Valley Parade: Bradford City 3-0 Stevenage

Bradford City 3-0 Stevenage

A working weekend brought me (Adrian) up to West Yorkshire and with an afternoon to spare it was a toss-up between going to watch struggling Huddersfield Town in the Championship or two inform League 2 sides. I opted for the latter, my first trip to Valley Parade (or whatever the latest sponsor is!) since March 2011. The stadium is outstanding for League 2, following the rebuild after the fire disaster of 1985. The main stand and Kop sweep around the stadium as they stand tall on the hillside. A decent all seater stand opposite the main stand plus a narrow two tier contraction behind the opposite goal where space is a premium. The stadium in its current format has staged Premier League football and while that might be an ambitious aim at present there is certainly plenty of desire to progress up the EFL ladder with former Wales International Mark Hughes now in charge. Their opponents Stevenage have had probably their best ever start to a Football League season and arrived in Yorkshire second in the table. The manager Steve Evans rubs people up the wrong way but he has a habit of getting teams organised and getting results. The game itself was a good advert for League 2, already into September a pattern is emerging of teams that will prosper and teams that are in for a tough time at all levels. Both these teams I suggest will do ok. The score line flatters Bradford City, they were the more clinical certainly but for long stages of the game it was Stevenage asking the questions and creating the chances but their failure to take one ultimately cost them. City went ahead after 6 minutes. The Stevenage keeper had already tipped over a header from Banks, but had no chance with Cook's superb glancing header at the near post from a corner. From then though, much of the better play in the half came from Stevenage. A low cross from the right was cleared by the feet of the city goalkeeper Harry Lewis .Norris managed to head wide when it was easier to score, Reid shot wide, Gilbey produced a good save from Lewis. On the balance the visitors were a little unlucky to be trailing at half time. The second half saw City at their most clinical and two goals in a 6 minute spell ended the contest. Good work by Aston Villa loanee Tyreik Wright on the left, and Andy Cook, poked home from a yard, it’s now 11 goals in all competitions for him. He is a bit of a journeyman but at this level he is dangerous and his confidence high. Wright then had his moment of glory on 62 minutes. He was allowed far too much space out on the left, he cut in and his right foot shot took a deflection to wrong foot Taye Ashley Hammond for Bradford’s third. This on his full debut. With the game won Bradford could relax and although Stevenage continued to go forward looking for a goal, the final pass, the cross into the box always seemed to elude its target. An interesting side issue concerned the young left wing back Saxon Earley. In the first half he was delivering long throws into the box with shall we say a unique style of delivery. The big home support clearly noted this with cries of foul throw, then Mark Hughes had a word with the 4th official. In the second half the ref then penalised him for the throw which had Steve Evans and Paul Rayner raging on the touch line. Evans pointing at Hughes and Rayner the Stevenage number 2 yellow carded. Sadly for Stevenage, the player’s effectiveness from the throw-ins diminished. It wasn’t the perfect day though for the hosts as Brad Halliday the right back, booked for a foul in the first half was given a second yellow with a minute to go. He was stretching for a long cross field ball from Smallwood but caught Earley. He was a bit unfortunate but by the letter of the law the ref was right. Two yellows equal a red and Halliday was sent off. Bradford City deserved the win and with a big crowd behind them, today's gate was 16,917 (147 from Hertfordshire) most teams will find it tough here and many younger refs also could get taken in with the atmosphere not seen at many League 2 grounds. Stevenage showed why they have surprised many including me with their start to the season. This was only their second defeat. A lot I'm guessing will depend on them keeping their first team fit, like many clubs at this level the squad will not be large and injuries to key players will make a difference. Enjoyable afternoon, for me now an onward trip to Harrogate to start work.

Bradford
City 1-2 Shrewsbury Town

With the International Break in action meaning there
was no Premier League and no Championship. We decided to go to Bradford City
against Shrewsbury Town, with the Shrews needing points to keep their automatic
promotion dream alive following a match official blunder the previous weekend,
awarding close promotion rivals Wycombe a goal that didn’t cross the line which
cost Shrewsbury 2 points in a 1-1 draw. Bradford City are near enough safe in
League 2 and are preparing for next season after sacking Peter Taylor and
replacing him temporarily with former Bantam, Peter Jackson who is hoping to
get the job full time.

Our first stop of the day was at Stocksbridge
Park Steels who play at the Look Local Stadium which has a capacity of
3,500. Stocksbridge Park Steels
was merged by two teams in the mid 80’s, Stocksbridge Works and Oxley Park
Sports FC. The Steel’s highest ever league attendance at the Look Local Stadium
is 610 against local rivals Worksop Town.

