Shrewsbury Blues 2

This is the New Meadow.

Will Bradford City ever win again?

I have followed Bradford City for almost 50 years through thick and thin. I first visited Valley Parade in the late 1950s and was hugely impressed by the old "Sopwith Camel" stand. My Uncle Ron took me to see City play in the old Division 3 North and I was hooked for life. Nearly 50 years on I am still hooked and cannot kick the habit, nor do I want to, although I would love to see City win again.

It seems like an eternity since I last saw City win. I missed two away wins in the latter part of last season but the last time I personally saw them win was in 2006.

The relegation season of 2006/07 was another sad instalment in the decline of City from the heady two seasons in the Premier League. In fact as we often joke, things have been downhill since David Wetherall's header saved us from relegation from the Premier League in the 1999/00 season. We now find ourselves in the bottom division of the Football league - somewhere we have not been since the early 1980s.

Two periods in Administration, continuing cash crises and mediocre management have all contributed to the sad decline of the club I am still totally committed to after 50 years.

I just wish we could actually win the odd game to repay some of the faith the magnificent support have in the club. We have the manager everyone would have chosen in Stuart McCall and a new investor who has apparently rescued the club financially. Who could ask for more? But the odd win would help.

It is still early days in the new season and far too early to get upset or stressed out but we just need that symbolic win to lift every one's spirits and confidence and then we will be on a roll.

Come on City! Come on City! Just give us that win and we will all be delirious.

Shrewsbury Blues

On Saturday five of us made a trip to Shrewsbury to watch Bradford City play Shrewsbury Town at their New Meadow, new stadium. In overall terms in was a dreadful day out. The new stadium and general arrangements there were a hugely disappointing experience and we lost 1-0 to a penalty.

It was a deserved defeat and City continue to play in the same lack lustre style as for much of the last two seasons, which resulted in relegation to Division 2 last season. The advent of Stuart McCall as the saviour of Bradford City will realistically take time and expectations are ludicrously high given the bunch of players he has. He will undoubtedly make his mark in due course but he needs time and some resources.

The New Meadow was a disappointment. Built in the middle of nowhere in the usual modern soulless style with no atmosphere or character. A complete contrast to the old ground at Gay Meadow, which was always an enjoyable place to visit. Despite being in the middle of the Shropshire countryside and having a huge car park, for some reason car parking at the ground is not encouraged / allowed and it is necessary to park at designated Park and Ride sites set out in the club's Travel Plan. The problem being that the plan is so vague and the signposting is so poor it is difficult to determine if the Park and Rides actually exist or are a West Mercia Myth and Legend.

We tracked down a designated Park and Ride site only to find that there was a "No Match Parking" sign and a forlorn jobsworth man in a yellow coat to direct us elsewhere. He could not say where we should go but it was not here. We subsequently parked in a private housing development and had to trudge a fair distance in the pouring rain past fields full of cows and sheep, along a road to nowehere.

We eventually reached the ground, situated in splendid isolation, and asked a steward which was the away end - after several seconds contemplation it was obvious that this was too difficlut a question for her, so we set off to explore. This turned out to be the trend of the afternoon. Another steward did not know where we could get programmes and another only seemed to have the vaguest of ideas. Probably because the programmes were £6 and they did not expect to sell many.

Another officious steward insisted that we did not stand on the yellow hatched area in the concourse - presumably because we were wearing loud shirts in a public place! And so on......

On the way out I noticed that there were some nice rails for parking a bicycle ...but then it's a long way from Bradford on yer bike?