They would end the season promoted to the second tier via the play offs. All the way back in September, they had laid down a marker by winning 4-3 at Valley Parade.

The first half was pretty quiet, through Paul Reid put Huddersfield in front. In the second half the game exploded into life. Paul Jewell (“everything he touches turns to goals” – according to the commentator on the video below) made it 1-1.

Ronnie Jepson put Town in front. Chris Kamara equalised, before a young Andy Booth netted twice to put Huddersfield 4-2 ahead. City did pull one back late on through John Taylor (a then-club record signing who largely struggled), but Neil Warnock’s charges held out.

It was a body blow for the Bantams. They had come flying out of the blocks that season, but were now starting to struggle. This loss was part of a run of eight defeats in 13 games that quickly left them with too much to do.

As City floundered, Town soared. In what was their first season at their new stadium, promotion was achieved after beating Bristol Rovers 2-1 in the Wembley play off final.

Still, it would only take 12 months for the Bantams to catch them up.

City 1 Town 1 (1 February 1997)

City 1 Town 1 (28 December 1997)

The two games are linked because the battles weren’t consigned to the pitch but also the courtroom. First up was the 1996/97 meeting, where tensions boiled over in the worst possible way.

It was feisty. Town scored in under a minute when Gary Crosby struck. Soon after City’s recent record buy, Gordon Watson, went in for an elbow challenge that these days would have attracted a red card. Still only four minutes in, Watson and Town defender Kevin Gray chased a loose ball. Watson got their first, but Gray launched into a two-footed lunge that broke the striker’s leg in two places. All hell broke loose. Amazingly, Gray was only booked for the horror tackle. The legendary Jimmy Hill would later describe it as “the worst challenge I have ever seen in all my numerous years in association football”.

Watson was stretched off and an ambulance raced him up to Bradford Royal Infirmary. He was operated on whilst the game back at Valley Parade was still taking place – it would finish 1-1, with Chris Waddle equalising for City before half time.

When Watson regained consciousness after the operation, he found Chris Kamara and Geoffrey Richmond sitting at the end of his hospital bed. A fuming Richmond told Watson they would be taking legal action against Watson and Town.

It did indeed go all the way to the High Court, where after a five-day hearing Mr Justice Hooper ruled in favour of Watson’s loss of earnings but against City’s compensation claim. Watson was eventually paid substantial damages (totalling nearly £1 million) but the lasting impact on Watson the player was significant.

Watson had only agreed to sign for City to put himself in the shop window for a return to a Premier League. Despite some memorable moments for City after recovering from the broken leg, he was never able to get back to where he wanted to be. “That tackle ruined my career”, Watson told me when I interviewed him for my book Who We Are.

During the period in-between the horror challenge and Watson’s return, Kevin Gray got to continue playing football. And that included making his one and only return appearance to Valley Parade in December 1997. Fair to say his presence did not go unnoticed, with his every touch of the ball booed and jeered by City’s support.

It was one of the most notable aspects of a stalemate game. Again, it finished 1-1. Again, the goals were exchanged fairly early. Robbie Blake got City off the mark with a nice finish 10 minutes in, before Paul Dalton equalised just after the half hour point. Not too much else happened, but the game is significant for one other reason. It was to be the last time Chris Kamara managed City at Valley Parade. A week and an FA Cup defeat to Man City later, Richmond shocked everyone by sacking him.

Both sides finished in the bottom half of the table that season, but the arm’s race to the Premier League was about to have its winner…

City 2 Town 3 (17 April 1999)

Was history really going to repeat itself? Once again, Bradford City were pushing hard for top flight promotion. Once again, they lost at home to Huddersfield in the run-in. At the time this loss seemed every bit as painful as 1988. I can still remember the huge collective sense of anguish as we filed out the Kop at full time.

The game started well with Robbie Blake scoring – the fourth City-Town encounter in a row he found the net. But then Stephen Wright unexpectedly scored an own goal on 20 minutes, and seconds later Wayne Allison got clear of Darren Moore to head home for 2-1. Then ex-Manchester United starlet Ben Thornley skipped through and made it 3-1 Huddersfield – leaving us all utterly shell shocked.

