"WE CAN’T come away from home and score five – and still not win!”

That was the thought flashing through Stuart McCall’s mind as he waited for the referee’s final whistle to put him and City out of their misery.

It was August 2009, a lifetime ago, when the Bantams hung on to win 5-4 in a wild shoot-out at Cheltenham.

McCall has not been back to the Gloucestershire club since – until tonight when the clubs do Checkatrade Trophy battle.

The third-round tie has rekindled memories for McCall of that remarkable first win of a difficult campaign.

Belts had been tightened after blowing up the previous season to miss out on the play-offs. Worse still, City had not managed a single goal from their first four games.

“It was a really tough start,” recalled McCall. “We’d got well beaten at Notts County away with Sven (Goran Eriksson), had Forest away in the League Cup then a couple of home games with Port Vale and Lincoln.

“We had a few lads in the team on £250 a week and Evo (Gareth Evans) might have been on £500. We couldn’t buy a goal and it was a difficult time.

“Martin Allen was Cheltenham’s manager so we expected a hard afternoon and I thought it might be another 0-0.”

That prediction was instantly blown out of the water as the teams traded four goals in the first 12 minutes.

Twice City led through James O’Brien and Evans; twice the hosts quickly responded.

Raw recruit James Hanson headed the Bantams 3-2 up just 20 minutes in – the first of 91 goals for his home-town club. But it was 3-3 by half-time as Cheltenham refused to go away and equalised for a third time.

City were two up midway through the second half, defenders Steve Williams and Simon Ramsden joining in the goal rush, before a late home rally saw Allen’s side peg another back and threaten a last-ditch recovery.

McCall said: “The last ten minutes was just a barrage. They scored again and I think they hit the post as well.

“That game at West Ham when we were 4-2 up and lost 5-4 did cross my mind and I was thinking ‘this can’t happen again’.

“But we just about hung on and there was massive relief when the whistle went. It would have been an even longer journey back otherwise.

“I can’t remember ever having a result like that as a manager, especially after we hadn’t even scored a goal before.”

Cheltenham may be struggling at the wrong end of League Two now but McCall knows it will be no push-over.

The Robins earned their last-16 showdown with the Bantams by thrashing Leicester’s age-group side 6-1 last week with a hat-trick from Diego De Girolamo on his home debut.

The Italian, on loan from Bristol City, followed up with another goal in the 3-0 weekend win over Accrington that lifted Cheltenham out of the drop zone.

McCall said: “Kenny (Black) was at the game last week and they played very well.

“They’ve had another game on Saturday and the pitch is very heavy sand. That will bring its own challenges.

“But we approached it seriously against Cambridge to get through the last round and we’ll be doing exactly the same at Cheltenham.

“I spoke to (Millwall boss) Neil Harris the other day about something and said ‘you’ll be delighted we’ve got Cheltenham away and that heavy pitch before we play you’.

“He agreed and then laughed ‘the down side is I’ll have to come and watch now’.

“But we want to move on in the competition for a lot of different reasons. We want to get as far as we can and we want to play at Wembley.”

That may be the ultimate target but the prize waiting for the winners is a quarter-final clash at Oxford a week today.

As rewards go, the prospect of a quick turn-around and heading back to the ground where City suffered their opening league defeat in October is not the most enticing.

“If we do get through, it’s probably the toughest draw we could have got from the teams left,” admitted the manager.

“A League One club away, with the travelling as well, is not going to be easy.

“We obviously would have wanted a home game in the next round – but first and foremost, we’ve got to get past Cheltenham. If we do, we’ll approach that once it comes.”