McCall facing challenge to lift the gloom around Bantams

The visit to West Ham United during the Bantams' first season in the top flight for 77 years had everything as Paul Jewell's side took the lead three times en route to building a 4-2 lead only to eventually lose a nine-goal thriller.

Amid the thrills and spills, the crowd were also treated to an outrageous sulk from Paolo Di Canio as the Italian responded to having a third penalty appeal turned down by walking to the touchline and pleading with manager Harry Redknapp to be substituted.

The then Hammers boss, quite rightly, told his striker to stop being so stupid and, after initially choosing to stage a sit-down protest as play continued around him, the Italian went on to inspire the home side to a remarkable fightback.

Sitting in the press box at Upton Park that afternoon, it was difficult to keep up as the goals rained in to leave the 25,417 crowd breathless come the final whistle.

The game may have been a decade ago but, to City fans, it must seem a lifetime away after a truly miserable slide that has seen their club relegated three times and endure two stints in administration. Today, they sit 16th in the basement division and seem as far away from a revival as at any point in the past 10 years.

Thanks to an imaginative season ticket pricing policy, Bradford continue to attract five-figure attendances but those who make the fortnightly trip to Valley Parade are doing so with increasingly heavy hearts.

Last weekend's defeat to Lincoln City means, effectively, that the club's season is over. Usually, a run that has brought just one point from five games would have the relegation alarm bells ringing but Grimsby Town and Darlington are so poor that it is difficult to see either getting far beyond the 30 points City have right now.

The likelihood, therefore, is Bradford ending the depressing cycle of being relegated every three years since the turn of the Millennium but that will be a small crumb of comfort to supporters who have watched their team collect just 13 points from a possible 42.

No one will be feeling City's pain more than Stuart McCall. Many managers may profess their loyalty to a club but few, deep down, genuinely mean it. McCall is different, his love for Bradford has run deep for more than a quarter of a century and the city loves him for it – as proved by there having been no campaign for the manager's removal despite the under-achievement of the past two-and-a-half years.

Instead, mitigating circumstances are put forward to explain City's failure this term with the reduced wage bill and his players' alarming tendency to commit the most basic of errors being the most commonly mentioned.

Such a show of support in a game where precious little patience is shown either on the terraces or the boardroom is admirable but, even so, it is fast approaching a time where the situation cannot be allowed to rumble on.

McCall, for his part, has indicated a willingness to see the task through, his talk of quitting last April having been replaced by a defiance that he remains the right man for the job. It is to be hoped he is right as few figures in football deserve success more than the former Scotland international.

Such a stance does, however, throw the spotlight on joint chairmen Mark Lawn and Julian Rhodes who now face the unenviable prospect of possibly having to show City's all-time most popular figure the door.

It is an almighty mess that few, and certainly not this correspondent, could have predicted when Rhodes worked so hard to tempt McCall back to Valley Parade in 2007. Looking at the League Two table, it is easy to feel empathy due to all parties being decent men who only want what is best for their beloved Bradford City.

But, as another season passes Bradford by, what matters now is that the rot is stopped and either results must show a distinct improvement in the coming weeks or changes will have to be made.

Otherwise, the danger is that the cheapest season ticket deal in the land will eventually not be enough to prevent even the most committed fan from deciding there are better ways of spending Saturday afternoon. And at a club which has suffered more than its fair share of financial indigestion in recent years, that scenario is something City simply cannot afford.