IT’S amazing to think that it is eight years since City began a season so positively at Valley Parade.

Saturday’s win over Oldham was the first time the Bantams have begun their home campaign with a victory since 2017.

And doubling up in such sizzling fashion against Stevenage ensured a back-to-back start not seen since August 2013.

Home advantage is seen as such a big factor with the size of the stadium and City's fanbase - but before now, that was the last time that they had kicked off a season with successive triumphs on their own patch.

Phil Parkinson’s City teams quickly stamped their authority at home as well as anybody.

That year, the Bantams opened with a 4-0 drubbing of Carlisle that left Greg Abbott on the brink of the sack with the Cumbrians. The axe would fall on the City stalwart a month later.

Mark Yeates, Nahki Wells, James Hanson and Gary Jones were all on the scoresheet on that one-sided afternoon at his old stomping ground as Parkinson’s men announced their arrival in League One in emphatic fashion.

And they followed it up with two equally impressive results which had fans briefly dreaming of potential successive promotions.

Wells netted both as 18,041 watched the Bantams power past Sheffield United before they made it three straight home wins to kick off the campaign by putting another four without reply past Brentford.

Bees keeper David Button was sent off for bringing down Wells and the Bermudian helped himself to another goal in his absence with Hanson (2) and Garry Thompson joining in the fun.

As Valley Parade celebrated, who could have imagined that City’s hopes would be dashed by a terrible run of just one win in 21 games in mid-season?

A year earlier, City had opened their home account with four successive victories – which remains the club’s best start since 1957. That's the next target for Adams' army.

A 2012-2013 season that would end up in legend, stepping out at Wembley twice in three months, had begun with an opening league defeat on a red-hot afternoon at Gillingham.

But Hanson got the Bantams off the mark with the only goal at home to Fleetwood before they blasted five in the first half against a shell-shocked Wimbledon.

Wells, an own goal, Andrew Davies, Rory McArdle and Hanson piled up the fantasy half-time score to force the Dons into damage-limitation mode to avoid conceding even more.

Barnet were next up and dispatched 3-0 with Hanson and Davies joined on the scoresheet by Alan Connell.

And Hanson, Kyel Reid and Jones ensured it was a maximum 12 points from the first four Valley Parade outings as Morecambe were seen off 3-1.

Stuart McCall’s team of 2008 were strongly tipped to have a real go after a summer of serious recruitment ahead of his second year in management.

They began like a train with five wins from the first six games, including three on the bounce at home against Notts County, Rochdale and Exeter.

Peter Thorne helped himself to five goals in that run and strike partner Michael Boulding the other three – until City came a cropper against then-bottom Bournemouth.

It was a warning sign of the disappointment to come as the wheels fell off the bandwagon the following March to leave them outside the play-offs.

Proof that a solid home start does not guarantee a good season came in 2006-2007 when Colin Todd enjoyed opening victories over Bristol City and Gillingham – when City came back from 2-0 down, including a Gills goal by Michael Flynn, with a four-goal response.

Dean Windass got two of them with Mark Bower and Jermaine Johnson also cashing in during the fightback.

But Todd would be sacked by the beginning of February after Windass and Johnson were sold off to pay the wages on the way to relegation back to the bottom tier after a 25-year absence.

The only other time this century that City had claimed the full six-point haul from the first two Valley Parade appearances was in 2001 as they began life after the Premier League.

A 4-0 demolition of Barnsley, including two penalties from Tykes old boy Ashley Ward, was backed up with Friday-night success against Coventry – thanks to rare goals from Andy Myers and Gary Locke.

At that stage, talk was of an immediate return to the top flight.

The Bantams, though, would go on to lose 12 of the next 21 home outings – only rock-bottom Stockport were beaten more in their own backyard – and a lowly 15th-placed finish would be completely overshadowed when the club were forced into administration and facing a fight for survival of a very different kind.