Bradford City's promotion leaves Alex Pattison pushing for prominent role in League One challenge

He now wants to sample the total experience when it comes to League One.

The Darlington-born midfielder admits he wasn’t in the best place in his only previous foray in the third tier with Wycombe Wanderers in 2019-20.

It may have been a season which ended in the Chairboys’ being elevated to the Championship, but, away from friends and family, that period of his career was tough.

Even promotion was surreal with Wanderers beating neighbours Oxford United at a deserted Wembley in the play-off final with spectators absent due to Covid regulations.

Pattison eventually returned north to Harrogate and his form earned a move to City.

In front of Valley Parade’s record fourth-tier crowd of 24,033 earlier this month, he played his part in a proper promotion party amid the happiest of times.

He said: “When I signed here, that was my aim. Last year, it didn’t happen and I was injured a lot.

“We were so close to getting in the play-offs last year and have been absolutely tremendous this season, especially since Boxing Day and didn’t lose many games at all and deserve to be where we are.

“I can’t wait and it will be amazing to go and play in a higher league. I have played there before, but wasn’t really a mainstay in the team and it would be nice to play a bigger part.

“I worked ever so hard when I signed for Harrogate (after Wycombe) and to be fair, they were absolutely brilliant for me and got my career back on track.

“I had two years before that and there was stuff going on, off the pitch.

"I played some of my best football there (Harrogate) as I have here and I’d like to think I played a big part in what we achieved.”

The nature of City’s incredible promotion achievement in the club’s annual memorial match to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Valley Parade fire disaster suggested that things were meant to be and written in the stars.

Like many others, Pattison was a nervous and angst onlooker as the clock ticked down deep into stoppage time against Fleetwood.

The play-offs were calling, only for Antoni Sarcevic to step up and save the day.

Pattison, who came off at the break after being on the receiving end of a heavy tackle late in the first half, forgot his pain and celebrated with the best of them.

The relief was palpable and the partying afterwards was long and joyous, understandably so.

It provided memories for a lifetime and like others of a claret and amber persuasion, Pattison has celebrated the moment with an iconic tattoo.

Inking ‘Sarcevic 90+6’ has kept many tattoo artists busy, including Pattison’s.

He added: “If you were guaranteed that (way of promotion) at the start of the season, you’d take it.

“But when it got to that 96th minute, I was standing up in the dressing room and watching it in that doorway and thinking: ‘please, just score, we need to score. Get it done.’

“We did it and there’s a video of me jumping about on one leg outside the changing room.

“But we deserved it and were brilliant all season.”

While Sarcevic’s strike in the most dramatic finish ever to a game at Valley Parade overwhelmed the senses and accentuated the experience of promotion, the club’s rollercoaster journey before that made the achievement even sweeter and meaningful in many respects.

City certainly were not promoted the easy way, but it remains a triumph thoroughly merited, according to Pattison, who got the season rolling for the Bantams with their first goal of 2024-25, just two minutes in at MK Dons last August.

He continued: “I know we had a little blip and maybe a bit of nerves came into play, but that’s human nature and the same with all teams up there.

“We also had some massive challenges with injuries and sending-offs and Cooky’s (Andy Cook’s) injury was massive. If it wasn’t for him, we probably wouldn’t have been in that position we were in anyway with the goals he scored.

"Maybe some things went against us because of our own doing, but we achieved what we wanted to and that’s all in the past now.

“We got the job done and are in League One and we’ll give it a right good go.

“Since the turn of the year, we were incredible. Our home record was incredible and if we’d gone near to matching it away, we’d have been home and dry and steamrollered the league.

“It wasn’t the case, but we still got up.

"The lads who signed in January played a massive part and everyone did and it was a special group and I am so glad we did it."