BfB

The start of the most interesting season

Michael Wood — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 08:08:23 +0000

This season will be fascinating. Every move will be analysed, every game mark a position, ever result considered as a proof of a concept about building slowly and in a determined fashioned. One can only guess at the outcome too – a team that takes change as part of progress, that sees development as a thing done over years, not over a summer.

City act firmly to shape the atmosphere at Valley Parade

Michael Wood — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:27:22 +0000

The final news of the close season before the start of the build up proper tidied up the end of last season and the scenes where some fans ran on the field and taunted the Northampton Town supporters who had taken a part in the clubs 25 year commemoration of the fire of 1985.

How clubs lost control of the football kit

Michael Wood — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:07:34 +0000

Were one to be asked the simple question “What colours to Bradford City wear?” one would answer in no time at all that the Bantams wear claret and amber.

Indeed were one to be asked the same question about almost all the clubs in the league then a similar speedy response spring to mind. Arsenal: Red with white sleeves, Newcastle United: Black and white stripes, Tranmere Rovers: White and blue, QPR: Blue and white “super” hoops; My Dad has a recurrent and utterly unfunny joke about what colour Leeds United Third Reserves sock tops in 1977 were and – at this point – I’d like to ask him to stop it.

Would Taylor go into the three lions den?

Michael Wood — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:30:29 +0000

There is a level of speculation in the summer months of closed season which borders on the curious and the report that Peter Taylor is being touted as potentially a possible addition to the England coaching line up is perhaps as odd as it has got for Bradford City and the football rumour columns for sometime.

The uncomfortable truth at the heart of football supporting

Michael Wood — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:13:06 +0000

There was a public clamour to discover the detail of the crime that saw Jake Speight convicted of assault and so the lower end of the tabloid press responded and laid out in grisliness Kathy Mugglestone’s side of the story.

What is in a word as Grant is convicted

Michael Wood — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 15:42:50 +0000

Gavin Grant has been convicted of murder and expected to spend over a decade in prison. There is little else to say about the man and his conviction but there is a sense of curiosity as to why Peter Taylor gave the striker three months at City at the end of last season.

When pre-season is not pre-season

Michael Wood — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:04:20 +0000

If you missed Bradford City’s 4-0 win over Stambridge United last night then you are not alone. BfB did little to cover it and a straw poll of City fans responding to news of the opening goals on Facebook seemed to show that they knew that some games in Essex were coming, but they did not know when.

Bradford, the City which needs to smile

Jason Mckeown — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:00:21 +0000

Flicking between channels during The Simpsons advert break one weekday recently, I was shocked to see Valley Parade appear as part of the backdrop behind a BBC national news reporter. The piece actually had nothing to do with Bradford City, it was about how the life expectancy of people living in poorer places like Bradford was a couple of years less than people who lived just a few miles down the road, in nicer areas.

When pre-season became interesting

Michael Wood — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 07:44:24 +0000

At some point after the middle of the 1990s pre-season became a thing of interest.

Perhaps it is the rise of Sky Sports and the need for constant football, perhaps it is the public’s thirst for the close season to end as quickly as possible, perhaps it is clubs trying to spin out two or three extra big money games in a season but whatever has caused it pre-season in modern football has become much more of a big deal.

Pre-season in prison for Jake Speight

Michael Wood — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 07:43:32 +0000

New signing Jake Speight will miss the start of City’s season after being sent to prison for three months for assault.

Speight missed the Friday game with Eccleshill United having told Peter Taylor he would be appearing in court and – as a result of that appearance – the player has been imprisoned. Taylor’s fury – a kind of unfocused rage that “someone” should have told him about the possibility of Speight going to jail – is obvious with the manager not only refusing to pay the player until he is released but taking a view that he may not be paid until he is fit enough to play.