The contest was far from over though. Steve Jenkins was controversially sent off just before half time, and after the interval City laid siege to the Town goal. Dean Windass pulled one back with 18 minutes left, and shortly after a Watson header across the box was handled. Penalty. Windass stepped up…his effort was saved. You knew there and then we were beaten, and sure enough Town saw it out to deal a massive body blow to City’s promotion hopes. “I am sick but that is football,” rued Paul Jewell after the game.

Only it wasn’t a repeat of 1988 after all. The team recovered to win the following week, as promotion rivals Ipswich faltered. Three weeks on from the gloom of losing the derby, City were celebrating promotion and Town were sacking their manager. A little-known guy called Peter Jackson.

City 2 Town 0 (5 March 2005)

The last Bradford City league derby victory, and it was a lot of fun. Andy Cooke (not that one) scored just before half time when he whipped home a low cross from Marc Bridge-Wilkinson, who was making his home debut. Dean Windass – on route to earning the League One golden boot – made it 2-0 early in the second half after Cooke set him up.

It was the most comfortable of home wins. A big occasion where City absolutely turned up.

2004/05 was a difficult year for the Bantams, but one of rising optimism. A year before the club had been painfully relegated before going through the trauma of another spell in administration. For a time in the summer of 2004, it seemed like curtains for City – that we would no longer have a club to support. An 11th hour rescue brought salvation, and we went into 2004/05 celebrating the mere fact we still had our beloved football club.

Which made each victory that occurred over 2004/05 all the sweeter. And there was none more special than this West Yorkshire derby success. Especially as this was City’s first home win in 11, ensuring they just avoided setting an unwanted new club record. “I know one result doesn’t make a season but that was a big, big win for us,” beamed Colin Todd.

Indeed it was.

City 1 Town 2 (10 October 2005)

This one was live on Sky Sports. A Monday night affair with iffy weather. Town were in healthier fettle that season and showed it during this game. Mark Hudson scored with a curling free kick effort 21 minutes in – the City back-up keeper Russell Howarth, who was in for the injured Donovan Ricketts, should have done better – and you feared it would be a long night for the Bantams.

But the presence of those Sky TV cameras had quite the effect on one particular player, who otherwise contributed very little during his single season wearing claret and amber. Bobby Petta shone for the national TV audience, producing a dazzling display that was completely out of sync with his regular disinterested performances.

It was Petta who got the equaliser for City with a thunderbolt free kick after 35 minutes. And at 1-1 the Bantams seized the momentum to really push Town back. The half time pause did them no favours though. They never got going again in the second half.

And that opened the door for Town to nick it late on, when Andy Booth stole to scramble home a 79th minute winner. The assist went to future City defender Nathan Clarke, who produced a stunning-if-out-of-character overhead kick that Booth flicked in. It was a well deserved away win. As Simon Parker wrote in his match report after, “Huddersfield seemed to want it more.”

Certainly Todd was unhappy and singled out substitute Danny Cadamarteri for scathing treatment. “Danny only had 20 minutes but it was an opportunity and he didn’t take it. He won’t take the responsibility and that’s the disappointing factor about him.” Yikes.

The City boss was understandably more positive about Petta’s showing. Maybe he should have told the Dutchman that every City game was live on Sky.

City 0 Town 1 (7 October 2006)

Which brings us back to that latest Valley Parade meeting between the two sides. It’s a game we wrote about earlier in this summer.

To briefly recap, Hudson scored at Valley Parade for the second season in a row to nick the win. Danny Adams was sent off for booting Nathan Doyle in the air, for which the young loanee was further rewarded with a barrage of bottles chucked at him by Town fans whenever he came near them.

Doyle reflected on the game after, “It was one of those days when you play well and nothing will go in for you – and being a local derby it feels worse for everyone.”

If there are worrying omens for Saturday that point to a repeat of Town’s last success, it’s that then – like now – City were unbeaten at home going into the derby. It was part of a flying start to the season that has small echoes of what the Bantams have achieved so far this campaign.

But this current City side are clearly made of sterner stuff. They’ve continually proven their ability to win big games. And for both sets of supporters, there won’t be many League One fixtures this season that are bigger than this.   

Categories: Opinion

Tags: BCAFC, Huddersfield Town