THE engraved knife and fork set make their annual appearance every Christmas in the Abbott household.

It is a yearly reminder of a time when Bradford City beat all before them.

City are currently enjoying the longest unbeaten start in club history. But even with the final three games of last season tacked on, they have not yet matched the 17-match run between November 1983 and March 1984.

That included an astonishing burst of ten straight wins – an achievement that City marked with a dinner for the players at the Norfolk Gardens.

They also received the stainless steel mementoes that Abbott still uses to tuck into the turkey.

What made that winning streak even more remarkable was that City had managed only one victory in the 15 games beforehand.

But the return of talisman Bobby Campbell following a disastrous four-month stay at Derby changed all that.

Suddenly City were winning again – and scoring for fun. From Brentford in late November to a Friday night at Exeter four months later, they rattled in 36 goals in ten games with a six, a five and two fours.

Campbell’s reappearance was the catalyst but it was strike partner John Hawley who led the charge with 14 goals in that spell.

“He scored two hat-tricks expending the least amount of energy for a footballer,” laughed Abbott.

Stuart McCall, only 19 at the time, can remember this formidable forward partnership that no defence could handle.

“Bobby coming back was such a talisman for us,” recalled the current City boss. “They were two great finishers and we went into games just knowing we would score.

“It didn’t used to matter if we conceded because we were such an attack-minded team. We were just so powerful going forward.

“Hawley and Campbell together were too much for a lot of teams and they got great service from Mega (Mark Ellis) on one side and Gary Haire on the other.

“We had a great mixture of youth and experience with Hawley and Campbell up front, Terry Gray, Terry Yorath, Trevor Cherry and the young ones like myself, Greg, Mega, Jacko (Peter Jackson) and Chris Withe at the back.

“It would just roll on from one week to the next. Confidence builds and it was a joy to be involved with.”

McCall remembered the excitement of the fans as City emerged from relegation battlers to genuine promotion shots, before dropping away when late fixture congestion caught up with them.

“You talk about our away following now but it was like that in those days at places like Lincoln and Burnley,” he said.

“When the local games came around, the support was fantastic. There were so many fans and they were so loud – you just couldn’t wait for the next game to come around.

“Once you got on that momentum, it was hard to stop us.”

But McCall managed to top that run a decade later with the Rangers side that dominated Scottish football by winning nine titles in a row. The 1992-1993 team went 44 games in all competitions without a loss – including a season in the European Cup.

McCall said: “We got beaten 4-3 at Dundee in the August, Billy Dodds scoring twice, and then went right through to the end of March.

“We had ten games in Europe and beat Leeds home and away. We never got beaten in the European Cup that year and drew twice with Marseille, who went on to win it.

“It ended when Celtic beat us 2-1 – and that’s the first time you’ve ever seen a Rangers side clapped off for losing to them.

“But it was just a thank you from our supporters for such a long run.”

City’s achievements 32 years ago were a forerunner for the team that would win the Third Division amid tragedy the following season.

Abbott can see a similar tight-knit spirit emerging among McCall’s current crop.

“Stuart and Kenny (Black) are doing a brilliant job and it’s up to us behind the scenes to support them,” he said.

“It’s the best dressing room I’ve been in since that era with the group of players they’ve assembled and the character and personality.

“Nobody can get carried away. That run we had back then shows how quickly things change in football.

“But there’s a really good spirit and the players accept that this is a special club.”

You don’t need to dust off the best silver as a reminder of that.