Comparing Bradford City's start to season to last 10 years

That rescued point on Saturday was not enough for Mark Hughes’ rebuilt Bantams to hit the 20 mark after the first 10 games.

But 18 points in that time still represents one of their best starts in recent years.

In fact, only once in the past eight seasons have City managed to top that tally at this stage.

That was in Stuart McCall’s second season of his second spell when his team, revamped by necessity after the exodus following Wembley disappointment four months earlier, did reach the 20-point barrier.

Ten games in, the Bantams were sitting pretty in a League One play-off spot - something that became almost routine during that particular tenure for the club legend - with six wins and two draws seeing them nestled in fourth.

They had just come off a wounding 3-0 home loss to Fleetwood, inspired by former Bantam strike duo Jordy Hiwula and Devante Cole, but would bounce back to beat Doncaster and MK Dons.

Few could have predicted what would follow a few months later as the rot set in.

But City’s current start is three points better off than Derek Adams managed a year ago.

Levi Sutton is sent off at Barrow during City's slow start in 2020 (Image: Thomas Gadd)

The Scot began with a bang at the Valley Parade helm with 10 points from a possible 12. But by the 10-game mark, results had levelled off with four wins and three draws taking them to 15 and eighth place.

Behind the closed doors of 2020, it was November before teams had played this many games because of the pandemic-affected late start.

McCall mark three had clocked up 12 points with three wins and three draws for a mid-table position that would soon get worse.

Gary Bowyer’s 2019 Bantams were on 17 at this stage - five off the top in sixth spot. Like Hughes, he had overseen five wins.

Twelve months earlier, City were already on their second manager of the season after David Hopkin replaced fall guy Michael Collins.

But the Scot was yet to enjoy a first victory in charge with the only two wins from the meagre seven-point haul coming in the six-match reign of his predecessor.

That left City third from bottom and already contemplating a relegation struggle that would defeat them.

Contrast that with McCall’s 20-point 2017 team - or his first team back at the helm the year before that.

Defeat at Southend was one of only six games Michael Collins lasted in 2018 (Image: Thomas Gadd)

The transition from the end of the Phil Parkinson era appeared a very smooth one as the Bantams went undefeated in their first 10 outings in 2016.

Six of those games had finished in draws - something that McCall would be forcibly reminded of by Edin Rahic that season - but 18 points saw them within three of the League One summit.

The top two at that time? Scunthorpe and Bury, showing the precarious nature of how quickly football fortunes can fluctuate.

City would finally suffer their first setback in game 13 to a late goal at Oxford in a campaign that would take them all the way to the play-off final and that bitter loss to Millwall.

Significantly, 2016-2017 would be the last season that the club began and finished with the same manager in charge. That’s another sobering thought.

The Lions had killed the play-off dreams in what turned out to Parkinson’s final hurrah the previous term.

But at this stage, there were question marks hovering over the history-making boss and his future.

A nightmare evening for Brad Jones at Colchester left the Bantams in a lowly 19th with only 10 points and two wins from their 10 games.

That long trek back from Essex was accompanied with murmurings about Parkinson’s situation after such a slow start.

That situation would calm down with a Kyel Reid-inspired win at Rochdale four days later - and ultimately an unsuccessful first appearance in the third tier play-offs for the first time since Wembley 1996.

Kyel Reid celebrates his spectacular goal at Walsall in 2013 (Image: Thomas Gadd)

In 2014, City had opened in solid and unspectacular fashion to be in ninth place on 15 points.

But the league form at that stage was overshadowed by the League Cup triumph over Leeds at Valley Parade - in a season where the later knock-out achievements would grab headlines all over the world.

But the fastest start in the last decade came in 2013 as Parkinson’s promotion heroes roared out the blocks following their Wembley success.

Reid’s long-range thunderbolt at Walsall, past future City stopper Richard O’Donnell, clinched a fourth win in five games as the fourth-placed Bantams raced to 21 points.

But any giddiness about potential back-to-back promotions would soon be dashed by the barren run that would follow as City won just one of their next 21 games.

A warning then, if needed, about not reading too much into the league table just a couple of months in.

But still, the present side have built a solid platform which they can hopefully build on in the long campaign ahead.