SATURDAY, December 22 has suddenly become a red letter day.

While clubs look to fill their boots with attendances over the holiday period, the weekend before Christmas tends to be one many swerve for the dubious delights of last-minute shopping.

But maybe not this year.

Since Monday morning, the home match against Scunthorpe scheduled for that day has suddenly become essential viewing for City fans. The return of Stuart McCall to Valley Parade.

He’s been back before, of course. From the League Cup loss with Everton six months after leaving the club for the first time to the occasion when he refused to celebrate after scoring the winner with Sheffield United.

But this one will feel a bit different as the discord over his February departure still rankles.

The announcement that he was back in management brought a collective angst on the City twitter feed.

For many, it was like the “this is what you could have won” moment in Bullseye when Jim Bowen would wheel out the speedboat.

Seeing McCall in the opposition dug-out that day will feel very strange. A penny for chairman Edin Rahic’s thoughts?

McCall’s name boomed from the Kop in the Bury game that followed his sacking on that fateful February morning.

He is assured of a warm and vociferous welcome when he leads out the Iron – a side he was unable to beat in three attempts as Bantams boss.

There was a sense of irony about the timing of the announcement of his appointment at Glanford Park.

August Bank Holiday Monday in 2011 had been the day when Phil Parkinson walked in to a Bradford City on its uppers. His mission, for the first season in charge anyway, was simply to keep them in the league.

Seven years on and the two managers who had shared the common bond of restoring the feelgood factor to BD8 after so long in the doldrums were linked once more.

At a time when the present-day City were absorbing some pretty uncomfortable home truths following last week’s no-show against Wycombe, it made for a painful anniversary for supporters.

McCall snapped Scunthorpe’s hand off when the offer came.

He has always been in their thoughts but had to bide his time as Nick Daws impressed so much in the caretaker role that he became the natural choice for a permanent opportunity.

The vacancy sprung up far quicker than anyone would have expected but it justified McCall’s decision to knock back a couple of lesser opportunities over the summer.

Scunthorpe made the call last Friday, McCall met the chairman on the Sunday and the deal was done in a couple of hours.

He was thrilled to be back in the “mad house” of management, as he describes it, with a club “where you get fully backed and encouraged to get on with it.”

The McCall who vacated the Valley Parade hot-seat this year was very different to the young manager who had walked away from his first senior job at City in 2010.

That first exit left him doubting if he was cut out for being a boss as he nursed the scars of feeling he had let people down.

Fast forward eight years and McCall will stride into the cramped ground at Accrington this afternoon for his Scunthorpe bow confident in a winning record that will stand up to scrutiny with anyone at this level.

“My reputation is fine,” he said in an interview with Radio Humberside this week. “Results-wise, I left as the most successful manager at Bradford in the last 35 years since Roy McFarland apparently.

“We had 17-18 months of over-achieving. We had a mid-table budget and we ended up getting into the play-off final.

“Second season we were fourth come January and then in the window we had a couple of injuries, didn’t strengthen and we had a bad month.

“We lost every game but we brought players in at the back end and I think everyone believed we would strengthen our position and go on and finish in the play-offs. Again it would have been an over-achievement.

“The first time I left Bradford, I realised I’d got to do better.

“But certainly since I’ve been away at Motherwell, a short spell at Rangers and then with Bradford, I don’t think I’ve got to prove anybody wrong.

“We had a bad month which can happen in football. We lost the goalkeeper through injury and lost a lot of poor goals in January.

“They were looking to make a change and that’s their prerogative.

“I’m not one for looking back. I loved my time at Bradford and for 18 months we were very successful but now it’s a new chapter.”