A confession. I am not especially a fan of football - or of any other team sport, for that matter. Never have been, either as spectator or participant.

I was one of that small group of skivers who went "cross-country running" while the rest played soccer, rugby or cricket at school, the run usually ending a couple of fields away where we sat behind a hedge, smoked, and exchanged mucky jokes before jogging back from a different direction, gasping breathlessly.

I suspect that the games teacher knew what we got up to but didn't care. He chose not to force us into action on the playing field because we were useless and would only have got in the way.

However, even I have been quite excited this week. In fact, I was so excited last Sunday, listening to the City match on Radio 5, that I nearly fainted during the last 15 minutes. You can only hold your breath for so long.

It's been impossible to avoid getting caught up in the mood of things in view of the flood of Premiership glory which has embraced Bradford and given the place the biggest boost it's had in many a long year.

People here have been looking rather glum for some time now, what with one thing or another. The prevailing mood in the city hasn't exactly been one of cheerfulness. But last Sunday's victory for the Bantams changed all that.

Bradford now walks with a spring in its step and its head in the air. We have something to be proud of. The world outside will see us differently from now on. It's already started. The Sun newspaper this week offered "A soccer fan's guide to Bradford", a bit of fun that focused on the positive aspects of life in this much-maligned city of ours.

The e-mails of congratulation for City which have poured into the T&A from all over the world, most of them from expatriate Bradfordians, have positively glowed with pride. These are people who are now so relieved that they can actually boast to the people they meet in Foreign Parts that they hail from Bradford, instead of feeling it necessary to mutter in an embarrassed sort of way that they're from "somewhere near Leeds".

Even non-Bradfordians have sent their best wishes. There's a lot of goodwill for Bradford out there. Let's build on it.

And we might start by being entirely positive about City's prospects for a long stay in the Premiership. I've come across quite a few people who've commented: "Well, even if we only stay up for a year, it'll be good to be able to say that we did it." That's true. But that's surely pitching our ambitions a bit low.

I readily confess to knowing very little about football, but it does seem to me perfectly sensible to suggest that a team which can improve enough to win a place in the Premiership should be able to keep on improving to stay there. Doesn't it?

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.