Mark Hughes and Bantams fans never got over Carlisle defeat

“If they are going to get a new manager in, they are not going to get a manager as successful as myself.

"That is obvious to everyone. My record is up there with all the records in League Two.”

When the Bantams unveiled Mark Hughes a week later, those comments were predictably thrown back in the face of his predecessor.

The social-media gambit morphed into “won’t get a better manager than me” and Adams was ridiculed.

But was the Scot wrong with what he actually said?

Hughes had a good crack at fourth-tier management - a much longer spell at the Valley Parade helm than anyone since Stuart McCall’s second attempt - but did he really crack it?

After all the excitement of luring Premier League royalty to Valley Parade, it just felt a bit underwhelming. City were 14th when he arrived - and now sit a lowly 18th as he is pushed through the door.

READ MORE: Bantams sack Hughes and announce McDonald in charge

READ MORE: Mark Hughes' City reign in facts and figures

Hughes tried to bring Premier League thinking – and passing principles – to the lowest rung of the ladder.

Unfortunately, he leaves a befuddled team struggling to find an identity.

A first play-off appearance since McCall took the Bantams to Wembley six years earlier raised hope of finally escaping the clutches of the football basement.

But a meek surrender at Carlisle with a place in the final beckoning - and THAT substitution of Scott Banks - raised the hackles in the fanbase. Hughes was never able to win many of them back.

The Bantams had to start the current campaign strongly to match heightened expectations and quell that unrest.

The stuttering results and performances that followed quickly cranked up the situation to a point where the Valley Parade hierarchy could not ignore the noise.

Adams, inevitably, had a hand in stirring the pot as City capitulated against his Morecambe side.

Bringing on defender Matty Platt for Scott Banks backfired at Carlisle (Image: PA)

While he taunted a fuming away end by waving them off afterwards, Hughes had spent much of the afternoon with arms folded, legs outstretched.

He may have been raging inside but the body language suggested to an already tetchy audience that he was not unduly bothered with what was unfolding before him. The optics were not good for the seething supporters.

An opening-day defeat at Crawley, a team ridiculed as cannon fodder by the pundits, had started the rot.

Misery at Morecambe added to the growing feeling that something was not right.

Then came those back-to-back draws at home when patience in the stands finally snapped.

"You're getting sacked in the morning"

The loud grumbling during the second half against Harrogate, the cheering of Richie Smallwood’s substitution and then the full-on boos at the end despite Jamie Walker’s late goal.

Hughes, a fighter throughout his decorated playing career, took the blows as he defiantly clapped in front the Kop.

But with long-distance owner Stefan Rupp on hand to witness it for once, there could be no brushing aside the public anger.

Newport brought a powerful response with Andy Cook back firing. Rupp, rather unwisely, took to Instagram to rubbish the detractors but it proved a flash in the pan.

Walsall at the weekend hit new depths at Valley Parade in the second half and Hughes got it both barrels.

Another chorus of “you’re getting sacked in the morning” from the travelling voices at Tranmere on Tuesday night seemed to seal his fate.

After 70 league games and 587 days – 10 shy of McCall mark two – his reign was done.

"It's been a really good journey"

It had all looked different for Hughes a few months ago when promotion was firmly on the radar.

“I’m really enjoying it,” he said ahead of the fateful play-off date at Brunton Park. “All the reasons and the thinking behind coming here when I accepted the opportunity have been borne out.

“It was all about getting back, working with a good group of players, hopefully making them better and going out on a Saturday afternoon and winning football matches. That was the big thing I missed.

“I’ve been able to bring that back into my life again and I’m really grateful. It’s been a really good journey.

“The fans are desperate for success. We’ve had a better year than most and I’ve really enjoyed every moment of it.”

The same cannot be said for the first couple of months of this season.

Andy Cook's goals were crucial on the road to the play-offs (Image: Thomas Gadd)

It is a sad way to signal what will surely be the end of Hughes’ managerial career and most likely his final involvement in a sport he graced superbly as a player.

Not for the first time, City fans will be feeling that it shouldn’t have been like this.

Hughes had sailed in 20 months ago on a wave of euphoric disbelief. Few could believe that someone with such a football pedigree would be prepared to drop so far down the pyramid.

Even within the dressing room, the shock at landing such a coup was obvious.

Spotting that familiar grey hair arriving at the training ground, the players initially thought he had become an agent and was bringing in somebody else.

“That’s what we were all thinking but he came upstairs and it was announced he was the gaffer,” recalled Walker.

“The boys were taken aback. He’s worked with the likes of Gareth Bale, Ryan Giggs and Robinho and played for Manchester United, Barcelona and Chelsea.”

"He's worked with the likes of Gareth Bale"

After the antagonism with Adams, City fans could puff their chests out again at having such a recognisable leader to get behind.

Afforded a lengthy honeymoon period to familiarise himself with the new surroundings and a level he had never been anywhere near, Hughes then set to work during the summer of 2022.

Supporters are well accustomed to the annual squad overhaul and Walker on a permanent deal was the first of 17 signings to transform a team that had kicked around the bottom half for the previous couple of years into a genuine contender again.

Hopes were high and even if the critics claimed the formation, with two holding midfielders, was a bit on the safe side on occasions, the Bantams were always in the mix.

It helped massively, of course, that Hughes could call on the league’s top scorer. Cook, having finished the previous season looking out of sorts and out of shape, was rejuvenated.

Vadaine Oliver’s arrival among the clutch of new recruits galvanised the front man. Apart from a month out the firing line after the goals had briefly dried up, Cook embarked on a scoring mission.

Harry Lewis kept 20 clean sheets behind him in his first full year as a number one in the English game. City appeared to have got it right at both ends.

Home form was still stodgy at times, with too many draws, but an excellent away record with 11 wins on the road saw them bolt down a play-off spot.

It ended with a late defeat at Tranmere on Tuesday night (Image: Thomas Gadd)

Fans came flocking back to Valley Parade as the season reached its climax and an end to their four-year sentence in the fourth tier was tantalisingly in sight.

Then it all crumbled in Cumbria where Carlisle dealt the killer blow from a free header just minutes after Hughes had taken off winger Banks, the one real attacking threat from a nothingy team display, to throw on Matty Platt for supposedly extra defensive ballast.

The doubts were emerging. Hughes, like the fans, seemed to find it tough to get over.

As frustration lingered into pre-season, Hughes decided to switch tack and play three centre halves from the start.

It was a system that City struggled to come to terms with. Those accustomed to setting up the same way week after week looked out of their comfort zone.

Fans questioned the logic of changing something that didn’t really need fixing.

Crucially, the goals also dried up with Cook unable to carry on where he had left off in the opening weeks and only summer signing Alex Pattison looking the part to pick up the slack.

One of the biggest budgets in the division

Injuries to both further added to the questions about the success of a transfer window trumpeted as one building from a position of strength rather than ripping up and starting all over again.

Hughes had been backed by one of the biggest budgets in the division – understood to be approaching the £3 million mark. It is the highest for any City manager at the bottom level.

Barring Wrexham, of course, it is believed to be up there with any of the other contenders.

But results and performances have hardly underlined that level of spending.

Rupp and chief executive Ryan Sparks were not rushing to pull the plug. They wanted it to work for Hughes but felt they had no choice given the growing hostility in the stands.

The people had spoken. City under Sparky had lost their spark.