Jamie Lawrence recalls his favourite things at Bradford City

FAVOURITE GOAL:

“Norwich at home in the (1999) promotion season will always be the best one for me.

“We were 3-0 up at that stage and I’d won a penalty just before that.

“I tucked in and won the ball in centre midfield off Craig Bellamy. He tried to get it back and I dumped him in the mud.

“I went past another two and then dinked it over the last defender and suddenly I’m thinking, ‘I’m through on goal now’.

“I kept on running and running and it just opened up for me. It was so instinctive and I just knew I was going to score as I slotted it home.

“But I never knew how good a goal it was until I watched it back. It’s great that people still talk about it now.

“I wish I had played in centre midfield earlier because it suited me a little bit more than playing out wide. If I was doing box to box, I would have scored a lot more goals.

“People forget I never got coached until I was 23. I coached myself really.

“I came out of prison and I was learning on the job.

“But I’d rather have someone who is raw and wants it than a player who might know everything but isn’t bothered. I was up for it.

“I could adapt to any situation after the way I’d been brought up and the things I’d had to go through.

“People talk about the one at West Ham as well but the Gillingham goal I scored never gets mentioned because it wasn’t in the season that we went up or stayed up.

“But that was pretty special. I started the move, played it round the corner, the ball went out to Simon Grayson who played me through and I saw the keeper off his line.

“I still had to execute the chip over him and managed to get it spot on. I don’t think anyone expected that from me.”

FAVOURITE GAME

“I can narrow it down to two – Wolves away and Liverpool home.

“It was such an occasion at Wolves to go into the Premier League, especially after being 1-0 down in 15 minutes.

“It was a blatant foul on the keeper – but I still think going behind was the best thing that happened to us.

“We knew we had goals in our team so we never panicked. We just played the football we had been all season.

“Beags (Peter Beagrie) missing the penalty killed us, though. It would have made it 4-1 and we were cruising – we’d have been doing the Ole’s and everything.

“But then they score and hit the post from that free-kick. It was really squeaky bum time.

“I was in the wall and looked round to see it hit the inside of the post and bounce back out. Then you know it’s your day but we earned that luck.

“I can’t remember the final whistle, all I was thinking was ‘let’s get to Bradford and celebrate!’

“I saw all my pals and cousins in the crowd and we were celebrating with the fans for ages.

“Then the beers and champagne were flowing on the coach back – and, oh my gosh, we got through a lot.

“You saw what happened to Stuart (McCall) when he fell off that car after at Valley Parade!

“I had a lot of mixed emotions leading up to the Liverpool game after finding out that my dad was dying.

“I wasn’t going to play but the gaffer told me to do it for my dad. What other team talk did I need?

“I’d been out injured for five weeks after I broke my jaw on both sides against Newcastle. I’d missed a lot of training.

“I got back for the Leicester game and played 20 minutes and then he threw me in.

“It was massive because I supported Liverpool and one of my best mates in football, Hesk (Emile Heskey) was playing as well.

“I don’t know what happened but I played like a man possessed. I was here, there and everywhere.

“Jagger says to this day that he remembers looking at the Liverpool players and they were scared of this nutter!

“It was one of my best performances in a Bradford City shirt and we deserved to win. It was a great header from Wethers (David Wetherall) and we should have scored more.”

FAVOURITE MANAGER

“There’s only one – Paul Jewell all day long. Man management goes a long way.

“The best managers were the ones who were honest with me. I don’t mind taking a rollicking – he was always straight-talking to me.

“That was the case with the Ayia Napa thing when I went out there when I should have been getting physio. I was literally caught with my pants down!

“The gaffer pulled me after a photo shoot and said, ‘tell me the truth and I’ll fine you two weeks wages. If you’re lying, I’ll fine you and you’ll never play for me again.’

“I had to put my hands up – but he never fined me.”

FAVOURITE TEAMMATES

“Isaiah Rankin, Andy Myers, Sharpey (Lee Sharpe), Aidan Davison and Tumble (John Dreyer), my roomies. Tumble has got to be up there.

“You don’t get on with everyone you play with but we had a very good changing room. There were some funny characters.

“Isaiah and I used to live round the corner from each other so we’d come into training together.

“He didn’t play as much as he wanted but it spurred Blakey (Robbie Blake) and Millsy (Lee Mills) to be better when he came in. Every team needs that competition.

“They upped their game to keep hold of the shirt.

“Isaiah was obviously frustrated because you want to play football. Nowadays, you’ll find people happy to sit on the bench but back then you just wanted to play.

“That’s why you train all week. What’s the point otherwise?”