SHE is a familiar face at Bradford City games, home and away, with her husband and their two daughters.

They were the first supporters I bumped into outside the Shed End at Stamford Bridge. The week before, they had parked behind me in the field that passes for a car park at Yeovil.

The family are all season-ticket holders, City through and through. They also happen to be Asian.

Once again, these are great times to be a Bantams fan. The giant-killing exploits against Chelsea have gripped the nation – if not the TV bosses – and catapulted the players on to the back, and even front, pages across the country and beyond.

The clamour for City stories and different angles has been enormous. So it was inevitable that in the rush for follow-up articles the ethnicity of the city – and what the club are doing about it – would rear its head.

Ironically the story accusing the Bantams of not trying hard enough to tap into the different local cultures came from the same national newspaper that two years earlier had trumpeted the presence of so many Asian fans in the celebration scenes against Aston Villa.

Ridwana Wallace-Laher, a teacher at Grange Technology College, dismissed the latest comments with contempt.

"We've had a successful run and people are picking on that," she said. "Instead of talking about the club taking 6,000 people down to Chelsea and all the good news from that, they want to turn it into something negative.

"It was so inaccurate. Season by season you get to see more and more Asian families, especially the younger ones.

"People are quick to pick that race card up and it's nothing to do with anything. I thought it was really naughty of them.

"I've had the occasional funny look and it has come from City fans. But 99 per cent of the time people are friendly and say hello because it doesn't matter."

Ridwana, husband Ashraf and their children Farah, nine, and five-year-old Aisha are well known within City's social media circles.

Their 'selfies' with the players are a regular feature – some might even say scourge – of Twitter before games. Each photo is accompanied with its own hashtag #familyonthefrontrow.

Ridwana explains: "The girls just love going to get autographs and having their pictures taken with the players. You take those back to school and tell pupils what they are missing out on.

"I say to these kids who support a big team, 'the Rooneys and Ronaldos of the world wouldn't stop and talk to you like that'.

"Look at Chelsea. None of their players stopped to say anything to the fans queuing up outside.

"We are part of the Bradford City family. It's that personal touch which you wouldn't get at these Premier League clubs.

"I've been watching City for years, ever since I was little. Football has always been a big thing in our family.

"Most of my uncles ended up with Leeds United season tickets unfortunately, but my dad had a Bradford City mug for so many years.

"My husband has also been going since he was a little lad and, when we felt the girls were old enough, we all got season tickets and go everywhere."

Grange is a predominantly Asian school and Ridwana, Bradford-born and bred, has noticed a different feeling towards the local football club over her eight years there.

She credits City's on-going campaign for cut-price season tickets for making Valley Parade more accessible and said: "Society is changing. A lot of people still support the bigger clubs, of course, but the next generation coming through are becoming more interested in City.

"They can also afford it. I know there are a couple of sixth-formers at the school who now have season tickets – the cheap pricing makes it more appealing to everyone.

"Nobody would have been able to afford a season ticket when I was at school. It's heart-warming to know that they'd rather spend £200 on going to Valley Parade for every home game than a new pair of trainers and a top.

"On Monday morning, I walked into school with my scarf on and everyone was talking about Bradford City. They had all watched the Chelsea game or listened to it and obviously that association with a bigger team helped.

"But there was an excitement and a lot of the kids were saying 'I wouldn't mind going to a game to see what it's all about'. That's how it all starts.

"We do the discount ticket scheme that Ian Ormondroyd runs and the uptake is massive.

"The families are happy for the staff to take their kids to the game and the children then get excited from it and want to go again.

"You can see their parents willing to let them do that and paying the normal price for tickets, not just hanging on for the cheap ones. There is a growing interest."