PERSPECTIVE is a precious commodity in football.

Everything is the best ever, the biggest, the most stunning; alternatively, it’s the worst, the lowest, the most miserable.

Nothing is viewed in black and white more than the sport that dominates our thinking.

A little nudge from time to time that we have been in a more uncertain predicament and come out the other side doesn’t do any harm.

As City head back to the dark lands of League Two, Twitter provided a timely reminder of a period when life at Valley Parade felt even more unsettling.

Thursday marked the 15th anniversary of a City game with a difference. It finished 7-6 – with Mark Lawn scoring the winner – in front of a crowd of 9,176.

One team had 14 players on the pitch at one point; the other 16. It looked like the cast list from Zulu.

But amid all the merriment, there was a serious message about the very future of the club.

City were locked in their second administration in the space of three years and there was no obvious sign they would escape.

So, the Telegraph & Argus launched a Save Our City campaign in conjunction with the Supporters’ Trust to do what we could to galvanise the people of Bradford to fight for their football club.

Fans did just about everything to raise money from sponsored spray tans to sitting in baths full of beans. You name the idea, it was put forward in a frantic effort to boost the coffers to keep the Bantams ticking.

The centre piece of the T&A campaign was a match at Valley Parade featuring former players and various well-known faces.

I was tasked with the job of tracking down as many ex-Bantams as possible willing to don their boots one more time for so worthy a cause.

Compiling a list of possibles was easy enough but then came the nitty-gritty of getting them to play.

I imagined a struggle from footballers and former pros reluctant to break off their well-earned holidays. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Without exception, the response was positive. Everyone wanted to be involved – even those not able to play still made the trip to watch or sent memorabilia to be auctioned off.

It was a reminder that for all the criticism the sport attracts for selfishness and players putting themselves first, these were decent individuals cherishing their memories of a special club and not willing to let it slip away. From Stuart McCall, John Hendrie, Darren Moore and Chris Waddle to Brian Noble, MP Gerry Sutcliffe and Terrorvision singer Tony Wright, they were all desperate to play their part – Wright even flew in specially from Kiev.

Chief executive Shaun Harvey, showing the foresight he would take into the Football League’s highest echelons, had gloomily predicted a sparse turn-out in the rain. Instead City were forced to open extra stands as the supporters kept coming. Less had shown up for the FA Cup third round.

One message I received this week summed up the mood among many at the game.

“I was wondering if this was the last time I was ever going to be at Valley Parade. I was stood in the concourse almost weeping at 13-years-old.”

The occasion was as poignant as it was fun.

Gate receipts and sponsorship would drum up almost £100,000; more importantly it underlined how much the city cared for its professional football club.

I’d forgotten the actual match other than a vague memory of Hendrie netting a cracker.

I’m doing him a disservice – he scored a hat-trick for Ian Ormondroyd’s winning team.

“The boy Hendrie up front looks quite useful, “ laughed his manager later. “His third goal was absolute quality although he could do with losing a few pounds.”

The cast admittedly came in all shapes and sizes.

“I noticed in the dressing room that all the shorts were extra, extra large,” said a diplomatic Nicky Mohan.

But the real stars of the show, as Wayne Jacobs pointed out after an emotional lap of honour, were those cheering from the stands.

He said: “The players don’t feel they’ve given anything. They feel they’ve been blessed by the amount of people who came.”

Yes, going back to the basement division hurts. But it has felt worse.