Farewell to basement football as City enjoy big day out

ON a weekend of footballing farewells, it was somewhat fitting that Bradford City should bid adieu to League Two.

The departure of messrs Ferguson, Carragher, Owen, Beckham, Scholes et al from their respective stages has hogged the back and inside back pages for a fair few days lately and most definitely today when a moribund end to the Premier League has ensured journalists have taken retrospective action in their coverage.

Just don’t expect many readers in Bradford to have taken much notice.

The only goodbye that the 24,000 who made the pilgrimage to Wembley on Saturday were interested in was waving off six years of largely tortuous times in the Football League’s bottom tier, which has been a festering and embarrassing sore for the claret and amber faithful since 2007.

In the event, City made their exit firmly through the front entrance with more than a hint of swagger and not via the back door, putting a choice pair of size 12s right through the frame as they inserted the boot into Northampton Town – whose supporters refer to themselves as the Shoe Army – good and proper to nail down a place in League One in well-heeled style.

After Swansea’s lesson in chic against City at the same Wembley venue on February 24, we were treated to the sight of a sophisticated and seamless destruction of a limited Northampton outfit, many of whose supporters would have been forgiven for taking a flyer and heading back to Euston early to make a speedy return to the south midlands long before the final whistle.

For this was a role reversal to Swansea’s polished Capital One Cup dismantling of Bradford, whose nasty bout of stage fright almost 12 weeks earlier was matched by the calamity Cobblers.

The white-hot style of Michael Laudrup’s Swans was this time displayed by the men in gold and black with Phil Parkinson looking the embodiment of cool on the touchline just as the classy Dane did in late winter.

At the end of that one, Laudrup was given the bumps and thrown in the air by his ecstatic cosmopolitan brigade of Swans players. This time we had good old-fashioned British hugs with the embrace of Parkinson and his trusty lieutenant Steve Parkin at the final whistle saying it all.

While a chorus of Land of My Fathers was resonant in February, on this occasion, the stirring refrains all came from the west end of Wembley and were delivered by Yorkshiremen and not their Welshmen. Men from the Valley – Valley Parade that is. And on the pitch, it didn’t take much working out who were the daddies on the day.

Midland Road, take me home got an airing or three, while this time around the Wembley excursion was quite possibly the big trip City supporters will have been on. Although there have been some memorable day and night trips this season, to be fair.

All that was perhaps missing was a special rendition of ‘Bantams Will Tear You Apart’ in deference to the Joy Division classic which was also adapted by Swansea fans.

The start of a day which saw thousands of City supporters leave behind a dreary West Yorkshire morning promised to be as seminal as spring outings on May 14, 2000 and May 9, 1999 and it ultimately proved just as rewarding.

While the events of Molineux and THAT header from David Wetherall will be recalled forever and a day by City fans, new picturebook memories were created at a revered venue.

Their last visit to this part of the capital was more about a day out, there was more of a sense of occasion and of theatre.

Those 32,000 awe-struck Bradfordians, busy pinching themselves at the incredulous sight of their side competing for one of the game’s three big domestic honours, struggling to cope with the seemingly madcap prospect of a place in Europe being up for grabs.

City dared to dream, but reality bit back somewhat, although with not too much collateral damage.

This time, it was business before pleasure and definitely not a case of just being glad to be there and enjoying the scenery.

Afforded the same east end of the stadium as 83 days earlier, City fans wanted a host more boxes to be ticked, with their heroes in gold and black doing that to the letter.

Talk in the City camp was of having a score to settle at the home of football after taking 87 minutes to muster a shot against Swansea, when they were transfixed by the Welsh side’s irresistible footballing gaze.

In the event, the Bantams delivered their answer within a thoroughly dominant first 15 minutes when the likes of Wells, Hanson and Reid did very passable impersonations of Dyer, Michu and Routledge. Albeit without the white jerseys.

Like a tired heavyweight being given the runaround by a technically gifted rival, Northampton were already well behind on points before the equivalent of a left hook from Hanson, with an unerringly accurate header, saw them take a count on 15 minutes.

The one-two soon arrived when Rory McArdle followed up his choice goal against Villa in January, with another thing of beauty as far as the City fans were concerned on a day which had started as swimmingly as the Swansea game began so horribly.

If anyone could empathise with what the Cobblers contingent were going through, it was perhaps City’s supporters, with another head-in-hands moment arriving just before the half-hour as the League One party invite was signed and accepted by in-form striker Nahki Wells.

The Bermudian’s willingness to talk the talk when he declared he would score at Wembley against Aidy’s Boothroyd’s side could have seriously come back to haunt him on another day.

But the goal poacher emphatically proved that he could also walk the walk. This was no Malcolm MacDonald foot-in-mouth episode of 1974 when Supermac’s bold declaration that he would shred Liverpool’s defence ahead of the cup final came back to haunt him and proved serious hot air.

The impish striker led the flat-footed and ponderous Cobblers defence a merry dance all game while the lad who used to work at the Co-op, Hanson, had the PFA’s very own Clarke Carlisle – praised for his polished and erudite views on a variety of forums such as Question Time and Countdown – struggling to find the answers.

It seemed too good to be true, certainly for the more seasoned City brethren. Moreso given a dramatic sharp end of the campaign for Yorkshire’s clubs when compelling twists have seemingly been lurking behind every corner.

But here the story ended with no further bewildering twists of fate on an afternoon which proved comfortable in the extreme for City, whose previous play-off final success at Wembley against Notts County in 1996 was also reasonably routine.

With giant forward Clive Platt and his brawny second-half replacement, Adebayo Akinfenwa failing to punch their weight so manifestly, the game degenerated into a time-marking exercise for both Cobblers and City players.

Bradford-born Town boss Boothroyd suffered the polar opposite in play-off emotions almost seven years on from when his Watford side swat aside Leeds United in comprehensive fashion in the Championship play-offs.

Some may have ventured that losing to his hometown club would have slightly softened the blow of defeat. Although it’s unlikely you would have heard him admit to it.

This was City’s day and welcome redemption, Not just from almost three months earlier, but from too many painful episodes to mention against Accrington, Morecambe and a whole load of others. Now, as the song says, ‘City are back...’

Emotional chief Lawn dedicates win to sick wife

AN emotional Mark Lawn dedicated Bradford City’s Wembley fairytale to his wife Yvonne, currently battling cancer and by his side on Saturday.

Mrs Lawn was well enough to attend the League Two final showpiece, having been too ill to share in her husband’s joy in the aftermath of City’s previous high point of an incredible season at Villa Park in January, when they booked their place in the Capital One Cup final – wearing the same gold and black away strip they wore at Wembley.

Speaking after the game, joint-chairman Lawn said: “I am a bit emotional, certainly with my wife here.

“You can see it in her face that it meant a lot.

“I just dedicate this win to my wife.”

Lawn will now honour a promise he made to his son to have a tattoo to mark City’s crowning glory of an unforgettable 2012-13 if they won on Saturday.

Lawn, who celebrated promotion back at Valley Parade with a few ‘shandies’ with fans in the McCall and Hendrie Suites at Valley Parade – and a choice bottle of Louis XIII champagne – said: “I have got a City Gent tattoo, so I think I am going to have Wembley and the (Saturday’s) date now.

“I will get it on my right arm, just underneath where the other one is.”

On City’s sweet success, Lawn added: “We did to Northampton what Swansea did to us in February.

“Being a Bradford City fan, this is absolutely wonderful for me.

“It’s been a magnificent season; 64 games – a lot of credit has to go to Nick Allanby, our fitness coach. He has got the players up and ready for every single game.”