Recalling Bradford City's low-key last days of the season

The tension and magic of Molineux, David Wetherall’s swallow dive against Liverpool.

Or that end-to-end game of football breaking out in between the fights at Hull's Boothferry Park in 1996?

But since then – not a lot from a City point of view. Since Wetherall’s header clinched Premier League survival in May 2000, the Bantams have not had anything resting on the last game.

They’ve seen a few ups and downs for others but nothing to impact their own season.

It will be the same again this afternoon when Carlisle's visit to Valley Parade brings down the curtain on League Two.

Here’s a rundown of every final game for City since Liverpool – how many of these can you remember?

2001: Coventry A 0-0 – Two already-doomed sides fought out a tame goalless affair as they waved goodbye to the top flight. Coventry are at least looking upwards again in the Championship after a lengthy demise.

2002: Walsall A 2-2 – Stuart McCall’s final outing in a City shirt saw them fight back from two down to draw thanks to Danny Cadamarteri and an own goal from Gus Uhlenbeek, who would then join the Bantams.

2003: Portsmouth H 0-5 – Pompey turned up for a party having already won Division One. All the players wore white boots in honour of defender Gianluca Festa who was retiring to Italy to open a sports footwear chain – and they kicked City’s backsides with Svetoslav Todorov helping himself to a hat-trick.

2004: Millwall A 0-1 – Embroiled in a second administration, the players had not all been paid as they signed off from the second tier with a low-key lunchtime loss in London. Bryan Robson would hot-foot it out the club straight after.

2005: Oldham A 1-2 – Unexpected hopes of an immediate promotion had gone well before the finale at Boundary Park. But Dean Windass scored the goal that ensured he shared League One’s golden boot.

2006: Nottingham Forest H 1-1 – Windass was on target to reach 20 goals again and although Forest equalised late on, it was not enough for the visitors to sneak into the play-offs.

2007: Millwall H 2-2 – Xavier Barrau’s finest hour! With relegation back to the bottom tier for the first time in 25 years confirmed, caretaker boss Wetherall mixed it up on the last day. French winger Barrau got his chance and scored both City goals.

2008: Wycombe A 1-2 – Wetherall brought the curtain down on his nine-year City playing career by going up front for the last 10 minutes at Adams Park. Sadly, he never threatened a storybook equaliser.

2009: Chesterfield A 2-0 – The wheels had fallen off McCall’s promotion bandwagon by the time City won their final two games. Dean Furman and Michael Boulding scored in their last visit to the old Saltergate ground.

Xavier Barrau races to the fans after scoring his second goal against Millwall in 2007

2010: Crewe A 1-0 – Hull loanee Ryan Kendall scored the only goal as City signed off another indifferent season with a fourth win in the last five games. That raised hopes of a potential promotion push with Peter Taylor the following season – which never materialised.

2011: Crewe H 1-5 – Same opposition but very different outcome as Peter Jackson’s team were blitzed at Valley Parade. The City boss hoped to win over Clayton Donaldson afterwards but he headed for Brentford on a much bigger deal instead.

2012: Swindon H 0-0 – There were title celebrations on the Valley Parade pitch at the final whistle. But those were for the visitors as Paulo Di Canio was carried off on his players’ shoulders after they had wrapped up promotion.

2013: Cheltenham A 0-0 – With the play-off place sorted, Phil Parkinson rested most of his big hitters for a dead-rubber final day. But he did play Andrew Davies, who got sent off to rule him out of the Burton semi-final first leg.

2014: Tranmere A 2-1 – Victory on the Wirral confirmed Tranmere’s relegation, although results elsewhere meant they were down anyway. Jon Stead and Aaron Mclean netted in the last 10 minutes.

2015: Crewe A 1-0 – Billy Clarke settled a low-key finale at the end of a season that inevitably ran out of steam following City’s incredible run to the FA Cup quarter-finals.

2016: Chesterfield H 2-0 – City headed into their first League One play-offs since 1996 on the back of a seventh straight home win thanks to Clarke, who always liked scoring against the Spireites, and Lee Evans.

2017: Rochdale A 1-1 – McCall made wholesale changes ahead of another play-off tilt, including a rare start for Rouven Sattelmaier in goal. It was probably the German’s best performance for City.

2018: Scunthorpe A 1-1 – Another typically end-of-season draw in what turned out to be the last game of Simon Grayson’s three-month tenure. Scorer Matt Kilgallon would be controversially released in the summer.

2019: Wimbledon H 0-0 – Relegated City waved a meek goodbye to League One but the point was good enough to save the visiting Dons, including James Hanson.

2020: Salford A 0-2 – Nobody knew it at the time but this wretched display in early March would be City’s last action of the season as the pandemic struck. It was a low note to finish on.

2021: Morecambe A 0-2 – Future City boss Derek Adams led his Wembley-bound Shrimps to a comfortable home win as the joint tenure of Mark Trueman and Conor Sellars ended with a sixth defeat in seven.

So just five victories for the Bantams in 21 final games since that glorious Sunday afternoon against Liverpool – and the last one was six years ago.