The T&A’s Simon Parker made his man of the match the thousands of Bradford City fans who kept up a crescendo of cheering for the last 20 minutes of the Capital One Cup final against Swansea City.

Though City were being slaughtered by Swansea’s Real Madrid-style speed and slickness, out of sporting adversity something else was occurring which people are now coming to terms with.

Yesterday, a Swansea fan rang the T&A’s sports department to offer his congratulations to City’s supporters for the way they got behind their team when they were four goals down and about to concede a fifth.

Professor David Rhodes, father of City’s joint chairman Julian Rhodes, was at Wembley. Travelling back by train yesterday he described what he had seen as “phenomenal”.

“A whole lot of Swansea fans said they had never seen anything like it before. Usually when opposing teams are on the receiving end like that, the fans drift away. It was a show of solidarity. It was just unbelievable.”

Colin Philpott, former head of the National Media Museum and now running Bradford Breakthrough, a multi-agency group committed to promoting Bradford, agrees... and says we should now strike while the iron’s hot.

“There’s been a noticeable uplift in pride and a greater sense of unity in Bradford during the cup run across all communities, all ages and all areas. We need to bottle this and use it to speed up getting things done that need doing, and also to sell the city more effectively because Bradford’s greatest ambassadors are the people who live and work here,” said Mr Philpott.

He added: “There’s also an opportunity to build on the positive national profile that the achievements of the football club have brought Bradford. Bradford Breakthrough is organising events later this year inviting key national figures, including media people, to see Bradford for themselves, showcasing its many successful businesses, its great cultural offer and its striking urban and rural landscapes.

“I believe that greater pride and better media coverage can impact on the city’s economy, because when people make decisions about visiting Bradford or investing in Bradford, they will be influenced by the “mood music” about a place. The mood is upbeat at the moment and there are other things in the pipeline that can give us the momentum to keep it upbeat.”

Perhaps an evanescent feel-good factor comes and goes with sporting results, but there does seem to be something fundamental to the psyche of Bradford which seems to be galvanised by particular events.

We saw it after the Valley Parade fire disaster in 1985 when, without being told to by a cheerleader or public official, the people of Bradford rallied in support of the families of those who had suffered loss or injury.

People from beyond Bradford quickly noticed this and gave their support. Similarly, at the weekend, the world at large saw a city stand up for itself in spite of the reality of looming defeat.

Yorkshire journalist and award-winning author Duncan Hamilton likened Bradford’s situation to Nottingham’s before Brian Clough came along and turned Nottingham Forest into a league and cup-winning team.

“The entire city changed, the mood changed. But for this to happen you’ve got to have consistency. What happened at Wembley was just remarkable. They have done more for Bradford than any politician,” he said.

One thing that struck Bradford businessman Robin Silver, a director of Salts Estates, was the cross-cultural impact of the success. He said: “The cup run has been good for the club’s finances, good for morale and good for the players, but that show of support was cross-cultural.

“Photographs of the city in 1911 (when City won the FA Cup) show Bradford as all white. That’s changed. The perception is that Asian people are only interested in cricket. But what the world saw at Wembley was men, women and children of all ages, white, black and Asian, all wearing Bradford City scarves and cheering.

“It was genuine. There was no compulsion to do it, no social engineering manipulation, no image building, it just happened.”