ACCORDING to Julian Rhodes, tomorrow night’s clash with Millwall could be worth up to £500,000 for City.

But it’s fair to say you wouldn’t have paid 50p for the last time the Lions were at Valley Parade.

Bradford City was not the happiest place to be on May 5, 2007. It was the final game before a return to the bottom division for the first time in a quarter of a century.

Relegation had been confirmed with a whimper at Chesterfield a week earlier as players and away fans rowed at the final whistle. There was no permanent manager; the team had lost its two leading attacking lights to pay the bills and was patched together with loanees.

David Wetherall, trying in vain to juggle playing and caretaker management, needed one more match like a hole in the head.

The smallest crowd of the season, only 7,134, reflected that general feeling of despair.

But an otherwise meaningless farewell did provide the stage for a classic “one hit wonder”.

Mention the name Xavier Barrau to City fans and they will instantly recall that 2-2 draw. The French winger scored both home goals on his first start for the club – and was never seen again.

Barrau now runs a successful upmarket chauffeuring service in the south of France, which ferries a well-heeled clientele around the millionaire’s playground of the French Riviera and the ski slopes of Les Coches.

Still only 32, his football these days is limited to the occasional five-a-side. His career, which took him to England and Scotland, ended in 2012 after four years with local semi-pro club Frejus St Raphael.

But he can still vividly recall his “Andy Warhol” moment at Valley Parade.

“Yes, it’s a very good memory even now,” he said. “It was my best match in football.

“I only stayed in Bradford for two or three months but that game was very special.

“It was hard for the manager because he was trying to play as well but he was good with me. It was kind of him to play me in the last game at least.

“Football was my passion, it still is. Even though I knew we were going down, I wanted to do something good for the fans who came to see us that day.”

Wetherall’s hand had been forced by injuries to all three of his borrowed strikers. Moses Ashikodi had broken his leg a fortnight earlier at Brighton, then Billy Paynter and Spencer Weir-Daley cried off the morning of the game.

The caretaker boss went with an attack of three wingers – Barrau left, Joe Colbeck right and Omar Daley down the middle.

Wetherall said: “I’d have probably given Xavi a chance in that game anyway but we were down to the absolute bare bones. We had nobody up front.

“He was a neat and tidy little player – but we needed more than neat and tidy on the run we were on.

“We were struggling for left-siders and we’d had a couple of decent reports. We thought Xavi gave us balance and he had a good attitude in training.

“It had the feeling of an end-of-season game at times but it was pleasing for him how it went.

“It was going to take a lot more than that to cheer up the rest of us but at least he left with a smile on his face.”

Barrau also went off with the man-of-the-match champagne under his arm and chants of “sign him up” ringing in his ears.

That never happened as Stuart McCall came in and decided the player’s demands were too much.

Barrau instead departed for Darlington – where he got sent off just 22 minutes after coming off the bench on his debut – and then to Hamilton.

The Accies finished that season promoted but he had returned to France a month before the end of the campaign after his now ex-wife complained about feeling homesick.

“She was crying all the time to go back to France, so we did. In my head now, I sometimes think that if she had been happier in Scotland I’m sure I could have done something better over there.

“I love UK football, the passion and the people. I do miss football and do think that I could have kept playing at least in League One.

“But when you don’t have that opportunity it’s hard to get noticed again. So now I just play with some friends.

“It was tough after playing football all your life but I had to do something else to get enough money for my family.

“I think it was the right time for me. The business is going well, I live in the south of France and we are happy.

“But I have good memories of my time as a player and especially that game for Bradford. That was a very good day.”