We then continued travelling north to Huddersfield where the old Leed’s
Road ground used to be which is now a retail park. There’s an alleged plaque
where the centre spot used to be yet myself or Adrian couldn’t find it. It’s
either been tarmaced over or it’s under stacks of compost outside the B&Q!

Next up was FC Halifax Town
or as you may remember them as Halifax Town in the Football League. The Shay
holds up to 10,000 people and the ground is in better shape than some Football
League grounds currently. The previous Family Stand was demolished in 2000 and
work on the new East Stand started and then stopped due to finances. It
remained half built until 2008 when the local council agreed to contribute to
completing the stand. It was opened in March 2010, 10 years after the previous
Family Stand was demolished!

Not long after we found ourselves at Bradford (Park Avenue) where they play at Horsfall Stadium which
has a capacity of 5,000. Bradford (Park
Avenue) has had a few well known players including Paddy Kenny and Ron
Greenwood.

The short distance down the road saw ourselves visiting Odsal Stadium,
famous for Rugby League, Speedway, Home of Bradford City briefly following the
Valley Parade fire and most recently featuring in the film ‘The King’s Speech’
where Odsal was used as the Empire Stadium (Old Wembley) in one of the scenes.

We parked on the Midland Road and walked around the ground.

Wikipedia states that ‘on 11
May 1985, one of the worst sporting disasters occurred at Valley Parade.
Fifty-six people died and at least 265 were injured when the main stand was
engulfed by fire. The fire started 40 minutes into the club's final game of the
1984–85 season against Lincoln City and destroyed the main stand in just nine
minutes. For the next season and the first five months of the 1986–87 season,
Bradford City played home games at Leeds United's Elland Road, Huddersfield
Town's Leeds Road and Bradford Northern's Odsal Stadium, while Valley Parade
was rebuilt. Huddersfield-based firm J Wimpenny carried out the £2.6 million
work, which included funding from insurance pay-outs, Football League stadium
grants, club funds and a £1.46 million Government loan obtained by two Bradford
MPs. A new 5,000 all-seater main stand was built, longer than the structure
which had burned down.’ ‘The Kop was also covered for the first time and
increased to a 7,000 capacity. Other minor work was carried out to the ground's
other two stands. On 14 December 1986, 582 days
after the fire, The Hon Sir Oliver Popplewell, who had conducted the inquiry
into the fire, opened the new stadium before an exhibition match against an
England international XI. It was first used for a league game on Boxing Day
when City lost 1–0 to Derby County.’

‘The two stands
which were not altered after the fire were both improved during the 1990s. The Bradford end
of the ground was made a double-decker, all-seater stand, with a new
scoreboard, in 1991. City's promotion to Division One in 1996 meant that
chairman Geoffrey Richmond announced the construction of a 4,500 seater stand
on the Midland Road
side. It was first used for a Yorkshire derby against Sheffield United on
Boxing Day 1996, before being officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 27
March 1997. Richmond continued his plans to redevelop the ground as City
continued to rise through the league. The roof of the Kop, which was the
largest safe-standing terrace in the country at the time, was removed and the
capacity reduced during City's 1998–99 promotion season, to prepare for a summer
£6.5 million rebuilding programme. The Kop
was converted into a two-tier 7,500-seat capacity stand. An additional
2,300-seat capacity corner section was built, which filled in the corner
between the main stand
and Kop.
When opened in December 2000 it took the capacity of Valley Parade to more than
20,000 for the first time since 1970. A suite of offices and a shop were added
at the same time. Once the work was completed, a second tier was added to the main stand
at the cost of £6.5 million. It was opened in 2001, increasing the main stand's
capacity to 11,000, and the ground's capacity to 25,000.’

Myself and
Adrian were not impressed by the ticket pricing at Bradford City. For League 2
football we both paid adult price of £20 each. I’m (Ross) a full time student
with a student card and I couldn’t pay a student price which would be £15
(still far too much for League 2) as I didn’t have a club membership which
would cost £5 similar to Crewe Alexandra. When are football clubs going to stop
being pathetic about complicated pricing for students.

After being
totally ripped off by the Bradford City ticket office, we went into the ground.

The game saw
Shrewsbury Town beat a poor Bradford City side 2-1. The first goal of the game
came from Bradford’s Tom Adeyemi and then in 74^th minute Tom
Bradshaw stepped onto the Valley Parade pitch and grabbed Shrewsbury their equaliser on 77 minutes followed by their winner in 87^th
minute.

We really
enjoyed visiting Valley Parade as it has a very well known history,
unfortunately for the wrong reason the same as Hillsborough in Sheffield.
Valley Parade is by far one of the best grounds in League 2 and maybe in League
1 and The Championship too. Unfortunately, the ground was redeveloped for
Premier League football and now looks a bit silly being well under capacity
every game.

Valley Parade

Monday 19 December 2022

Bradford City 3-0 Stevenage

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