THE 2000-01 season is not one that will be remembered too fondly at Valley Parade.

It was the moment when the cracks first started to appear; cracks that were soon to become mighty chasms which threatened to swallow City up in financial ruin.

The elation of top-flight survival was replaced by the stark reality that things were starting to go wrong – very wrong.

So chronicling every game of that doomed second year of the Premiership seems an unusual subject for a book.

But Bantams fan Mark Jackson has done just that in 'Wally Arnold and I', a rough and ready personal account of a campaign the team spent pretty much rooted to the bottom of the table.

He covered around 5,000 miles at a cost of more than £1,700 and describes his experience along the way; the travelling, the grounds, the food – and even a bit about the football.

It is a read that will probably be limited to the hardcore supporter as there isn't much here for the general football fan. But for those who were there, it should jog a few memories from very different times.

It struck a chord with me because this was my first year of covering the club for the T&A.

I turned straight to my 'debut' game as the Bradford City reporter, Manchester City away at the long-defunct Maine Road.

Jackson mentioned the lengthy hold-ups on the M62, the home choruses of "Feed the Goat" to popular striker Shaun Goater, and the "famed" chicken tikka pies.

That was his biggest gripe: it was "only half warmed through, if that". He suffered the next morning.

"I felt like the guy in Alien whose belly explodes from within," he wrote. "I suppose, though, it was worth it, in a perverse sort of way.

"If you want world-class cuisine, don't watch football because the two do not mix."

His report on the game itself was summed up in the final sentence. City had been "rubbish", lost 2-0 and that was that.

I couldn't have put it any more succinctly.