Football Season Guide

Bradford have been the division's "nearly" club for the last two seasons, having made the play-offs in both of them, only to be knocked out by Millwall both times. The difference between last season and the one before was that the Bantams lost to the Lions in the play-off semi-final two years ago. Their most recent defeat to the South London club came at Wembley, where a late goal prolonged their wait for Championship football by at least another season. Despite his ultimate failure to secure promotion Stuart McCall has received a lot of praise for the work he has done with the club in the previous season, as the Bantams' results did not suffer despite the departure of their long-serving highly-rated manager Phil Parkinson. Having nearly missed out on promotion last season, McCall now has the task to make another step forwards and guide the club to the Championship. However, the Bantams have suffered a blow during the summer as their Player of the Season, Mark Marshall, has joined Charlton. Other important players such as James Meredith and skipper Stephen Darby have also left. Meanwhile, Rory McArdle and Billy Clarke had declining roles in the squad in the previous season so were not as important to McCall as they were to his predecessor. When bringing in new recruits, the Bantams have opted for a mixed transfer strategy as they have brought in some players that are well-known League One names such as Dominic Poleon, Adam Chicksen, Paul Taylor and Jack Reeves but they have also brought in several players from abroad who are unknown at this level. While losing Marhsall, Darby and Meredith is a blow, Bradford have always been an excellent unit and they are never too reliant on individual players. They have established themselves as one of the best run clubs in the division over the recent years and will definitely fancy their chances of making the step up and finally achieving promotion.