Bantams Rivals

It was you that brought him up.

 

That game certainly intensified the dislike. But it was in existence long before that. I've heard City fans talk about being the only City fan in their Bradford school class during the Revie era.

Also, don't forget that Leeds were the most hated team in Britain for years, not just amongst City fans. Long before I came to Bradford, when I was watching West Ham in the 70s, I, and most other football fans I knew, hated Leeds with a vengeance. I can only imagine how much more intense that must have been for City fans surrounded by glory hunting Bradfordian Leeds fans.

 

100%, second only to the Vermin south of the river.

 

Rivals and teams you hate can go hand in hand, although I suppose rivalry is more two sided that a plain dislike for another team for whatever reason. Other than the local scum and dogs I’m not a fan of Rotherham and Millwall after some of our altercations with them over the last 20 years or so. Especially Millwall them couple of seasons at the top of league 1, scum club who acted like one. Burnley are another and as some have said a few of them lurk around Keighley which surprises me at first.

 

When City played the Swans in 1985, Bond was managing them and sat in the old main stand. A family friend spotted him and had a bit of good natured go at 'Budgie'. I couldn't work out why he'd singled him out for some stick until I was told about the comments he'd made when he was at Norwich.

 

The likes of Leeds and Huddersfield were never rivals as we rarely played them in the league the odd season we won I believe it was called the "West Riding Cup", the real rivalry was with our City's rivals Bradford Park Avenue and Halifax Town they may not be on the same level as playing Leeds or Town but they were something you looked forward too as a Bradford City fan, you certainly didn't want to do the long walk on a Monday morning when the Stand had beaten you the previous saturday.

 

I think you'll find that 'Budgie' was Johnny Byrne, not John Bond. Bond's nickname was Muffin, because he had a kick like a mule, apparently.

 

Or Michael Douglas .

 

For how we have falled our current rivalry is with Harrogate Town and we haven't beaten them in 4 attempts. That's a sad state of affairs.

If it weren't for the Edin Shitshow we could be sat where Millwall are now playing against 9 other teams within a 70mile trip from Valley Parade. Instead we are in the shitpool league on merit and are lucky to see an away following of 1k or more about 3 times a season, whilst the majority teams bring a minibus, even if they are 40min down the road (Yes Salford). How can you expect a rivalry against a team who bring a few hundred fans?

In our league, our biggest rivalry is probably Stockport mainly due to shadowing them round the league for the last 50 years.

 

And because of historical rucks with them

 

Certainly was the case growing up in the late 80s / early 90s around Queensbury - could get tasty around the village on a Friday and Saturday night and we were definitely outnumbered by the L@@@s lads.....

 

Stockport and Harrogate our biggest rivals??? Do me a favour.
Both are tinpot clubs that we don’t care less about.
Rivalry is determined from the passion and bitterness from one set of fans to the other which sometimes might only be one way.
For example we hate Leeds with a passion but they don’t give a toss about us. We are not their rivals.
During 40 plus years of watching City I’ve seen us play all 92 football league clubs and can honestly say the only 2 clubs that provoke the feeling of rivalry, bitterness and passion is when we’ve played Leeds or Huddersfield.

 

If you bothered to read the context of my quote you will realise I said it was a sign of how we have fallen that our current rivals are such teams.
We have played Leeds and Huddersfield a combined twice in the last 10 years.

 

Harsh to call Stockport tin pot. Yes they have been out of the league, but it's not that long ago they were in the championship. They are no more tinpot that Bradford City, just suffered more through bad management.

Harrogate are tinpot, and the sooner they are back in non league the better.

 

I don't consider them as a rival as such but if you go back to 2016/17 when we missed out on Promotion to the Championship by losing to Millwall, have you seen how the other team who lost to Millwall in that play off is doing?

It's hard to believe that Scunthorpe United who finished 3rd that season have actually fared worse than we have since that play-off. They current sit bottom of the National League after 6 straight defeats. Southend who finished 1 point outside the play offs that season aren't doing much better.

The next time Scunny come to Bradford is likely to be in a league game v Park Avenue.

 

I must have missed the Bradford City vs Bradford City games (as suggested above). I wonder who won?