Simon Parker column

It’s Valley Parade on the final afternoon of the season. Just picture the scene.

Nine months of hard work and toil have come down to this.

City need one more point; let’s hope Peter Taylor’s dressing room rhetoric has done the trick.

It has worked before on many occasions; that’s why the Bantams have not tasted defeat on home soil since August. It is their fortress; the Old Trafford of League Two.

The nagging concern in pre-season at the lack of an out-and-out goal-scorer proved to be a worry over nothing.

James Hanson has carried on from where he left off last year with 20 goals. Jake Speight, proving a snip at just £25,000, is one behind after a great run since Christmas.

Free of injuries, Taylor has hardly had to tinker with his team. He names the same starting line-up for the seventh straight week; Tommy Doherty, his midfield fulcrum, just as he was with Wycombe, Shane Duff the rock at the back.

Simon Ramsden and Michael Flynn, the two ever-presents, were both rightly picked for League Two’s team of the year. Jon McLaughlin and Luke O’Brien were unlucky to miss out.

Even rookie David Syers, who had to wait until well into the new year for his chance, has strung together a run of eye-catching displays. But then it’s much easier coming into a team full of confidence.

Mark Lawn and Julian Rhodes deserve all the plaudits. The joint-owners took the plunge when they agreed to pay promotion magnet Taylor £150,000 for one year’s work.

But it was a calculated risk – and one that has paid off handsomely as the well-travelled boss prepares to take a team up for the sixth time.

Taylor’s bumper wage is small beer compared to the windfalls that await in League One.

Look at the local derbies on the fixture list – Huddersfield, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday. That’s probably 10,000 away fans in three games, bringing in £200,000 from the Midland Road turnstiles alone.

City’s resolve never falters, even when Crewe strike early. It’s the first that Taylor’s miserly back four have conceded in a month.

Bradford-born Clayton Donaldson gets it but doesn’t celebrate much. No surprise there as he’s the top name on City’s shopping list for their summer transfer spree.

Leon Osborne, who has blossomed on the left wing, causes panic with another of those trademark runs. His cross is met by the sliding Speight to draw level with Hanson as City’s top scorer.

Valley Parade becomes a cauldron of noise; no defence can possibly withstand the barrage of attacking balls that pound away.

After a decade of decline, this is as good as it gets for the long-suffering City supporters.

And then open your eyes… Crewe are the visitors tomorrow afternoon. City need the win – to have any hope of overhauling Macclesfield to finish 15th.

Hanson wants another goal to reach double figures; Speight’s after one more to get to five.

The absence of a 20-plus hitman like Donaldson is reflected by the second-worst scoring record in the entire Football League.

There is no Taylor or top earner Doherty any more and soon no Duff.

The only cheer is reserved for Syers, the one shining light in a desolate season. Most fans won’t cross the road to acknowledge the rest.

City’s season is officially their worst since 1976. And that’s just on the field.

Off it, confusion reigns over the club’s developing financial dilemma. Talk of a move to Odsal – and a third spell in administration that would have to precede it – is no pie in the sky.

Talks go on privately behind the scenes; at least with those who have indicated a willingness to listen. Worried supporters are limited to the odd troubling snippet for news.

But fact or fantasy, the Valley Parade annual overheads remain the same, around the £1.2m mark.

City have to meet that bill whether they are hosting local rivals and the two Sheffield clubs or Crawley, Macclesfield and Swindon.

The combined total of away fans this season is still a third below what three Yorkshire derbies could have produced. Before today, the travelling tally from 22 home games stood at 6,890 – an average of just 313 a time.

Even if they were all paying the £20 adult prices, that only brings in just over £6,000 per match. The figures do not add up.

City are also guilty of going overboard with a player budget that has touched £1.5m again. By August, that could be halved.

Such tight purse strings would make the rebuilding job all the harder but not impossible.

Dagenham, of course, got promoted last May with a wage bill in that region. No wonder the name John Still keeps cropping up for the managerial vacancy, although he apparently doesn’t come cheap.

Meanwhile, Peter Jackson oversees his 14th – and, who knows, maybe final – game at the helm having steered City out of choppy waters on a wage well down on his predecessor.

Valley Parade, potentially, hosts its last 90 minutes, should the board carry out their ultimate threat.

And bitter, angry and anxious fans look on and wonder about what might have been.