Phil Yelland dips in to the archives to look up our previous visits to Bradford City ahead of this afternoon's League Two encounter.
Today is the 52nd meeting between the clubs in all competitions.
Many people forget that we first met City at Valley Parade in the FA Cup back in the 1905/06 season when we were in the Lancashire Combination and lost 3-2. Another meeting often forgotten is the 2-2 draw here at the start of the 1939/40 season before the War intervened. That was our last game played in Division Three North before the hostilities commenced.
Our first league trip to Valley Parade came in the 1927/28 season in March 1928 after City had been relegated to Division Three North for the first time. It was not a happy experience as we lost 4-1 with John Nairn getting the only Barrow goal.
Our first win at the Yorkshire ground did not come until the end of World War Two when we played them in the 1945/46 season in Division Three North West. That time we won 3-2 with goals from Kevin Clarke, James Mullen and Eddie Miller.
We have had some poor afternoons at Valley Parade – we lost 8-0 there in March 1929 as City headed for the League title and conceded five goals in defeats in January 1947 and again in October 1950.
Our second win at City came in the 1948/49 season in the January, when goals from Alf Burnett and an Alf McIntosh penalty gave us a 2-0 win and we repeated that victory in 1956/57 season when we won with goals from Robert Callaghan and Willie Ormond in October.
In many ways our best win came in the 1964/65 season which was one of struggle for the team towards the foot of Division Four. Two goals from Roy McCarthy and one from Bobbie Tait gave us a 3-1 win in February 1965.
Our last visit to the ground in April 1970, was our last game in Division Three. There was a league debut for local goalkeeper Ian Elliott in a 3-3 draw with all of our goals coming from Dave Storf – it was his second hat-trick for the Club having scored one against Colchester United two seasons earlier.
In 25 previous games at Valley Parade we have won four times, drawn seven times and lost the rest.
Let’s hope for win number five this afternoon.