And back to the football

Last updated : 24 July 2007 By Tony Scholes

Yes, we're on our way back to the Bradford & Bingley Pulse Flamingo Land Pension Fund Intersonic Valley Parade Stadium to play a side that only six years ago were playing Premiership football and are now preparing for life in League Two - be warned other Yorkshire club fans in the area, it could be you next.

Times have been difficult for Bradford City, ever since Mr Pompous decided to trade the entire crown jewels to pay for Benito Carbone and Stan Collymore, and those difficult times have included administrations and no fewer than three relegations.

Last season's drop cost Colin Todd his job as manager and after David Wetherall stepped in for the remainder of the season they have finally got the man they always wanted in former player Stuart McCall who in turn has brought in his former team mate Wayne Jacobs as his assistant.

Bradford City had released a number of players at the end of last season and they've also lost five more. Steven Schumacher has joined Crewe, Ben Muirhead has signed for Rochdale, Marc Bridge-Wilkinson has remained in League One with Carlisle and Richard Edghill, four years ago on trial with Burnley, has opted for a move to Macclesfield. To add to that the loss of Dean Windass has now become a permanent one after he completed as £150,000 transfer to Hull.

To date McCall has been able to add three more players to his squad and there could be a fourth soon. Darren Williams, currently with Hartlepool, is considering an offer and it looks as though he could be signing number three. The two so far are:

Barry Conlon from Mansfield Town
Peter Thorne from Norwich City
Scott Phelan from Everton

This will be City's first pre-season game against league opposition having previously played against three Yorkshire non-league sides. They have beaten Harrogate Town (1-0) and North Ferriby (2-0) but lost 2-1 against Farsley Celtic. The North Ferriby game was the most recent with City's goals scored by Omar Daley and Thorne.


One to Watch

Peter Thorne has very much been one in our side on a number of occasions and the first time the former Blackburn striker netted against us is now well over twelve years ago when he got both Swindon goals in a 2-1 win at Turf Moor in February 1995 and he did seem to develop a knack of scoring goals against us.

It is some time ago now, and the last time he did score against us was back in January 2000 when he netted for Stoke in a 2-2 draw at the Windy City during our promotion season.

Having started his career at Blackburn he'd played for Wigan (loan) before moving on to Swindon and then Stoke. Those moves cost fees of £225,000 and £500,000 but when he left Stoke for Cardiff his value had gone up to such an extent that the Welsh club had to pay £1.7 million for him.

He was there for four years before signing a two year contract with Norwich and it was with the Canaries that he last played against us, coming on as a sub for Dion Dublin just after we'd gone 3-0 up in our 4-1 Carrow Road win last season.

He was released at the end of the season and he's now joined Bradford City and will once again be lining up against the Clarets tonight. Now past his 34th birthday, Thorne has netted no fewer than 165 career goals since making his debut for Blackburn back in the early nineties, the first of which were against the Clarets.


Team News

With no additions to the squad since the North Ferriby win, Stuart McCall is expected to name the same squad that played on Saturday. All of those named are expected to feature, and that includes some of the club's younger players.

The team against North Ferriby was: Donovan Ricketts, Darren Williams, Mark Bower, Scott Phelan, David Wetherall, Matthew Clarke, Joe Colbeck, Eddie Johnson, Barry Conlon, Peter Thorne, Omar Daly. Subs: Ben Saynor, Kyle Nix, Tom Harban, Luke Medley, Luke O'Brien, Leon Osborn, Craig Bentham, Tom Penford.

Click HERE to see the full Bradford City squad

Burnley have two former Bradford City strikers in the squad, Robbie Blake and Andy Gray, but only one of them will play with Robbie ruled out with a thigh strain. The only other Burnley player expected to be out tonight is Kyle Lafferty who was forced off early on Saturday with a back injury and he too is out. Both are expected to be fit enough to feature on Saturday.

Steve Cotterill will utilise the rest of his squad and all of them are expected to feature at some stage tonight. The players on duty will be:

Gabor Kiraly, Stephen Foster, Jon Harley, Michael Duff, Wayne Thomas, Steven Caldwell, James O'Connor, Joey Gudjonsson, Ade Akinbiyi, Andy Gray, Wade Elliott, Brian Jensen, Steve Jones, John Spicer, Chris McCann, Alan Mahon, Jay Rodriguez, Besart Berisha, Stephen Jordan.


Last Time Round

Ian Moore - got the late, late winner
I don't think many of us who were there will forget our last visit to the Bradford & Bingley Pulse Flamingo Land Pension Fund Intersonic Valley Parade Stadium in a hurry. It was a key game for us as relegation loomed ever larger towards the end of the 2003/04 season.

It started well, it didn't continue that way, but it ended with a late, late dramatic winner from Ian Moore on an afternoon that the home club turned into absolute chaos because of their inability to print tickets. People struggled to get in, those without the correct money were refused change, and all the time the away sections of the ground were growing beyond the allowed capacity.

Fortunately most of them were able to see Robbie Blake's sensational opener after just eight minutes against Bryan Robson's team. It looked to have set us up for a big away win, our first on the road since September, but it all went wrong.

With less than twenty minutes gone they were level after a trademark Dean West goal, the angled ball from the right, over his head. It fell to Danny Cadamarteri who turned inside him and slotted home.

From then on in we were up against it and had Brian Jensen to thank for keeping us in the game. Then, late, very late, came the sensational winner. A Tony Grant cross from the left found Glen Little beyond the far post and he in turn found Moore's head. On another disappointing performance from the Clarets' striker, his first effort on goal was crucial. He turned to the Burnley fans in celebration, some daft sod in a white coat tried to pull him away and got knocked over and there was never going to be enough time for BRBC to come back.

The teams were;

BRBC: Alan Combe, Wayne Jacobs (Gareth Edds 58), Peter Atherton, David Wetherall, Paul Heckingbottom, Nicky Summerbee, Mark Bower, Lewis Emanuel, Danny Cadamarteri, Michael Branch, Dean Windass. Subs not used: Mark Paston, Tom Kearney, Rob Wolleaston, Ben Muirhead.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Dean West, David May, Graham Branch, Mo Camara, Glen Little, Richard Chaplow (Dele Adebola 56), Tony Grant, Neil Wood, Robbie Blake (Paul Weller 69), Ian Moore. Subs not used: Nathan Abbey, Mark McGregor, Luke Chadwick.