Pressure welcomed by Jackson as he tries to turn beloved City around

AS Peter Jackson prepared to take his first Bradford City training session yesterday morning, an acute sense of deja-vu suddenly hit the man entrusted with steering the club through at least the next two games.

The reason was simple. He was back at Apperley Bridge, the place where it had all begun 34 years earlier as a teenage defender hoping to forge a career with his hometown club.

Jackson went on to do just that, making more than 350 appearances for City in two spells so his return as the club’s interim manager has been an emotional experience. And one that has understandably stirred the memories for the 49-year-old.

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“It is wonderful to be back at Bradford,” admits Jackson when talking to the Yorkshire Post in the 1911 Club at Valley Parade an hour or so after taking charge of his first training session.

“I haven’t slept for the last two nights due to the excitement I feel at being back. I don’t know if I am the first Bradford-born manager of the club but I do know how proud I feel right now, and I haven’t even taken charge of a game yet.

“Being back at Apperley Bridge was when it properly hit me. I first played there at 15, a year before I even signed pro for Bradford City, so it was strange to be back in the place where everything started for me.

“It hasn’t changed a bit, either. Obviously, Valley Parade is totally different to when I played. The club’s support has grown massively, too, as shown by the 15,000 who turned up last Saturday against Stockport despite Bradford starting the day fourth-bottom of the Football League.

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“I remember playing once in front of less than 1,300 here at Valley Parade against Hereford. That shows how the club has moved forward.

“But, in terms of the training facilities, they are the same.

“The only thing that is different, thankfully, is that the current players don’t do what we used to do – race each other to training in a morning. We would get changed at the ground and then pile into five cars, four of us in each.

“Then, the race would be on to get to Apperley Bridge first. It was like Wacky Races and, as someone who used to sit in the back of (legendary striker) Bobby Campbell’s car every day, totally petrifying.

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“Bobby, as anyone who saw him play, never did anything by half, including driving like there was no tomorrow.”

City turned to Jackson following Peter Taylor’s decision to stand down last week. Contact was first made last Thursday and an offer made the following day that will see the 49-year-old in charge for Saturday’s trip to Gillingham and the derby at home to Rotherham United a week tonight.

After that, what happens next remains unclear as joint chairmen Julian Rhodes and Mark Lawn continue to sift through the applications that have flooded in since Taylor’s departure was confirmed.

Jackson, who has been out of football since leaving Lincoln City 18 months ago, is under no illusions that the pressure is on to deliver straight away.

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He says: “This is where Peter Jackson’s career started and, in a week or so’s time, it could end here too. That is down to results, which I fully understood when I came in. I know the board will be going through a list of applicants, they might even be talking to someone right now.

“What I will say, though, is I want to stay. In the time I was out of management, I don’t think I realised how much I missed it. But I do now and I am desperate to be part of Bradford City’s future.

“I read the comments by Mark (Lawn, joint chairman) in the Yorkshire Post (yesterday) about me being in the driving seat.

“Whether that car stalls or not, we don’t know. But I am in the seat with the keys in my hand and I can’t wait to drive this club forward.”

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Considering his heroic service as a player and captain, not least in the wake of the 1985 fire disaster that claimed 56 lives, Jackson’s credentials as a proud Bradfordian should not be in any doubt.

However, two spells as manager of rivals Huddersfield Town plus a stint as a player means there has been criticism in some quarters of the Bantams board following the appointment.

On internet messageboards, for instance, the dissenters have made much of an alleged quote made by Jackson when in charge of the Terriers that he “bled blue and white” – meaning he is somehow not committed to the club where it all began for him in football.

Ask the man himself, however, and he maintains no slight was meant against any of the clubs he has served. “I understand that some fans will be against me coming back,” says Jackson, who was born in Bradford and moved to Keighley at 12.

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“What I will say, though, is that when I was at Huddersfield, I may have bled blue and white. But at Lincoln, I bled red and white.

“At Bradford, I bled claret and amber as a player and will be exactly the same as a manager, no matter how long I am here. I will bring exactly the same enthusiasm to this job as I did my others. No one will ever be able to fault me for effort, I can promise you that.

“To see Bradford fall to where they are now has been painful as an ex-captain of the club and someone who was born in the city. I want to be the man who reverses that fall.”