December 2018: ROCHDALE 0 BRADFORD CITY 4 (Knight-Percival 23; O’Connor 48; Doyle pen 60; Miller 89)

CITY’S phoney war of pre-season will finish at Rochdale on Saturday.

As the fans look ahead to a fresh start under the much-changed regime of Gary Bowyer, it seems fitting that the final preparation should be back at the scene of last season’s falsest dawn.

This week’s nostalgia game turns the clock back just seven months to the final game of 2018 and City’s heaviest win in a campaign when there were so few to savour.

At that time, of course, it didn’t feel like that. A third league win in four – and it would be four in five against Accrington two days later – was accomplished with a third four-goal blast in five games.

A travelling army of 2,507 fans were in party mood to see out a troubled year with the promise of better times around the corner.

The wild and whacky universe of Twitter was even awash with bold predictions of a possible charge up the table towards the play-offs.

Of course, we all know how it panned out.

Rochdale away proved to be an illusionary oasis in a desert of despair. It was pretty much all downhill from there.

But ahead of this weekend’s friendly at the Crown Oil Arena, let’s wallow in the fleeting glory of the City’s last visit under David Hopkin’s command.

The Bantams had arrived in East Lancashire packing a searing sense of injustice from Boxing Day.

Defeat at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light stuck in the craw after the “equaliser that never was” from Jack Payne.

Images of the ball well over the line before being desperately clawed back by Jon McLaughlin heightened the feeling of being robbed by a point. Again, that felt a critical punishment at that stage – maybe not so when relegation would be confirmed four games before the end.

But the December revival had raised genuine hopes of dragging themselves out of trouble. The team were winning and scoring goals.

With the exit of Edin Rahic earlier in the month, a jaded fanbase were prepared to give them a second chance.

Rochdale away is traditionally a City takeover and this game was no exception. The ground bounced to Bantam songs and the less-welcome sight of the odd flare.

The visitors were in Dale’s faces from the start and dominated the opening 45 minutes.

Eoin Doyle’s flick header was parried by keeper Brendan Moore but Nathaniel Knight-Percival was on hand to convert the rebound. The lead was the least City deserved.

The fact that it was only 1-0 at the break did no justice to their control of the game. The fear was that Hopkin’s side would pay for not turning their territorial supremacy into something more concrete.

But we didn’t need to worry as the advantage was doubled within a couple of minutes of the restart thanks to the elusive skills of Jack Payne.

The little midfielder picked up a short corner and slithered his way into the box. His low cross was then back-heeled past a startled Moore by Anthony O’Connor.

Dale boss Keith Hill reacted immediately by throwing on battering ram striker Calvin Andrew to breathe some life into his surprisingly tepid team.

It had no effect as City maintained their stranglehold and slammed the door with a third goal from the penalty spot.

Doyle was upended by Ryan Delaney and dusted himself off to fire home the resulting kick. Euphoria reigned on one side of the ground.

“We are staying up” they screamed and few at the time would have doubted it.

And the song of survival was belted out with even more force as sub George Miller capped off the scoring with the best finish of the lot.

Receiving the ball 30 yards out, the striker just let fly – and sent it soaring into the Rochdale net.

"That's the most complete performance since I've been here," beamed Hopkin afterwards. Sadly, an otherwise wretched season would never feel so good again.

ROCHDALE: Moore, Done, Delaney, Rafferty, Williams, Adshead (Ntlhe 35), Camps (Perkins 73), Rathbone, Inman, Williams (Andrew 48), Henderson.

CITY: O’Donnell, McGowan, O’Connor, Knight-Percival, Chicksen, J O’Brien, Caddis, L O’Brien, Payne (Miller 81), Ball, Doyle (Bruenker 87).

REFEREE: Andy Woolmer

ATTENDANCE: 5,673