Bradford City fans unable to make the long trip to Wembley packed into the bars across Bradford on Saturday afternoon to cheer along their team as they soared into League One.

Hundreds of fans watched the match in the city centre’s Arena Sports Bar, which opened in Queensgate earlier this month.

And unlike City’s last trip to Wembley, where fans’ dreams died within the first half after a dominating performance by Swansea, the afternoon only got better with each minute.

Already impressed by a bright start, the crowd erupted when City scored their first, and a similar roar was heard from the bar twice more in the first half, as the Bantams dominated.

At half time, with victory apparently in the bag, fan Steve Rushwood, 48, said: “It has been brilliant, Northampton just haven’t been in the game. We have dominated this game.”

If anything, City peaked too early. Continuing their dominance in the second half, they left fans in no doubt that they would win promotion.

This led to an understandable lull in the excitement, but as the match moved into its final minutes the crowd picked up again, starting victory chants, applauding almost every City move and joining in with the jubilant crowd on TV as the countdown started to the final whistle.

Immediately after the game, fans were relishing the prospect of facing teams such as Wolverhampton Wanderers, Sheffield United and Coventry City next season.

Others spoke of how Bradford was finally getting the good news it deserves.

The crowd’s joyful reaction to the goals, the final whistle and the trophy being lifted were so great that Arena manager Dominic Quirk plans to send CCTV footage from inside the bar to David Nowakowski, a City fan who is putting together a film of the crowd reaction to the game.

Mr Nowakowski was inspired about the superb reaction fans gave the team during Capital One Cup Final at Wembley in February, despite losing 5-0 to Swansea City.

Mr Quirk was delighted with the result. He said: “We’re all about bringing Bradford together, and games like this do that.”