Phil Yelland delves in to the history books to look up our previous home record against The Bantams.
Saturday will be Bradford City’s 26th competitive visit to Barrow.
The first was back in the days of Division Three North in the 1927/28 season, when the game finished without a goal. We had to wait until the fourth meeting here between the clubs in the 1938/39 campaign for our first win, when striker Tom Harris netted both goals in a 2-1 triumph. Harris was top scorer that season with 28 goals.
The following season saw City visit on 2nd September. The game finished 2-2 in front of 6,015 fans and it was our last in Division Three North before the competition was suspended at the start of World War Two.
Our best home win over City came in the 1952/53 season when we won 5-1 with Andy McLaren scoring twice, with other goals from James Collins, Billy Gordon and Alan Layton. Four seasons later we equalled the four-goal winning margin as both Joe Armstrong and Brian Birch netted doubles.
Our last home win over City came in the 1965/66 season in Division Four when Jim Mulholland and Bobby Tait scored in a 2-0 win.
City have earned the points on their last two visits. They won 1-0 here during our promotion season in 1966/67 when Bruce Bannister scored the only goal of the game. Our most recent meeting at the start of December 1970 in Division Three saw The Bantams win 1-0 on a freezing evening, thanks to a goal from Bobby Ham. He scored over 60 Football League goals in two spells at Valley Parade and also played for City rivals, Park Avenue.
So, the 25 games here between the clubs have seen us win 11 times, City win seven times and seven draws. 59 goals have been scored in those games.
Let’s hope we can move on to 12 wins and record a victory over City here for the first time since 23rd October 1965 – just over 55 years ago.